noBS

Escape Tank Training Episode, Pearl Harbor 1967 - recollection of Bob Phelps

We were on our way to westpac from San Diego in ’67. When we stopped in Pearl most of the crew had to re-qualify in the tank. The first bad decision was to wait until the day before we left to send us over there. We were back in Pearl. Time to party.

When they took us to the top of the tank to explain everything, everybody was so hung over, the ride up in the elevator almost killed us.

They explained how everything worked. They told us that, while in the pressure chamber, if the pressure got too much on our ears, hold up our hand and they would slow it down. This gave a couple of guys the bright idea to hold up their hands and yell “MY EARS! MY EARS!” while going back down in the elevator to the pressure chamber. Those guys that run the tank have zero sense of humor.

You would think that it couldn’t get worse. While in the pressure chamber, getting ready to go up, in water up to our necks, somebody decided it was okay to puke. To top it off, a couple of guys were so wasted, that they had to be flown back to Pearl to go through again. I’m sure they were not pleased in the forward battery.

One day while shopping with my wife in 1987 I noticed the latest thing in jeans which looked just like our acid dipped dungarees looked in 1937. We were fifty years ahead of the fad, except that ours were free instead of $100.

In ‘37 I was on the USS S-1 in Pearl Harbor, which was at that time the Territory of Hawaii, and we had a ‘soft patch drill‘. We pulled cells from the forward battery and removed them from the boat. As you stepped through the water tight door going forward from the control room, and once just inside the forward battery, if you looked up you could see the outline of the soft patch. “S” class boats were riveted together, not welded. However, the soft patch was not riveted. It was bolted to the pressure hull with one inch bolts and nuts. When removed, it left a 30 x 30 inch hole to allow removal of a battery cell from the boat.

The nuts were inboard. There was a washer under the bolt head, and a washer under the nut. The washers compressed red lead dipped lamp wicking when the nuts were home. A one inch open end wrench fit these pre-Hoover nuts. Pre-Hoover nuts were one and seven eights across the flats. Even though the wrench had a 1 7/8 opening it was labeled with a ‘1’ because it fit one inch bolts. Confusing?

The detail to remove the soft patch consisted of: Harold Hess (later a LT.); Lloyd Russell (later a LT. On Balao); Robert Small (later C MoMM on Grayling) and myself. We were all Fireman at the time. We laid on our backs on a platform rigged up with the help of our COB, Charlie Muir, TMC. It was about a foot below the overhead. Box wrenches and sockets were unheard of on the “One Boat”. The only ratchet wrenches we had aboard were a part of the jacking gear. The old open ends slipped. Some of the nuts had been so tight for so long that they had a permanent set. On these we had to use a chisel bar and a twelve pound hammer. Hammers were manned by petty officer MM’s. Chisel bars were guided by firemen. Rank had it’s privileges.

With the patch removed we then had a battery hoist exercise. The electricians and fireman did this. The teak walking deck on the superstructure had to be removed above the forward battery compartment. With block and tackle we removed the cells and took them to the base battery shop where we pulled the plates. Acid flew! B.R. Jones EM3/c was there, along with other electricians. (Years later during the Korean War about 1952, I was Chief Engineer of the USS Whipstock. Jones was then on shore duty in the same battery shop. I needed a battery case to acid dip some coolers. Jones made all the arrangements and had a case sent to me all the way in Yokosuka, Japan. Talk about an old shipmate doing a big favor!)

Well with all the acid flying around it ate through our dungarees, and where it was only a small splash it bleached them. So we went to the base “lucky bag“, and got some “D.C.’d” wool blues* which resisted the acid somewhat. We also dunked these and our dungarees in a baking soda solution before starting work in an attempt to neutralize any splashes. This protected for the most part and curbed the appetite of the acid.

