DSK wrote in
:

So Larry, you were on a minesweep back when there were some in
Charleston?


1966-1971...USS Everglades - MCSU...wouldn't trade it for anything. Being
a prisoner was never happier....

"Shore Duty"....that's what they said it was when I was on the MSO headed
for the Med....At first the Minelant little shipyard was called "Minecraft
Support Unit, Atlantic" but that was too easy so they changed it to Mine
Force Support Group, Charleston. Later, they changed the name to SIMA, as
they did more than minesweepers..Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity.

Got to ride the old MSOs and MSCs while fixing their radio/radar gear.
Minesweepers had a very small electronics gang, so they took the senior ETs
from MCSU when needed. Great fun in a wooden boat, 7' draft, in the N
Atlantic in the Winter. How far can YOUR boat roll?....(c;.....Lash some
big heavy rubber diesel fuel bladders to the top of the main deck and it
rolls even further!...

Navy had a torpedo-sized towed sonar device that had active sweeping, side-
looking, sonar on it to scan for bottom mines. There was a "shack"
strapped to the stern where the operator's console was located because
there was no such room inside an MSO to spare. Also on the stern was a 2-
cylinder, V-twin diesel generator to provide "stable" power to this
technological nightmare. Whoever signed off on the system worked for the
Soviets. God it was awful! The genset had electronic throttle controls.
If these controls failed, instead of the injection shutting down, IT WENT
TO FULL THROTTLE...WIDE OPEN! There were many failures. One of the MSO
captains was so concerned for his ship and crew safety (wood burns, you
know) he ordered the uncontrollable genset pushed overboard off his stern
as it was running so fast there was the possibility of it exploding in
flames. I heard it suck up its first full breath of seawater as it sank at
full power. The towed bodies had sonar that looked at 45 degrees towards
the bottom out both sides and the helical-scanning fax-type printer gave
you two very nice "pictures" from nearly under the towed body out quite a
ways. It was kept 15' off the bottom by another little sonar that looked
down like your depth sounder does. UNFORTUNATELY, none of the idiots that
designed it had a sonar looking and displaying FORWARD of the
thing....so....as you've already imagined...it used to RUN INTO EVERYTHING
OVER 15' TALL! Duhhh....(c; Made of fiberglass, lots of them came in all
crumpled back to the shop. Can you say "boondoggle" without cursing? The
towing minesweeper had an old navy sonar on it that couldn't display a
sunken sailboat...or big pipe sticking up....or an uncharted hulk...so the
thing simply ran into it....stupid, eh? We didn't design it, we just
patched it up, if it weren't destroyed.

They also had this same boondoggle on a little barge they could hang down
under a helicopter, which was supposed to tow it over the minefield without
risking an MSO, EASILY destroyed by acoustic mines that didn't give a ****
if it wasn't magnetic. Only trouble with that thing was it kept COLLAPSING
when the helo tried to pick it up with all that weight on it! More
boondoggle. I think they scrapped it and shredded all the paperwork...(c;

As Vietnam was winding down, one of our Chief's got dumped before he could
retire after 18 years of loyal service, so I took the hint and left from
there when my 2nd hitch was up. No longer needing us, any excuse to rid
the government of retirees would do.

I think they were trying to get even from my "Sea Duty", 3.5 years aboard
USS Everglades (AD-24), CRUDESFLOT 6's destroyer tender and admiral's
office mostly strapped to Pier Papa on Charleston Navy Base. Destroyermen
called us, lovingly, "Building AD24"....even though I did two Med cruises,
a couple of Caribbean cruises, GITMO RefTra and several Mayport excursions
to do work USS Yellowstone couldn't do themselves. Everglades was a
steamer, for an AD. May she rest in peace.

Well, that's my story....what's yours?