Comments

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  Thomas Collier January 27, 2014 at 4:40pm

  SEASICK ASHORE! I REMEMBER SOME OF THE GUYS WHO WOULD GET SICK AFTER MESS  FROM THE HEAT AND SOME WOULD BE SELLING "BUIICKS," IN THE HEAD AND OTHERS WOULD DO IT ON THE PARADE GROUNDS WHILE WE WERE MARCHING(AND MARCHING AND MARCHING,) OF COURSE THE CLEAN UP CREW CONSISTED OF 2 OR 3 SEA GULLS, IF THEY FAILED TO SHOW UP THE UP CHUCK-ER WAS ON HIS OWN. :) 

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  David W Asche January 27, 2014 at 2:46pm

  The ONLY time I got any where near being "Seasick" was when the Hector was wallowing around out in a storm and we were all tied down just waiting it out in the upper foundry.  The deck just above out heads was the "main drag" between the mess decks and the heads, so it was well traveled.  Right next to the ladder well of the ladder coming down to the foundry was the door to get fore and aft.

  We also had a large blower for the foundry to suck out smoke and fumes and it was on most of the time, and it drew a blast of "fresh" air down into the foundry from above, in the machine shop.

  During the storm, we could hear this "CLOMP, CLOMP, CLOMP" as someone was running back from the mess decks towards the head.  We could tell it was some guy trying to get aft to the heads because he needed to puke.

  He didn't make it.  We hear this BLEAGHHHH and a splattering on the deck right at the door, and a few seconds later, we got the aroma of fresh puke being sucked down into the foundry by the blower.

  That is when I got sick, but we shut off the blower and I felt better.  Never did get sick, but I also suspect it was because the Navy made me get double shots before I was sent overseas...I guess they must have felt I needed them.
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  Lindsey E. Ford HMC (SW) January 26, 2014 at 4:52pm

  You should have just blamed it on bad food - sailors do not get sea sick - at least as far as civilians know :)
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  Charles D. "Chuck" Harris January 26, 2014 at 2:15pm

  Has anyone from RTC San Diego who enlisted in summer of 1973 recently joined this website? I was in the class with a CC by the name of Christianson. He was a submariner. I think it was class 159. I have some the Anchor book from that class.
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  Ronald Lee Froman January 25, 2014 at 4:28pm

  Funny how seasickness up on you.  Been on 2 Destroyers in heavy seas, and never had a problem.  But one time I was returning to NAS Whidbey Island from Seattle, and took the Mulketeo Ferry to the Island.  I was returning from some sort of Dress Blue affair, and was standing on the deck by my car.  For some reason, the slow roll of the Ferry got to me, and her I was, in Dress Blues, heaving over the side of a FERRY!  Real embarrassing. 
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  Lindsey E. Ford HMC (SW) January 25, 2014 at 4:05pm

  All of the comments bring back some memories. The Marines will inflict severe bodly harm on anyone that threatens the health and well being of the Corpsmen that are charged with their care! Semper Fi! The only typhoon I ever went thru was in 75 on the island of Okinawa, so, no rocking and rolling. We just moved the lockers up to the windows and hunkered down. Once it passed we moved the lockers back over to the entrance to the cubicle and put the re-bar or curtain rod with the blue curtains back up on top of the lockers and it was home again :)  I never got sea sick, got a little queezie a coulpe of time, on the Truxtun when we were in heavy seas the mess desks would put out saltine crackers, it worked for me. The heavest seas I was ever in was in the Northern Pacific in Oct/Nov 87. One night it was so rought that those cabinets in the CPO Mess broke open and the dishes flew. There were other times we were in rough seas, on North Pac it was constant for somewhere bewteen two and three weeks. Would not have traded any of this for anything.
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  William A. Whisenant, Jr January 24, 2014 at 9:32pm

  I was seasick three times.  In 1961 I was on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt doing galley duty in the scullery.  The steam, the smell of the garbage, etc did a job on me.  The second time the FDR got caught in the edge of a tropical storm on the way to the Med in late 1962.  Waves over the bow was enough for me.  I was in the head heaving up everything when a 1st Class PO with more than a handful of hash marks walked over and asked " what are you doing down here boy?"  I told him I was sick. His reply was "get yourself up to the mess deck and eat some soup then get up on deck and get some fresh air."   My stomach flipped over at the thought of soup sloshing around inside. But I tried it anyway and it worked.  It worked so well that I volunteered to stay up all night to check the tie down chains on the few planes we had on the flight deck.

  The last time I was helping my Dad who was doing commercial fishing.  We had hauled several cans of gas down to the dock just before going out(He refused to pay marina gas prices).  The fumes and the swells hitting his 20 ft boat a little while later after we put the nets out and were just sitting there were just to much.  Glad to see that I wasn't the only sailor to ever get seasick.
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  Bob Coombs January 24, 2014 at 8:42pm

  I guess those kids were never too young to do their part as little VC in training. I remember taking a ride in the back of a duece and a half from Saigon to Dong Tam while in transit to my new duty station, and the little tykes would straightarm us (a form of more noticably giving us the finger)( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras_d%27honneur ) as we drove by. If they had access to AK's they probably would have used them!
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  Terry Schiele HM-2 (RN) January 24, 2014 at 7:45pm

  I forgot another time aboard a ship that was somewhat of a trial.  I was Medevacd to the USS Repose just before a typhoon. Got an IV started by a Chief, Thanks Chief, and put into a rack. About an hour later a 7 year olf Vietnamese kid walks up to my rack and bites off my IV. Blood all over until I called the Corpsman. Typhoon hit that night and we could not see the ship next to us, which was waiting for a resupply when the typhoon ebbed. The Marines on the ward were planning on throwing the kid over board until his ward was changed.  Don't mess with a FMSS Corpsman when Marines are around. I was sick during this time too.  Nothing to be ashamed of. TS
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  Bob Coombs January 24, 2014 at 7:04pm

  Thomas, that disappearing ship story is very believable!

  Back in the late 60's we had to duck into Kaohsiung, Taiwan to wait for a typhoon to pass. The water inside the harbor was rough enough to break our anchor loose, and we barely missed doing major damage drifting into other ships and piers.

  About three days later we headed out to sea, and I distinctly remember steaming through waves and troughs high enough to hide a ship paralleling our course. I went up to the pilothouse level to take a picture, and even up there the ship would disappear in the troughs. I estimated the waves to be about 75 feet high.

  I'd sure hate to be out there in the worst of the typhoon! We ended up with frame welds breaking loose down in the tank deck, but she held together! I also remember sighting down the main deck and seeing the ship flex up and down a couple of feet with worries about making it back alive.