Buckling up the soft patch after overhauling and replacing the cells again fell to us four FN’s. The chief made us wear new dungarees while putting the soft patch back. CMM Glenn filled out a requisition for new dungarees, and gave it to Ltjg Victor McWray our Engineer to sign. One of the stewards, Abalon, told the chief to put some socks on the requisition for the LT. Abalon said that Mr. McWray must be taking a correspondence course in ‘Thrift’ because he would not buy any new socks. (His were full of holes, or he didn’t wear any.)

With the patch back in place we learned it was much better to pull an open ended wrench than to push it to tighten. But even though we pulled those old wrenches would slip, and we opened our red lead stained knuckles as we took the nuts home. The red lead would squeeze out of the lamp wicking as we tightened, and it got all over our hands. It is a wonder we all didn’t get lead poisoning.

Another gang of men was assigned by COB Charlie Muir (later on the Amberjack) to help clean up the mess. We got the rest of the day off. “Sugar One” was now safe enough to return to Philly and her decommissioning. And we got all of the red lead out of our new dungarees.

Charley Odom qualified on the S-1 in 1935. During WWII he made a number of war patrols on the Billfish SS-286. Later he was assigned to the Sabalo SS-302 as chief in charge of the engine rooms, and is an original plank owner. He was on Sabalo during her entire first commissioned period. He retired as C MoMM, Chief Petty Officer, Motor Mechanic, in 1956. He has reached the wise age of 90, and now (2003) resides in Knoxville, TN.

In his piece about the Korean Patrol, Bob Bell relates he felt snorkeling was near impossible in rough seas. However, during the two cruises I made we did enough of it, and I don't know if the system was any different during the 60's. We once had orders to transit "undetected" from Pearl to Yokosuka. It was at least ten days straight of snorkeling - weather be damned. My ear drums felt like wax paper after four days and 'crinkled' with each open and shut cycle.

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below from: http://guppysubmarinetribute.homestead.com/History.html

"Control during snorkeling was difficult at best and sometimes impossible. The snorkel induction, topped by the head valve, had to be kept out of the water. If it ducked to the surface or below, or a wave hit it, it would automatically slam shut. The diesel engines would keep running for a short time removing some sixteen thousand cubic feet of air from the boat's internal atmosphere per minute per engine. It would take from ten to thirty seconds for the engines to draw enough vacuum in the boat to shut down automatically after the snorkel induction head valve shut depending on whether the boat was running on one or two engines. This occurred at a vacuum of six inches of mercury below atmosphere. This equivalent to a 6000-foot altitude. Sometimes the head valve would shut for five or six seconds then reopen as the snorkel induction again cleared the surface. The atmospheric pressure would return to normal in the next few seconds, then the head valve would shut as another wave passed. This cycle would occur over and over for days and days."

Personal Recollections of Michael "Elsie" Elzinga, on board Sep 58 - Jul 61

[Update recd 22 Feb 2004]

Larry Douglas' story ["Ah Memories"] about the near miss of the stray, live torpedo shot at the cliffs on Kahoolawe was one of the famous stories still being talked about on the Sabalo when I was aboard (Jan 1959 to July 1961). The other, of course, was the Stickleback incident. There were still some guys on the boat at that time who had been serving at the time of that torpedo incident.

There were a couple of other incidents involving PDC's (practice depth charges). I seem to recall that we had some minor damage to the after battery hatch due to a PDC. We had the doubler hatch in place, so we were OK. On our WesPac cruise of 1960 we had been doing some ASW exercises and had the ground plane of our IFF antenna blown off by a PDC. I can remember squatting on top of the sail with some Japanese engineering yard birds in Yokosuka discussing a temporary replacement. This was essentially a flat annular ring surrounding the dome of the antenna. The trick was to get the dimensions of the ground plane correct so that the antenna lobe pattern would not be screwed up. We got one turned out of aluminum in a few hours from them, and it was held in place with four big allen-head set screws. It lasted throughout the rest of our WesPac deployment and we got a new one made of brass when we got back to Pearl.

