Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:



My Dad commanded a DE during WWII and used to fish off the stern all
the time - I saw some pictures his Exec took of them cod fishing
before picking up a convoy.

When he was transferred to the Pacific on a Tin Can, he told me he
never really had time.

Later,

Tom

Which brings me to my story ....

I was also stationed on a DE for part of my Navy "experience". It was
of mid-50's vintage and had been retrofitted with a new passive sonar
system that was towed behind the ship, listening for subs. This duty was
about the most boring time you can imagine because the ship spent weeks
at a time trolling the sonar at 7 knots, day in and day out.

So, one Sunday afternoon during "holiday routine" a couple of friends
and I decided to fly kites off the fantail. We had decided on a previous
cruise that this would be a great idea, and it was .. the kites flew
perfectly. Being the young smart-asses that we were at the time we
decided to attach a small flasher light to each kite, stolen from some
life vests. The kites carried them aloft with no problem, but you
couldn't see the lights in the daylight.

Bored with this after a while, we tied the lines to the rail on the
fantail and forgot about them.

Later that evening I had a watch to stand. I happened to step into the
Radio Shack to find all kinds of excitement. An Operational Immediate
message was about to be transmitted that contained items like:

"Negative signature of object on radar despite re-calibration and test"
and
"Object follows all course changes"

I knew then I was in deep ****.

Eisboch