New Navy Department: Engr Author: BT2 "Sol The Bull" Dupler Era: 1999 Date: 06/14/05 I was on the Ike from 1996-2001. It is interesting reading your old stories. With the "New Navy" getting to sull steam when I was in things were very different. We had one guy and a hard working MM3 that was driving to the ship one day. Parks his car and walks down the peir, up the brow, once he gets to the security check point the Comand master Chief comes running up the brow yelling arrest that man. He tells security that the man should be charged with D.U.I. and that he had been behind him all the way down 564. Security takes him into custody and he goes to mast a few days later. After hearing the case the CO tells MM3 D. to step outside. Turns out there was no breathalizer or even the stand on one leg test. Turns out that MM3 D. just cut off the CMC's car on accident. The CO dismissed everything. MM3 D. however got caught on the whiz quiz with a failing grade of C for cocaine a few months later and was sent home. He works for John Deere or Cat in Indiania now.

AUX Boiler Department: Engr Author: BT2 Sol The Bull Dupler Era: 1999 Date: 06/14/05 Can anyone tell me what might have happened to the Aux Boiler it would of been Aft of the mess decks on the 4th deck, in the same compartment as the AC+R plants. You can imagine my dissmay when I reported to the Ike as a BT and only found one boiler, it was the size of a trash can and only was used for the drycleaning plant in laundry. While looking over the potable water diagram one day I noticed that there used to be a aux boiler. When I asked around about it I was told that everytime it was brought online it would explode or leak and it ended up killing 6 people in 6 years. According to my investigation it looks like it was removed around 1985, I am not sure though. Is the death trap story true. Everyone in A-div will attest to it being haunted though, that is a story for later, creepy stuff happened down there. Let me know if you know what happened to it. Thank you for your time.

Man Overboard Department: Rx Author: peter Era: 1980 Date: 06/14/05 IKE's response to man overboard (or drills) was pretty impressive: 5000+ guys being accounted for in under 10 minutes! A couple of times, after mustering, I'd trot up to vulture's row. Even though my contributions were worthless... still, another pair of eyes. What a horrible experience for the poor bastard who fell overboard. By the time IKE slammed on the brakes she was probably 3-5 nautical miles away. And all he could hope was that somehow they were able to find him. They had a graph to determine how long to stay and search based upon water temperature. And there were times when we just had to give up searching and steam off. Hopefully, the victim was already drowned or in hypothermic shock when that happened. That would be a pretty terrible experience to watch the IKE giving up on you and sailing off.

Wow Ike was Deadly Department: Engr Author: Sol The Bull Era: 1996 Date: 06/14/05 My 5 years on Ike,including 2 med/persian Gulf Cruises I can remember only one guy falling overboard. They knew who it was because 5 people were there or something so they did not even bother calling man overboard for him. The only people that I can remember even losing their life while we were at sea were the pilots. We had a total of about 6 die in my time there. One time, while returning from Jacksonville we had a man overboard drill. 10 Seconds after they secured it and everyone was counted the XO came on the 1MC yelling that there was someone in the water about a mile ahead of us. Turns out there was a person in the water. The XO says this might not be an IKE sailor. So they pick him up and bring him back to the ship. Turns out he fell off an oil rig 3 days before, and used his "training from the marines" to stay alive. I used to have the newspaper article about this, I will have to find it again. All this and it was a tiger cruise. The CO invited to stay as his tiger. He left.

Aux Boiler Department: Rx Author: B. Teifer Era: 1986 Date: 06/14/05 The Aux boiler was removed from the Nimitz Class After 86. The reason why is that they figured out that since Nukes always stayed up in foreign ports that there was no reason to have them. They were originally designed to cover the ships heating steam loads while the EDG's carried the power requirements with the plants shut down. As far as the boilers blowing up, in 1980 while I was in RT there was a boiler explosion during a maint. run but no one was killed.

Other Numbnuts class ships Department: Rx Author: Flounder Era: 1987 Date: 06/14/05 The auxiliary boiler on the Carl Vinson ran very well; we used it during a drydocking at Hunter's Point (the coldest place in San Francisco, even during the summer) in '87. The showers were never hotter or the ship more comfortably warm than when we ran it rather than trying to use shore steam. In the north Pacific about '88 or so (again on the Carl Vinson) we had 6 guys swept overboard from #1 or #2 aircraft elevator by a rogue wave. They all stayed together and were all rescued. On the first big trip I did on the Ikeatraz...the north Atlantic in '81...I seem to recall that there was a pilot who landed his A-7, moved to the forward part of the flight deck to park, lost his brakes and flipped the plane upside-down into the water...what a way to go. I'll stick to the engineroom, thank you very much.

Rescue at sea Department: Rx Author: peter Era: 1982 Date: 06/14/05 On one of our cruises, we picked up three frenchmen whose sailboat was disabled. They stayed aboard a few days. If I recall correctly, the only clothing we gave them were bathrobes! You couldn't buy civies on board and we didn't want to put them in a uniform - so their whole time on IKE they were dressed in a bathrobe from medical! - cracked me up seeing these guys walking around on the mess decks dressed like that!

Women on the Ike. Department: Engr Author: Sol The Bull BT2 Dupler Era: 1996 Date: 06/15/05 I was reading the earlier stories, someone said he wonders what the cruises would be like with women on board. Well, it was good and bad. It was the only time I can remember 4 guys going on a date with one girl. You would see that everynight in port, each one going all out to impress. That was sad to witness, but the girl loved it. Not all were like that though. Most were real good to work with. I had a few shipboard romances myself, I knew how to play the game. If you were smart you did not go after the newbies, you waited atleast a year. I only got caught "having relations" on the ship once, it was in 4 pump room. Lucky for me the guy that saw us did not tell. It was nice to be able to call up a chickeepoo and say hey I have watch from 2000-2400 meet me in 4 pumproom, laundry storeroom, or level 1 locker. My wife was looking at my cruise book the other day and asked why a bunch of females names were hightlighted. Did you screw them she asked, Well, not all of them I said.

Man Overboard Department: Rx Author: Mike Matthys Era: 1991 Date: 06/17/05 We were out on a cruise playing war games one time and the weather was a little rough. Three redshirts were on an elevator and were bringing a rack full of bombs up to the flight deck. A rogue wave hit them and swept them over the side. Two of the guys were pulled out of the water; the other guy they never found. We also had a guy commit suicide by jumping off the flight deck. We never found him, but one of our escorts found him three or four days later. During one man overboard drill, there was one guy who could not be accounted for. It was over an hour until they found him. Apparently, he was working alone somewhere and fell asleep. He never woke up for the man overboard drill.

Chem Light Bandit Man Overboard Department: Engr Author: BT2 Dupler Era: 1997 Date: 06/17/05 We had some Jackass that would throw a chemlight overboard at about 3 in the morning. The lookouts would see the chem light and call man overboard. So everyone onboard would have to get up and muster. The offered a reward for the chem light bandits capture, but no one ever found him. Some thought he did it because he was on watch and wanted was pissed thought that if he had to get up everyone should be awake. I on the other hand have a differnt theory, see we had to be in the hanger bay or where ever within like 7 minutes so that they could call in who was missing within 10 mins. Not much time to get dressed. The hangerbay would be full of half naked females. My theory is that this guy just wanted a show.