Larry's mention of the sonar also brings back memories of the humpback whales and porpoises around Hawaii. We enjoyed listening to them, and on one occasion I had my hearing temporarily impaired when a porpoise let out a piercing whistle right into the hydrophone I was listening to. On another occasion we had a humpback bump up against us and slide along the hull for some distance. Probably thought we were some big virile male. ;-)

I don't remember whether it was during some ASW exercises or during our "Northern Run", but we were held below until we had to break out the CO2 absorbing canisters and spread CO2 absorbing material on sheets in various places throughout the boat. Our batteries were low and we were rigged for silent running for two or three days. Many submariners will remember that kind of experience when the CO2 build-up begins to make your heart pound harder as it tries to get more oxygen circulating around. In fact, it isn't the lack of oxygen that is the most dangerous, but the build-up of CO2 that can be the most deadly because it catches people unaware. Of course, the smoking lamp was out for quite a while before that, and those guys who depended on that cigarette were starting to get pretty edgy. A match or a lighter wouldn't stay lit anyway.

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[Recd Aug '03] My nickname was "Elsie". The CO was Artie Burki, the XO was Herb Robisch. Other officer names I remember were Masek, Kelso, and Collier. I remember names like "Scotty", Shelby, "Mau Mau", "Millie" Miller, "Andy" Anderson, "Woody" Woodhead, Stan Hinrichsen, "Red" Pagett, "Dusty" Duster, Jim Braun, Les Baxter, Dave "Dutch" Riley, "Minnie" Mintzer (he liked to fiddle with the radar antenna servo switch under the chart table in the conning tower), Les Joslin, Mario Reyes, Chief ET Kirk, Ron Shea, Earl Meggison, Walter Mahn (interesting guy; rode a unicycle and always carried a ditty bag full of odds and ends). I think Fedon (Ferdon?) was COB. I seem to remember a sonarman named Roy. Dergen liked to learn everything.

I came aboard when the Sabalo was in dry dock in Pearl Harbor (being outfitted with new batteries and some other upgrades as I recall) in late 1958 or early 1959. The crew was living on a barge at the time. She had just come in from operations in which the Stickleback was sunk after surfacing in front of a destroyer. I think the crew of the Sabalo was on hand to try to get additional air over to the Stickleback but were thwarted by rough seas. However, all hands on the Stickleback were saved, and an attempt was made to bring her into port by tying her off to the bow of the destroyer. However she filled up with water and had to be cut loose.

I remember, during my first month living on the barge, Dergan lying on the roof playing a saxophone in the evening and then falling asleep in a top rack learning Japanese from tapes being played through headphones. I heard that he apparently got good enough at Japanese to get a transfer to Japan. I started out in mess duty for the first couple of weeks with Ron (Cookie) the cook, then soon moved into the ET gang with Baxter and Kirk. I think Dutch Riley came on a week or two later.

I can't remember the name of the young LTJG who rammed the Sabalo into the dock at Pearl and put us back in drydock. All I can remember about that incident were the collision alarms going off on the boats already tied up, the agonizing CRUNCH, and the nickname "Crunch" given to the LTJG after that.

Another incident took place when we were just headed out on a WESTPAC cruise. I was off watch in the forward torpedo room watching a movie when we dove. A valve stuck on the negative tank and we took a very steep down angle before we recovered. I had new electronic supplies stacked all over the sonar room, still in the process of being sorted and stowed in bins. I was more worried about the mess that the down angle caused than I was about my life.

I qualified sometime after the shakedown cruise after the Sabalo came out of dry dock, and did a WESTPAC cruise and a "Northern Run" . We got to Subic Bay, Manila, Satahip (in Thailand), Bangkok, Hong Kong, a quick stop in Formosa, then on to Yokosuka, Muroran, and Hakodati in Japan. I still have a little wooden bear given to me by the mayor of Hakodati. All crew members got one. We were on what was termed by the Eisenhower Administration as a "People-to-People" cruise in which we allowed locals to tour the boat. I have a lot of slides of that tour.

