My tour of duty on the Coral Sea began in Nov. 1986 and ended in Nov.1988. I was originally assigned to the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department as the Leading Chief. I enjoyed the job, worked with some great Officers, Chiefs and Sailors. The boss was a Cdr Mason. Made Master Chief in May of 1989 and made the error of complaining to the XO, Capt Denny Mc Ginn about the HT's not fixing a leaking urinal drain. He asked me if I knew how to solve the problem. I said" XO, you only have to know two things, What's wrong and how to make sailors go fix it". He said, " Fine, you have the job". So I transferred to the Ships Maintenance Department under Lcdr Joe Dattoli and set up a CHT/TRT team. CHT stands for "collection, holding and transfer" (sewage) and TRT stood for "Trouble Response Team" In other words, we fixed things that no one else wanted fix. Such as clogged commodes. My Chief was MMC Bob Aldridge and we had a team of youngsters that no one else wanted. I worked hard with those kids and we became one of the most respected teams on the shipp. All 112 heads worked!!!!!! I also had the please of serving as the CMC for waitng for AGCM Chuck Fifield to report. I left the ship a year early thanks to the CO Capt B.B. Bremner and reported to the world famouse Red Rippers, (VF 11) as CMC. Made a great shake down cruise to Nova Scotia and a fun cruise to the Med. We pumped a lot of sewage into the french harbors but they couldn't tell the difference.
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Never had a Complaint while Onboard from 87 until Decom in 90 then went to the America. America sucked in comparison in My opinion. We all called the Coral Sea a Rust Bucket and in a lot of ways it was but She was My first Duty Station and I consider it a real pleasure to have been on her decks. at the time of her decommissioning she was the only Carrier to have never seen water hours, Always had fresh water (even though it has a slight taste of JP5, lol)
Ever Fair Winds and Following Seas to all those who served and sailed aboard The Ageless Warrior, USS Coral Sea CV/A/B-43, May she always be in your hearts!
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Never had a Complaint while Onboard from 87 until Decom in 90 then went to the America. America sucked in comparison in My opinion. We all called the Coral Sea a Rust Bucket and in a lot of ways it was but She was My first Duty Station and I consider it a real pleasure to have been on her decks. at the time of her decommissioning she was the only Carrier to have never seen water hours, Always had fresh water (even though it has a slight taste of JP5, lol)
Ever Fair Winds and Following Seas to all those who served and sailed aboard The Ageless Warrior, USS Coral Sea CV/A/B-43, May she always be in your hearts!