Comments

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  Joe Rhea August 13, 2009 at 7:13am

  Mark, I had the pleasure of working with you at a couple of different commands and you were a hell of a Molder. The old saying choose your rate choose your fate was never truer for all of the ML's and PM's. Advancement sucked! It had a lot to do with timing and luck. There were alot of good people who were not advanced that should have been, and even though I made Chief (in 1993) I could not make Senior Chief no matter what I did and retired as a Chief in (2006).
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  Dennis Pennington August 13, 2009 at 12:25am

  

  
  

  

  
  
  

  
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  Craig Lami August 12, 2009 at 10:11pm

  Unfortunately, a lot of my stuff "disappeared" with my first wife while I was on WESPACs. The jacket with that patch was part of it. Give me a few days and I may be able to reproduce something close.
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  JIM COWAN August 12, 2009 at 6:43pm

  GREETINGS ALL......
  I HAVE BEEN READING THE BLOGS AND AGREE TO DISAGREE..........SUB TENDERS BEING PLAQUE SHOPS........WE ALL MADE GEEDUNK CASTINGS, BUT I BELIEVE IT WAS UP TO US TO SELL OUR TALENTS AND MAKE OUR FOUNDRIES MORE THAN JUST A GIFT SHOP.......I SERVED ABOARD TWO SUB TENDERS AND TWO DESTROYER TENDERS.....MY LAST COMMAND WAS THE USS DIXON AS-37. WE WERE GETTING READY FOR WEST PAC 92-93 AND THE REPAIR BOSS.......A BUBBLE HEAD........WAS SOLICITING INFO ON WHAT REPAIR WORK THE SURFACE SHIPS WOULD NEED......I TOLD HIM IN MY 8 YEARS ON DESTROYER TENDERS, ALL THEY REALLY NEEDED WAS DUCT TAPE AND BAILING WIRE......HE HAD NO SENCE OF HUMOR......
  WHILE IN THE GULF, THE C.O. OF THE USS JOUETTE, CAPT. WEEKS, CONTACTED OUR REPAIR BOSS AND REQUESTED US TO REBABBIT FOUR SIX INCH BEARINGS. OUR BOSS SAID WE COULD NOT DO THE REPAIR BCAUSE WE WERE A SUBMARINE TENDER. CAPT. WEEKS REPLIED, "YOU HAVE A CHIEF COWAN AND PETTY OFFICER MILEY THAT I KNOW CAN POUR THESE BEARINGS FOR ME.....THEY DID THE SAME WORK FOR ME ABOARD THE YOSEMITE"...(HE WAS OUR C.O. ON AD-19 ) THE R.O. CONTACTED ME AND ASKED IF WE COULD DO THE BEARINGS..........WITHOUT HESITATION I SAID YES.....THE BEARINGS WERE HELOED TO THE DIXON.......AND AGAIN THE MOLDERS CAME THROUGH.....
  POINT BEING.......NO MATTER WHAT TYPE OF TENDER WE WERE ON, IT WAS UP TO US TO PRACTICE OUR RATE.....AND DO WHAT THEY SAID WE COULDN'T.
  AS FOR MOLDER TATS.......SUBMIT SOME IDEAS....I'M GAME......I DID HAVE A GUY IN OHIO MAKE ME A POINTS COVER FOR MY OLD HARLEY WITH THE MOLDER SYMBOL ON IT......I'LL SEE IF I CAN FIND A PICTURE OF IT AND PUT IT ON THIS SITE.....SEE YA..
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  Joe Rhea August 12, 2009 at 3:40pm

  The foundry and the molders who worked in them always had a certain "smell". I think we all had to be a little off to be covered in petrobond sand or stand inches away from molten metal and actually get off on it. I have a bunch of tats but still don't have one of the ML rate. I'll have to incorperate it into the next one.
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  Roxanne (Davis) Spendlove August 12, 2009 at 2:56pm

  reading ya'lls comments crack me up, i guess the shops i worked in weren't much different. smell of zinc, how about sweating green. i'm into tatts and have been figureing where to put the molder insignia, any suggestions? i got so many questions, "what's that rate"? and what the @#$%$ is a molder.
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  Glenn Kamppi August 12, 2009 at 12:26pm

  Yeah, I know what you mean, Joe. When I DECOMed the Chandler (DDG-996), I was 3MC there and they offered me Groton, Groton and Groton to run the machine shop at the TRF there. I told them no way, I'm not going to be in charge of 30 or 40 people if I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
  
  I had just moved my family from NH, where I was recruiting and there was NO way I was moving back to the east coast after only 2 years on the west coast.
  
  I ended up talking to the Engineering Ratings Branch Head, some CDR and told him it was time for the Navy to do something for me. I had already done 2 overseas tours and recruiting. He tried to play "the needs of the Navy, Chief" bullshit on me. He finally gave in and let me choose any ship in Everett as 3MC, as all the PRD's were about the same. So I took David R. Ray (DD-971), which I also DECOMed. That was my 4th DECOM in a row! I did one more 3MC tour (on Ingraham (FFG-61) and then retired.
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  Craig Lami August 12, 2009 at 12:17pm

  It's sad that the navy had to get rid of the rate. It's one of the things in my life I was best at, also. Look through the posts listed just in this blog at how many of us tried to work in civilian foundries. There is no comparison aside from a few places that do prototypes, it is becoming a lost art. I guess we are akin to the dinosaurs.
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  Joe Rhea August 12, 2009 at 12:05pm

  Glenn, I did the same thing, when I was on the Hawes FFG53 my cup had the ML insignia on it and the same with the certificates. I even continued to sign everything MLC. I never considered myself anything except a Molder throughout my Naval career. Force converted to MR and never worked in a machine shop. All I knew was the green button was on and the red one was off.
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  Glenn Kamppi August 12, 2009 at 11:04am

  Joe, like you, I continued to wear my Molder Rating Badge, but until I retired. I never got crap from anyone about it except for one no-load CMC, whom I told to pack sand. That was during a period I was still authorized to wear it. Every coffee mug in every CPO Mess I was in had my ML insignia on it. I tried to get my DD214 to show Molder, but my PNC buddy explained why I couldn't. The majority of my certificates show Molder though.