I started looking around on the web after I visited the Cobia (SS245) which is now a national monument at the Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I was totally blown away by your Sabalo website. It brought back a flood of memories, and I hauled out some of my pictures from that time. Thanks for the web site and the memories. Keep me on your list. Maybe next year we can get to a reunion.

At Pearl in 1952 when we went to the Navy yard for the big snorkel conversion, the chief of the boat asked me,
"Hey Rice, do you know how to electric plate?" I said, "No, but I can read why?" Well the COB said, 'we have been allotted only $4000 for electroplating during the overhaul, and it will be used up by chrome plating the toilet bowels in the head and plating the deck plates in the two engine rooms We will have to figure out what to do because it will be hell to pay when we get out of the yard and have to compete with the other subs that have had many overhauls and have a lot of electroplating done to enable them to pass an inspection. The crew on here will be hard pressed to keep things shinning, and we have a lot of steel fitting, valves etc. to keep up. We've got to do something.'

Well I went down town to the University of Hawaii Library looked over a bunch of books on electroplating, and found one that described "cold electroplating" that I figured we could do.

The COB and I went to the yard electroplating shop to ask and see what could be done. The supervisor said 'you sailors can't do that, you're nuts.' It wasn't long talking with him that we knew he didn't really know how to electroplate. He was just a production man doing a job. I also talked with the engineer at planning in the yard, and he said that it was too complicated a job for plain sailors to do. This got the COB mad and we figured we had a challenge.

Well I studied the book on electroplating and figured how we could do it. The COB called the crew together on the barge that we were living on which was tied alongside the ship, and told them what we planned to do. We would need their cooperation because we would be taking over the shower room. It was made of good CRS steel, easy to keep clean, but I also saw it as a safe place to handle the chemicals and equipment need to do the job. We used the shower stalls for electroplating, and left one for showers if someone needed it. Most of the crew were living ashore and did not need the shower area on the barge anyway. With the crew's approval, the COB and I went to see CO Savadkin and XO Harris-Warren with our plan. They gave a go ahead.

I scrounged a motor-generator that could provide the necessary D.C. voltage needed. We found old submarine battery cases that we could use. I got everything together in the shower room, told the CO that we needed a GSK [supply chit] to draw out the chemicals, and the cost would be $117.00. He said OK and signed the GSK. I was able to borrow from the sub base plating shop the nickel anode necessary for the final plating procedure.

The procedure started by smoothing up the wheel, handle, or part that need plating. Then cleaning it by dipping it into muriatic acid; then electro cleaning it to get all the crud off of it. Then to copper flash if for a few minutes to get a coat of copper on it; then clean it again by dipping it into a trisodium cleaner, and finally placing it into the copper plating tank.

After this the copper had to be polished by a buffer until bright. When ready, it then was placed in the nickel plating tank for several hours to build up a nickel plate. What you ultimately see is the shined copper with the nickel plating over it.

I went through the procedure and got it to work okay. When I showed the COB what I had done, he said come with me. We went to the navy yard shop and went to the supervisor. The COB held the piece up in front of him and said, "We did this electroplating on the barge. See, See! Submarine Sailors can do anything, okay."

Well I had a plating class for the crew, showing them the procedure. They would take a valve or wheel that needing plating from the sub and go through the plating and polishing procedure, and then replace it on the sub.

When the conversion was over the next boat taking over the barge knew what we were doing, and wanted us to leave the setup in the shower area. Savadkin said okay but have their skipper make out a GSK to us for $117.00. So all it cost us was the hard work that the crew did. We figured we did about $10,000 of electroplating during the overhaul.

One weekend when I was duty chief, I took off the valve covers on my car and electroplated them. Later in the Philippines, I turned my car in to the Dodge dealer to clean it up, put a washover paint job on it, and sell it for me. He said he had it in the show room and a man came in to look at it, and when he popped the hood, and saw the shining valve covers, he thought he was getting a super engine.

