USS Pawcatuck AO

Funny how some articles bring back memories. Reading about our new aircraft carrier being built, brought back these memories around 1956. Stationed awhile on the USS Pawcatuck Oiler, fueling up aircraft carriers on the move was one of our chores. Not such a good job in heavy seas and that's putting it lightly! Not boring you with a lot of details about smelling like diesel fuel, food tasting like diesel fuel, and ones clothes smelling like wiping rags, it was an interesting job, but, the best part was when I switched to the aviation end of the Navy! Here's a couple pictures of our ship and fueling the old Randolph carrier. PJ

Oh, Sorry fellas, I forgot to mention, that's the tin can Waller DD 466 on our Stb side getting a sip also.

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Somehow my last reply went south...

You were a squid, your change to aviation is admirable!

I went to the airdale side, not realizing how many 'planes went down.

Pawcatuck.

Somehow reminds me of an old, large, one lung engine driving a compressor...Buda?

Pawcatucka-Pawcatucka-Pawcatucka-Pawcatucka.

and doc....knew we could teach old dawgs new tricks.


Now, another story.
NR-1. Look it up.
ONLY NR-1 op to be declassified.

Seems after the Walker debacle, the gummint thought the russkies had set up a SOSUS net in the Med. Put the NR-1 in an LST or some such and hauled it to the Med, where it met up with...SeaHorse.

Underwater cameras on both, underwater sonar telephones (UQC), spotlights.

Never did find a SOSUS net, but we did find hundreds of airplanes...and ships....metal stuff was WWI and WWII, Med being a place where stuff doesn't rot like the Atlantic and Pacific. That's where we saw there are more airplanes in the ocean than there are submarines in the sky.

Closest to submarines we saw (other than the NR-1) was spent torpedoes......all over the place.

But the sight that lives on is the shrouds. He'd get on a specific heading, see one, and hit the stopwatch. Designated time later, another, check the watch...and it went on, and on, and on, sometimes we quit before the line of shrouds did.

Now, what are shrouds? In a sea battle, there are often casualties. After the battle, they stitched the dead into canvas bags called shrouds...held a service, tipped the board, and over they went. Spacing was dependant on speed of the vessel and length of the padre's words.

And the sea shall give up her dead first....

Doc...this is one of those airplanes that tried to be in the ocean:

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Dave - that NR-1 story is fascinating. Never even heard of that vessel. And to think it was so small, yet still nuclear reactor powered.

Were you a crew member? Must have been tough being aboard for even a few minutes, much less several days, especially in heavy seas.

Tom M.

Interesting, to say the least. PJ

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Before going regular Navy in 1956, I was in the Naval reserve at Lakehurst New Jersey, training in a blimp squadron. Here's a nice video on blimps at Lakehurst. Only when I went regular Navy, they stuck me on a ship! Done a lot of interesting things in my lifetime, lots of nice memories. Needless to say, I loved the Navy! PJ


(1) THIS IS LAKEHURST - U.S. Navy Blimp and Airships , Naval Training 3388 - YouTube

Paul - does this look familiar?



https://www.neam.org/ac-goodyear-znpk28.php

Yes it does Tom, Appears to be from the old K bag, as we called them. Believe it or not, as small as they were, they had a galley in them! Small grill but big enough to cook steaks and eggs on them for the whole crew which was done quite a bit.

Looks like every seat in the craft had a good view.

The rear observer and winch man sat on a clear glass floor with an azimuth inscribed in it and a blister was in the port glass which you could put your head into for a better view. It was like setting in mid air until you got used to it. Cool ride! I will say this, it's the only ride, when windy, one with a weak stomach could get sea sick in other than a ship! :highly_amused:

Yep - wind (and cooler air) can cause a bit of discomfort ...

USS Los Angeles (ZR-3), August 25, 1927, Lakehurst high mast.

NutmegCT said:

Yep - wind (and cooler air) can cause a bit of discomfort ...

USS Los Angeles (ZR-3), August 25, 1927, Lakehurst high mast.

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Tie it down tight. Drop all the ballast. Let's set this baby on it's NOSE!

But ... the ZR-3 flew perfectly the next day.

By the way, Paul, here's our K-28 car interior. Even has a skillet for bacon and eggs.

https://www.360cities.net/image/goodyear-znpk-28-blimp-cabin#0.50,29.60,30.0

Pan around left, right, up, down. More memories for ya!

Wow, haven't seen the inside one of those for more years than I care to count! I know they made different modifications to the K bag gondolas for various reasons, but haven't a clue why. The ones we had had the glass floor in the back. Do you know when yours was made, before, during or after the war? Quite nice to see it being preserved, has to be a pretty expensive proposition, along with many dedicated man hours. We called them K bags because they were nothing but a big blown up football with no internal structure. Thanks for posting that Tom, it did bring back some nice memories, especially since I was only a 139 pound kid at the time. :grin:

TOC said:

Tie it down tight. Drop all the ballast. Let's set this baby on it's NOSE!

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Pressure watch went to sleep, his attention was 100% when he got rolled out of the sack! KP duty for the next couple weeks! :highly_amused:

Pawcatuck had a surprisingly long career. 1946 to transfer to fleet reserve in 1991.
I probably ran across it in Charleston or the Caribbean. Maybe the Med.

Sure changed the appearance when they super-sized it.

PAUL161 said:

... Not boring you with a lot of details about smelling like diesel fuel, food tasting like diesel fuel, and ones clothes smelling like wiping rags, ...

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Sounds about like being on a diesel boat, or any submarine for that matter. I have a briefcase from those days that still smells that way over 40 years later.

so...loading up for a "Northern Run" ops....all the stores (90 days worth), some moron decided the big tins of coffee would work good stored in the diesel room bilge.

Entire run, the fumes off your cuppa would about make you fall over. Almost quit coffee over that.

And some guys...cigarettes in hand, sometimes same hand as the cuppa.....surprised we didn't have a fireball.

Bluish film on top of the cuppa....oh, lordy...those were the days.

So glad that in all my time in the Navy, 18 plus years and counting, I can still count time spent on ships in weeks, not months and years like a lot of other people.