Comments

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  Skip Maire May 26, 2011 at 11:47am

  Does anyone remember hitting Bishop's Rock and "flanchoring"? How about the yard period afterwards at Hunter's Point.
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  Adrian Hernandez May 26, 2011 at 5:09am

  One Little Jet

  I was always amazed at how this little jet could carry so much weight.  And yet still be fast enough to attack and fight what ever came its way.

  Maybe some of you can identify the aircraft and armament?  

  My mental hard drive is a little fuzzy on this.  Wait, a Corsair A-6?,7?  And maybe a Sparrow air to air missile? 

   I don't even want to know what those big bombs did.  

  Again, forgive the quality of the photo.  It was taken many years ago as I kinda moseyed around the flight deck one day. 

   I wonder if the Air Boss was watching me.

   

  

   

   
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  Adrian Hernandez May 26, 2011 at 12:02am

  That Boom!

  I remember this aircraft, (Vigilante), on the Big E in '71.  Tho I didn't know too much about it's purpose.  I know it had camera bubbles on it's underside so it must have been for photographic reconnaissance.  I do remember one time we had an impromptu air show for some dignitaries who were visiting and it flew low over the ship at super sonic speed and blew the spectators on the flight deck away, almost down to the deck HA!.  I too was on the flight deck and was watching as it, as a tiny spec in the distance over the ocean, became bigger toward us very quickly.  Someone tapped my shoulder and motioned for me to plug my ears.  I did so just in time.  It blurred past over us just as I stuck my fingers in my ears.  I felt that boom through my bones!  

  The other aircraft on the deck in the photo almost seem to be at attention and showing respect as she is positioned for launch.

  She was a beautiful aircraft with tremendous power.  Just as the The Big E was the Belle Of The Ball in the Gulf of Tonkin, The Vigilante was the Belle Of The Ball on the flight deck.

   

  
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  Adrian Hernandez May 25, 2011 at 10:31pm

   

  YE OL' LIBERTY LAUNCHES

  I've only been on a liberty launch a few times in my short Navy Career.  Those times being in Singapore 'cause we were anchored out in the bay and needed those LCM's to get to shore so we could have a nice dinner at some little eatery.  Then start drinkin' like sailors HA!.  God knows we needed to.  Hey we did some sight seeing too!  

  Oh sure we were all nice and neat and sober and dressed sharp and orderly in our civvies as we left the Big E.  But it was a different story coming back that night.  We had a LCM without a canopy this time.  And you could climb up the side and look at the city lights as we headed back to the ship.  It was dark in the craft except for maybe a couple of small lights.  Everyone was really drunk.  There was vomit all over the deck LOL.  There was yelling, singing, laughing, and of course some passed out.  I admit I had my over fill of Tiger Beer that night too.  Not the best beer in the world to be sure.  What a great liberty we had though.  It did us good to get off the Big E for awhile.  But It's a little boat trip to remember from those times.  I wonder if it's still the same these days.  Hopefully some things never change.

  I took the photo below.  I had the duty that night so couldn't go out and play.

   

  
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  Kevin T. Curran March 16, 2011 at 9:21pm

  Surprising how many of us showed up from the time frame on this thread! Anyone remember the Steel Beach picnic in my pic to the left..LOL. I think they were golfing off the fantail on that one...
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  Skip Maire March 16, 2011 at 7:07pm

  I got on the day before the 84 cruise. I got off the October after the 88 tour.

   
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  Raymond Littleton Highers, III June 26, 2010 at 2:18am

  I was stationed on the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) from July 1993 to December 1996 with a deployment in 1996 to the Mediterranean and Arabian/Persian Gulf. I was the LCPO for CSF/OEM Division.
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  Steven Strehle June 4, 2010 at 12:43pm

  I jointed the Enterprise CVAN-65 at the Newport News Shipyard in 1970. Fond memories, "Sailors and Dogs Keep Off The Grass." Two WESTPAC deployments, and finally left the ship at another shipyard, PSNS Bremerton, WA. I was an Air Traffic Controller, working in OC Division.
  
  As far as some of the comments made by others, I too remember Olongopo "fondly." Fortunately for me, not as fondly as some of the others. I volunteered to take the SP duty for the other guys in the division. My hometown was Alameda, CA. When we were there I did not have to stand duty at all.
  
  I am now a deputy sheriff in Washington State. My SP duty benefitted me in my dealing with the soldiers at Fort Lewis on Friday and Saturday nights.
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  John A Vaclav March 27, 2010 at 10:30am

  Hey, That was Task Force 71 the largest naval task force assembled since WWII when the north Korean's shot down one of our EC 131's
  I was on the U.S.S. Ticonderoga at the time and we had just finished a 31 day line period on Yankee Station, were pulling into Subic when we turned around and headed to the Sea of Japan..Cold and lot's of Russians...Hell they kept station beter than our own destroyers. If I remember there were 5 carriers and all the support ships.
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  Adrian Hernandez March 26, 2010 at 9:52pm

  I was on the Big E in late '71 when we were ordered off line from the Gulf Of Tonkin and sent to the Indian Ocean. There was a war going on in India between India and Pakistan if I remember right. American civilians were caught in the middle of it and we had orders to get them out if necessary. The ship's Marine's were up on the flight deck cleaning and test firing their weapons. I remember thinking, " A break from one war,..... to go to another." LOL!
  Anybody here remember that? Would like some more info if any body's got it.
  Thanks.