"Kentucky Candy" - Ted Storie
We left Pearl during, I believe, March of 63 for a west coast cruise, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Port Angeles, & Vancouver. On the way over some of us lookouts were chewing Red Man Tobacco, or as we called it "Kentucky Candy". We were really enjoying the beautiful weather, sunshine, and spitting over the side. It couldn't get any better than this. This went on for 7 days and nights.

On the last hour before mooring, all the tobacco chewers were called topside and told to bring safety belts, buckets of hot soapy water and brushes. The "302" [number on the side of the sail] was now BROWN. We had a very hard time getting the stains off, and then when we docked we had to repaint the numbers. I don't recall the names of the other lookouts, but if they read this, I'm sure they will remember it. At least I have never forgotten. From that day on we carried buckets topside with us to spit in. And, no, they didn't stop us from chewing.

The dates mentioned in the official history for this particular WESPAC cruise are correct. We did a "northern run" on the way over. That is, we went up to the Bering Strait, almost to the Arctic Circle St. Lawrence Island, Little and Big Diomede Islands, passed through the Aleutian chain on the way up and then came down along the Kamchatka Peninsula (Petropavlosk) and on to Japan (Yokosuka). We conducted ops with JDF and American fleet units and then headed to Hong Kong. We were supposed to go on to Singapore, but were sent on a month long simulated war patrol to the Tonkin Gulf. Mission was to track USSR shipping to N Vietnam and to plot radar sites along the coast as I recall. We did two circuits of the gulf, mostly using snorkel. Most vivid memories - all of the d@*%- sampans/fishing boats. On the high speed run across the mouth of the Gulf to begin the second circuit, the ETs drew straws to see who would go up to the top of the sail to clean the radar and periscope windows = I "won". Before going up, the CO told me, "You know, if we have to dive we can't wait for you" or words to that effect. Gulp! I went up and cleaned the windows as we hustled across the Gulf dodging fleets of fishing boats as we went. Exciting to say the least.

My research interest has been subops during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, esp diesel boats. I have used Freedom Of Information Act, and my navy contacts, but have never been able to obtain the reports for any of the simulated war patrols SABALO or any other sub conducted.
Larry
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[Larry has a PhD in History. Because he had mentioned trying submarine research in the past I asked for any advice he might have. Larry's last statement relates to a question I asked regarding the availability of submarine records from either the Navy or the National Archives. - Jeff Owens]

In late 1953, upon my return to Pearl from Torpedo School I was TAD to Sabalo because my assigned boat, Pickerel, had left for West Pac a month before. Didn' t take the COB long to assign me to mess duty, because I was still SN. It was usual underway procedure to get permission to go top side via the after battery hatch to dump the garbage. Once after a day time meal, I was waiting at the crew's mess ladder with this very large vat of slop to go up, and the diving alarm sounded . As the boat started down it did not stop its down angle, and I was soon lying on the deck, tilting this very large vat of slop at an angle to keep it from spilling over. As I started to slide toward the control room I lost the upright angle on the vat, and it started to spill over and run down my arms, then my shirt, and down the front of my pants. After we regained control of the dive and resurfaced, and everyone regained their composure, they got a good laugh when they saw me.. I was a site to behold, and everybody thought it was quite funny except me.

One day the cook sent me down into the lower storeroom to get whatever. While down there I found several cans with no labels on them that looked like oversized tunafish cans, so I laid claim to them and stowed them away. I thought to myself that they must have been there for a very long time...
First night we were tied up and ready for a movie I opened one of the cans, and to my wondrous eyes appeared crabmeat.. WELL! - me and my friends dined on crabmeat salad sandwiches while everyone else had hoss++++ (baloney) and appeared to be quite envious. ....My turn to laugh.
AH MEMORIES !

CO Jess Cariker submits a photo of Sabalo in a broached mode while working with the Marines in rubber boats taken during exercises off Camp Pendleton during April 1963.

