What Lies Beneath Department: Engr Author: larry Era: 1990 Date: 03/28/06 Well since you guys are on the sbject of overboard FOD, I might as well contribute my one story of many !! I was in engineering department (E-2 division). I was a Flight Deck Electrician and worked out of the A&O Shop. We used to have to repair or replace the AESS (Aircraft Electrical Starting Station)cabels after the Airdales ran them over with there equipment. Anyways, we had a whole room full of these heavy ass cables, which by the way made it very hard to pass zone inspections. So one day our chief told us to get rid of those cables because they were a fire hazard or something of that nature. So one night me, my shop supervisor and another guy starting throwing the cables overboard !! So somewhere across the Atlantic lays a room full of AESS cables !!! When you think about all the ships at sea, it's amazing what is at the bottom of the ocean's !!

Resin overboard Department: Rx Author: Peter Era: 1982 Date: 03/28/06 Reactor department's contribution to littering the sea floor was to dump ion exchanger resin. Every so often, we had a PMS of changing the resin in the Ion Exchanger down in the Reactor plant. We had to lug hundreds of barels of resin down to the plant, replace the old resin and then haul the old resin out and store it. The way we did this was to form a bucket brigade up out of the plant to the main deck and into a storage area. The storage area was adjacent to a sponson and the guys in that area found it much more expedient to just chuck the barrels overboard instead of an additional 20 feet to the storage area. Somewhere on the Atlantic seabed is a trail of hundreds of these barrels, demarking IKE's path across the ocean some 20 years ago.

Addition to resin story Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1982 Date: 03/29/06 The resin that Pete referred to in his previous story was the SECONDARY PLANT, i.e., NONRADIOACTIVE resin. We wouldn't dream of intentionally chucking radwaste over the side, just maybe a couple of inadvertant liquid discharges is all. I remember the bucket brigades well. I can just imagine what an OSHA inspector would think of all the unsafe work practices we did.

Roving watch Department: AIMD Author: Jake Era: 1982 Date: 03/29/06 I can't remember exactly when this occured but I know it was between the 82 & 83 Meds. Anyway I was on an upper level roving watch and a another buddy(RTK)of mine was on a lower level roving watch 0000-0400.Anyway he hooks up with me after were on watch and asks me if I want to smoke a doob so I said sure but where? so we end up on the flight deck right at the bow and were getting high when all of the sudden I see two shining objects heading in our direction so RTK flicks whats left of the joint off the bow and next thing you know 2 MAA's come running up. Thier Badges were what I saw Shining, so they start asking us what we were doing and we told them we were on watch,then the one maa asks RTK what he threw over the side and he says a cigarette,while he's doing this the other maa is looking around with a flashlight. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the cherry of the still lit joint,when RTK flicked it over it got stuck in the safety net and all that grease. (Continued)

Roving watch Cont Department: AIMD Author: Jake Era: 1982 Date: 03/29/06 So the first maa asks RTK why he threw his cig overboard as soon as we saw them coming? At his point my heart is on the outside of my chest it was pounding so hard and I couldn't help thinking, Clexton's gonna have a field day with our asses especially being on watch and all. So RTK says real nonchalant and cool like, c'mon you guys you know as well as me your not supposed to be smoking on the flight deck! So the maa's tell us we better get back on watch,I didn't need a second invitation because I can still see that joint so I get the hell out of there fast, meanwhile RTK is still there shooting the shit with these guys, I'm thinking whats he some kind a nut or something all I know was I never got so far down in the ship so fast in my life and swore up and down never again. Until the next time anyway! RTK eventually got thrown out because of weed,he didn't get popped on a piss test,some dick head rat from Paris TX dimed him out to the div off for smoking a joint in his car while he gave him a ride to the airport.

