Submarine ops 1914 to present day
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  • Thanks for the correction Jim, I only know what I was told at the time.

    If you talk to your friend again ask him how tight it was climbing through the water tight gangways, I was thin back then and been in our WW2 subs but theirs were tight to pass through .   

  • Welcome aboard John.  I don't want to appear as a know-it-all or play, "Can you top this", but a good friend of mine and running mate, Reynaldo Tapia, TM2, Steam Torpedo Shop, spent time helping two-Japanese Coastal Defense Submarines with some torpedo and/or tube problems they were having while they were visiting the Sub Base and that would have been in late 1962 or in the first 10-months of 1963.  The Japanese squadron commander gave Rey a bottle of Saki and a Saki serving set in appreciation of his help.  I don't know if these were the first warships to visit Pearl since WWII, but they beat me there and I arrived in late November 1963.

  • I was the indoctrination school yeoman then I was assigned as the subase police Department yeoman 1965 thru 1967.

    In 1967 I was TAD as the driver to captain of a Japanese submarine, the first Japanese warship to return to Pearl Harbor since Dec. 7.

    To the dismay of some I was also traffic court Judge.

    I would welcome talking to others that knew me back then.

  • I was the Steam Torpedo Shop when I wasn't on Sh--   -ah, make that Hotel St. during the time of Senior Chief Hank Gerasimoff, the mad White Russian and the best CPO I ever served under.  Well, Herb Franz was a pretty good Chief, too. 

    One of the first shipmates I met when I went aboard in Dec 1963. was Konrad Langlie, another member on this Sub Base Forum.  We had  great guys, but like all big families we had the occasional fight. We mostly worked hard to put out high quality torpedoes even with overnight turnarounds during PCO weeks and of course we had fun whenever and where ever we could get it.

    Towards the end of my tour we really did get some pure alcohol without the pink lady.  Hank was on it like white on rice, but we managed to get away with some of it.  I got lucky and ran the 16-6/8(?) Gang for over a year and also had an E-6 Billet in my Duty Section and stood all the Master at Arms watches, because the real 1st. Class didn’t want to.

    I was there when some boot broke the interlock with keys and opened the outer door, then the inner door on the Sterlet and she sank bow down alongside the pier.  A lot of us walked down to see what was going on when the word was passed at Beeman’s Center, “All hands of the Sterlet lay back to the boat”.  The word I got was that kid came out of the forward hatch and sprinted across the Quarterdeck, down the gangplank, and kept on going with nary a word.  I was on duty the night (I think it was the Sterlet again) bent its screw when a junior officer was conning the boat to tie up.  That got worse by the minute:  A diver came out and wrapped to much prima cord on the shaft, a TM in Weapons Handling took the Bay City crane down to the scene of the misdemeanor, the diver hooked the crane cable to the screw, and when he blew the screw off, it pulled the Bay City into Magazine or Southeast Loch, because the TM did not rig the outriders, so then the misdemeanor became a felony.  They could not find the crane and ended up closing the Loch to traffic over night.

    Dirty Derr was in the Toy shop and we became running mates and had some interesting times together.  The best was when he introduced me to the cook outs at Kaena Point and the Burning Bush.  When all those guys rotated out, it was up to me to handpick the worthy and introduce new guys to the outdoor life.  We always had lots of refreshments and the food couldn’t be beat, although the cooks could.  We started inviting our favorite Hotel St. honeys and bunnies out to the weekend bashes and they actually showed up occasionally.

    I was a tube inspector and worked on every boat home ported in PH and I spent time on most of the boats during their PCO weeks making sure the steamers were ready to shoot with gyroscopes and igniters installed, transportation screws removed and air connected to the exercise heads. 

    Then there was the Harvey Harridge party.

  • My understanding was that this patch came about sometime in the 1930's (Around 1933 was the guess) and it was still the official patch/logo/whatever when I left in 1966 and lasted through the closure, or the change.

  • I was attached to Sub Base from 1984-1988 working out of the periscope shop 35A . modified a duce and half to carry a pare  of periscopes.

  • Stationed at Subase from Sept 81 - May 83 in 31A. Met my wife there she was in the repair division office, YN3 Shannon, still married, almost 31 years. Went back with the kids a few years ago and where 31A was across from the Subase Chapel is a parking lot, good memories!

  • I was stationed at the Steam Torpedo Shop from February 1963 to June 1965 when as a TM2 I was transferred to JR Craig DD 885 then operating with TF 77 South Vietnam.  I visited the Sub Base in 1995 and the old shop was still there but no longer a torpedo shop.  The torpedo was still out front but the current occupants did not know why.  I retired in 2005 as a full colonel US Army.

  • I was stationed at the Officer's Quarters from Oct. 75 until April 76 and then ended up in Special Services working in the Auto, Ceramic, Wood Shop and finally Day Care.  I married a boomer from the Roosevelt Blue Crew and had our oldest daughter in Sept. 77.  We finally left in Nov 75 to go to Subbase, Groton, CT where I was a Barracks Manager and Billeting PO until I left in Nov 79.

  • I was stationed at Subase from Oct. 1978 - Oct. 1980. Spent about 6 months in the Rubber and Plastics Shop and the remainder in the Outside Electrical Shop. Great duty and great shipmates.

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Sub Base Pearl Harbor

I was stationed at Sub Base Pearl Harbor from august 61 to mar 64. I worked at the submartas I was a storekeeper. My brother was stationed on the USS Coucal ASR8. I loved beingin Hawaii and I was back there last year for 2 weeks. I did go to Pearl Harbor for a look andit has all changed from what I remember.

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