Hello from SoCal

[jamesgpobog]

You went to boot @ 16 ?
Talk about Needs-of-the-Navy , lulz .
I enlisted @ 17 but you had to finish high school , boo hiss , and be 18 to go to boot -- parents had to co-sign my enlistment .

Snipes are definitely the heart of the ship .
Those things are just giant barges with no running water or electricity without us .
Did that oiler you were on have A/C in berthing ?

Yep, boot at 16 (summer of 1967)....as a Sea Cadet. There were a couple 14 year olds too. Flew from Los Alamitos to Great Lakes on a C-54, that was a looooooooong flight. Most memorable were the haircut, rifle range, and firefighting school/tear gas chamber.

Yes, there was a/c in the living spaces, but certainly not in the engineering spaces. My fire room was a very constant 100 degrees, lots of fresh air, but it was ambient.

Now, the battleship was a different story, at least in WW2. No a/c. There was a volunteer who had been crew just post war. He was a corpsman, and his berthing space was 2nd deck, between T1 and T2. He told me that the ship went south of the equator off South America and because of the main deck being 1.5-inch armor, the temperature in his berthing space was 111*F. He said everyone slept out on deck.

 

[urumomo]

Ha ha , yeah , air-conditioning in the engine room ain't ever gonna be a thing .
I know the older ships didn't have A/C in the berthing compartments , and some were retrofitted late or never so I was wondering about your ship .

It was 100 degrees in an oil fired plant ?
It was usually 110-115 down in the RAR ( Reactor Auxiliary Room ) when we were steaming .
With the exception of when we were in the far North Atlantic .
The Caribbean and Med were always nice and toasty .

We sucked on jet fumes the entire time down in the plant .
The worst was when they fired up the forward EDG -- we'd suck all that smoke into #2 RAR . Fun times !
It was so bad one time I donned the emergency air down on lower level .

Our berthing compartment was right above the aft emergency diesel room .
My 3rd and last rack was right up against the exhaust trunk .
I could hear that air-start solenoid fire and the beast roar to life .
And I always knew what was coming next over the 1MC --- " Propulsion plant casualty propulsion plant casualty . Propulsion plant casualty in ( insert plant # ) muster the casualty assistant team in ( insert plant # ) "

I was leader of the CAT team for the last 14 months on that thing .
Never slept -- between watch standing , maintenance , training , and all the ship-wide man overboard drills and GQ .
I'd finally get a shower and get in my rack for 20 minutes and then hear that friggin air solenoid PPsssssssssssssstchh , BRRRRRRR
Back into the dungarees ! yay . Can't wait to get back down into the plant , been and entire hour since I left I miss it so much .

The Gulf War was the best cruise we ever did ( IMO ) since Fleet wouldn't let us do anything that could drop a plant , which is just about everything we do , so we were allowed to go to max watch rotation instead of the perennial 5 and dimes with continuous drills .
We had enough senior qualified operators that I was standing watch every 2 & 1/2 days instead of every 10 hours .

 

[Eagle-1]

Welcome. How y'all are!

 

[jamesgpobog]

Ha ha , yeah , air-conditioning in the engine room ain't ever gonna be a thing .
I know the older ships didn't have A/C in the berthing compartments , and some were retrofitted late or never so I was wondering about your ship .

It was 100 degrees in an oil fired plant ?
It was usually 110-115 down in the RAR ( Reactor Auxiliary Room ) when we were steaming .
With the exception of when we were in the far North Atlantic .
The Caribbean and Med were always nice and toasty .

We sucked on jet fumes the entire time down in the plant .
The worst was when they fired up the forward EDG -- we'd suck all that smoke into #2 RAR . Fun times !
It was so bad one time I donned the emergency air down on lower level .

Our berthing compartment was right above the aft emergency diesel room .
My 3rd and last rack was right up against the exhaust trunk .
I could hear that air-start solenoid fire and the beast roar to life .
And I always knew what was coming next over the 1MC --- " Propulsion plant casualty propulsion plant casualty . Propulsion plant casualty in ( insert plant # ) muster the casualty assistant team in ( insert plant # ) "

I was leader of the CAT team for the last 14 months on that thing .
Never slept -- between watch standing , maintenance , training , and all the ship-wide man overboard drills and GQ .
I'd finally get a shower and get in my rack for 20 minutes and then hear that friggin air solenoid PPsssssssssssssstchh , BRRRRRRR
Back into the dungarees ! yay . Can't wait to get back down into the plant , been and entire hour since I left I miss it so much .

The Gulf War was the best cruise we ever did ( IMO ) since Fleet wouldn't let us do anything that could drop a plant , which is just about everything we do , so we were allowed to go to max watch rotation instead of the perennial 5 and dimes with continuous drills .
We had enough senior qualified operators that I was standing watch every 2 & 1/2 days instead of every 10 hours .

The room was so cool because of the vent blowers, they were huge. LOTS of ambient are was blasted down there.

Here's a pic. I'm the shirtless guy on the right. You can see two of the vents above the gauge board.

 

[urumomo]

There you are .
I thought you went over the side or something .

Yeah , we had the same forced air , but the plant operated under negative pressure in case there was ever any radioactive contaminant .
The ducting was smaller than what it appears to be in that photo too .

The steam equipment was concentrated on the starboard and centerline of the plant ,, so we of course liked to stand those watches over on the port side ,

 

[jamesgpobog]

There you are .
I thought you went over the side or something .

Yeah , we had the same forced air , but the plant operated under negative pressure in case there was ever any radioactive contaminant .
The ducting was smaller than what it appears to be in that photo too .

The steam equipment was concentrated on the starboard and centerline of the plant ,, so we of course liked to stand those watches over on the port side ,

This was side-to-side, with an aux pump room below. I worked there too. That was feed, fire, fresh water pumps, air comps, and the prop shafts.

 

[jamesgpobog]

There you are .
I thought you went over the side or something .

Yeah , we had the same forced air , but the plant operated under negative pressure in case there was ever any radioactive contaminant .
The ducting was smaller than what it appears to be in that photo too .

The steam equipment was concentrated on the starboard and centerline of the plant ,, so we of course liked to stand those watches over on the port side ,

I'm recovering from hernia surgery, plus being retired, and sometimes i miss something. But hey! Since I've got you, I need some advice. Painting. What is the technique for doing 'oil smear' wash, like the dirty oil streaks on the wings of a B-17, and darkening the skin 'seams' on a plane? Probably some sort of 'wash', but I don't know how.

 

[urumomo]

Ouch .
Hope that heals up for you .

Oils are easy to play with with their long open time .
I'd recommend getting some artist oils in the tones you need and experiment on primer'd / painted scrap .

 

[jamesgpobog]

Ouch .
Hope that heals up for you .

Oils are easy to play with with their long open time .
I'd recommend getting some artist oils in the tones you need and experiment on primer'd / painted scrap .

But is it wiped on, brushed, how? I do not have a steady hand. I do use sponges sometimes, but I've never done panel lines before.

 

[urumomo]

Yeah , just diluted with odorless mineral spirit , or naphtha .
It can be sponged on .
It can be manipulated long after the thinner evaporates .