AESS overboard Department: Engr Author: Radar Era: 1990 Date: 03/31/06 I remember helping Steve toss a bunch of those damn AESS cables overboard. The airedales were supposed to wind them back up -- or at least pile them up in a catwalk -- after they used them. We'd have to replace them all the time during heavy flight ops, getting run over or dragged into pieces. Payback was telling the hangar deck chief they only got to have AESS cables in Bay 2, cuz they broke all the others. Oh, and spitting fresh copenhagen drool into the padeyes as the FOD walkdown started. "No chief, I can't get in line, I gotta walk my lights or ain't nothing gonna land!" I think that was the cruise Moose and Travis and I pushed our spare carbon-arc searchlight off El 2 -- one of those 6' wide lights they use at malls and car lots to attract people. Pushed so hard to get it to go, damn near went with it. Moose grabbed my coat and kept me from going over. In the Gulf, I remember the rewind shop had a cache of xylene or some other nasty thinner for the varnish tank. I'd ordered a year's worth, and supply refused to store it in their flam locker because there wouldn't be room for anything else. We hid it in the fan room until we got caught during a zone, and had to throw a hundred gallons of flammable hazmat over the side, 5 gal cans at a time all night, sneaking it out to the sponsons and running back downstairs, hoping there's no MOB alarm.

herb Department: Ops Author: Arch Era: 1987 Date: 03/31/06 There's quite a few stories of sailors enjoying an illegal smile while on IKE here. I actually maintained pretty well not touching the stuff during the '84-85 Med cruise until Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Me and a bud were sitting in a small bar, already very drunk, and a local yokel offered me a toke or two. I declined in broken high school Spanish, stating that I wanted to, but couldn't. I went and took a piss, and when I came back, my bud suggested we go outside. He produced a doob that he had bought off the local. As soon as we finished it, the SP showed up on routine patrol thankfully about 30 seconds too late. We went back in the bar, and I think a had a pretty good conversation and a few beers with the local, but who knows how good (or bad) my Spanish mapped to his dialect. Not much of a story, but we never looked back from that point. I soon found out that half the damn division (including a few PO1's that made Chief within a year or so) were stoners.

Hotel Ike-afornia Department: Ops Author: Ron Eureka Era: 1987 Date: 03/31/06 I was checking out off IKE over my last few days aboard at the same time as an AW1 in my division. (God, what a feeling of elation, not to mention I was heading to 2 years of shore duty!) Partly as a practical joke and partly out of being pissed off that the AW1 was escaping Ike-Atraz, AWC Smith pulled the half completed check out card out of the AW1's hands. He then tore it to shreds, much to the disbelief of the AW1. You know the song ... you can check out, but you can never leave.

Bilge Paint Department: Rx Author: mike Era: 1988 Date: 03/31/06 Speaking of OSHA, I am sure that they would not have been too happy about the way we painted the bilges. Remember that nasty, stinky, "Bilge Red" paint that we used? They gave us these stupid respirators that didn't do shit and sent us down into the bilge (with no ventilation)to use paint that gave us all headaches. I can still remember the smell of that stuff.

Dobie's Department: Air Author: ABH1 Era: 1998 Date: 04/03/06 I can understand how you guys got away with it back in the day, but it amazes me to think they still try and do it today on the ship.I'm a cig smoker so I know how hard it is to try & find a spot that has exhaust ventilation. We would climb into a void and put the srews back on while three at atime smoked in there. I was standing looking one night and spotted a light coming thru a crack in the bulkhead. I ran around to see where it went and if we were safe. It dumped right into a V-2 space! I duct taped the hole and we contiued to smoke! On one of the med cruz or the St. Thomas war games a squadron person (E-6 too)Lit up a dubie. I remember people running to catch them. As the smell of pot just hung in the air and was being sucked up and distributed through all kind of spaces. (The guys were blowing it into a vent that was not exhaust!)the 98 cruz my Mom sent me a bottle of valium and luckily no one was in the office when I opened the box! I opened it and pills flew everywhere!GOODCRZ