BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Mr. Luddite

On 9/24/2014 6:00 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 24 Sep 2014 16:40:02 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 9/24/2014 4:29 PM, wrote:

The Coast Guard was on the river too. I volunteered to go and even
tried to change my rate to GM so I would be qualified but they said no
... twice.
For some reason the Navy wanted me right where I was in case they
needed FTs to fight the Soviets.
(that was the only reason Coasties got into FT school)

The Navy used ratings other than Gunner's Mate to make up PBR crews.
Volunteers usually got their wish.

They would take RMs (how I heard about it in the first place since the
RM school was at Bainbridge with FT school) They would not take FTs.
The GM rate was a natural for me since an FT in the Coast Guard is a
GM anyway. I took the GM 3&2 course but they still said no. (to a rate
change and the VN deal).
It turns out an FT in the Coast Guard is actually indentured to the
Navy. It was DoDs way of hiding people on the Treasury budget that
they would use if we had a sea war. That is why I got trained on
equipment we did not even have.
When I got on board ship, the chief said I was a gunners mate or I was
useless to him. I decided GM was OK. There were 2 other FTs who
decided to be useless. They did a lot of painting, me not so much. I
ended up learning all about the small arms and the 5"/38. Then I got
ASW torpedo trained. It wasn't until I got on the Chincoteague with a
"56" system that I saw an actual FT1.
I was still ****ed that I could not get a GM crow, even after passing
the 3&2 courses. The only thing that accomplished was screwing up my
FT crow.
I did manage to bluff my way into an ORTAUG (deck crew and snipes)
unit when I went to the reserves and I stayed there for years. They
were the ones who had a 40 footer. We actually did stuff at the
meetings. When they finally caught me and put me in the ORTEL
(electronics) unit where the FTs were supposed to go, I did not re-up.

It was just a bunch of "white collar" guys bitching about their jobs
and why they had to go to these meetings for 2 days a month.
That was just a total waste of everyone's time.

I went through RM "A" school at Bainbridge but it was probably 3 or 4
years after you attended FT school. All I remember is I was too young
to drink at the club so I had to settle for 3.2 beer. Musta drank a
couple of hundred pitchers of the crap.