"MMC" wrote in news:eTFPf.39819$_c.13800
@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

aboard the USS Leader (MSO 490) off of Charleston

Yep, they hated enlisted men by the time they got ashore....convinced we
were trying to kill them...

My transfer off Everglades (AD-24) in Charleston was to Mine Force
Support Group, Atlantic, which changed it's name from Minecraft Support
Unit (MCSU). If you were on Leader, you probably saw our buildings, the
ones with the piles of Packard diesel parts out in the yard to keep them
running. The ET shop was towards the street next to supply and on the
main street the EODU was there. I built Minelant its first calibration
lab, which is why I got the new billet for a cal tech. It all became
SIMA long after I left. The ET boss was CWO-4 Robert Wyatt, who was a
great guy to work for. I remember him breaking a phone handset in half
one day when some NAVSEA bureaucrat transferred him to an answering
machine on the phone. The CO poked his head around the corner and said,
"Bob, you ok?" Mr Wyatt's face was blood red and EVERYONE in the office
heard his message about CWO-4s didn't speak to answering machines in this
man's Navy! It was sure nice working for an EMO who didn't have to worry
himself about making CWO-5. Politics wasn't an issue.

When you were on Leader, did they have that stupid towed sonar fish with
the world's dummest diesel genset and little sonar hut lashed to the
deck? We were the guys who fixed them when the MSO captains dragged them
through bouy chains, beat them against underwater obstructions or just
turned too short, wrapping the cables around the screws. Don't remember
what they called it. The machinist at MCSU made us this big fish hook
we'd tywrap to it to make it look like a giant fishing lure on its dolly
in the shop....

Minelant was my "shore duty" station. Of course, that meant nothing
riding MSOs through 30 degree rolls offshore fixing URC-32 transceivers
and R-390 receivers...strapped to the equipment.