Sabalo on scene of famous Pickerel (SS524) emergency surface demonstration in 1952
An exchange between Bob Bartsch and Jeff Owens [anyone else have any input on this?]
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001

Bob Bartsch: Many people have seen that picture of a submarine coming out of the water at about a 45 degree angle [actually 48 according to the record], but I had a great seat. The picture is the Pickerel (SS524) and was taken off point X-Ray just outside Pearl Harbor. The Sabalo had all the photographers and Gold Braid aboard, and as I recall only one photographer got a good shot. I believe he was from Life Magazine, but could be wrong on that. I had just reported aboard after coming out of sub school, and had the job of being the port side lookout, so I had a ringside seat. Later I was rehashing the story with others, and made the comment that I wish I had been aboard the Pickerel. A Chief quickly responded that he was happy to be on the boat taking the pictures as it sure was a lot safer.

Jeff Owens: Thanks for the story. I seem to remember one of the old timers talking about that picture and the problem that Pickerel had. It supposedly didn't just pop up and lay on the surface, but according to the story slid back down with quite an up angle to a depth of about 400 feet before regaining control, trim and attitude. Can your recollections confirm or debunk that tale??

Bob: According to what we heard, the Pickerel did slip back to about 400 feet before she got back on trim. When she came out of the water at that angle of about 45 degrees, she came out far enough that you could see about half of the sail. Later at the Dolphin Club on Beretania Street in Honolulu, several of us off the Sabalo met with a crew member off the Pickerel and the following is his side of the story as best I can recall many years later and remember we were at the Dolphin Club and had been partaking of the spirits at the time, so I will not swear to it's entire truth.

When the Pickerel was getting ready to record the biggest up-angle surface in submarine history,all loose gear was tied down or stowed away. Only those who had to be at their duty stations were up, all the rest of the crew were in their bunks. The Captain, Diving Officer, Chief of the Watch, Planesmen, and the Helmsman were tied to a part of the boat that would keep them from falling.

The Pickerel was trimmed heavy aft, had the main ballast tanks blown dry, had full dive on both the bow & stern planes, and was making flank speed.

When the order to surface was given, bow buoyancy was blown and the planes were put on full rise. When she came out of the water it truly was a sight to behold and it all happened so fast that some people didn't see it.

Jeff: Well that explains why the wise chief made his comment about it being safer just being a spectator.

One more thing I remember about this. There was a TV show in the 50's called "Silent Service". At the beginning of the show of each episode there was short sequence (movie film) of the surfacing exactly as we are discussing. I believe I was told this was the Pickerel. I wonder what ever happened to those shows. Maybe they are available on video tape from one of the specialty video distributors. I think I'll do some net searching and check a few catalogs I have on military videos.
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Two slightly different photos of the Pickerel surfacing can be found at:.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/ss524.htm
[Jim Palmer has sent a photocopy of the same picture which also appeared in "Life Magazine", 7Apr1952, p. 51. (Marilyn Monroe was on the cover.)

Okinawa: The way I remember it. - Don Nelson
Subject:        Wild Claims/sea story #1 of thousands
   Date:        Thu, 25 Jan 2001
From:        Don Nelson

Dec 1968. Moored out in Buckner Bay. Liberty boats made scheduled runs to pick up the "liberty hounds" and drop off the drunks. One night on the beach will stand out in my mind forever. ET1(SS) Holcomb and STS2(SS) Nelson both had duty and both wanted very badly to mingle with the natives in town. Village #1, 2, and 3 were favorite hangouts. In fact the only hang outs in Buckner Bay, Okinawa during the late 60's. Fred came up with the idea that the officers needed a driver; claimed he knew the roads like he knew the bayous in Mississippi, and offered his services. Of course he would be dressed to the nines in Shore Patrol gear. Fred managed to persuade me to volunteer for Shore Patrol and naturally having eaten at some of the finest village diners along the roads, I figured a night on the beach was better than a night aboard of cold midrats and oily coffee. About sundown or thereabouts Fred and I headed out to protect and serve the Navy's finest. It wasn't long until the officers were plumb tuckered out and had to go back to the boat. This officially ended our ride and we were left on foot with a mission now of trying to keep the peace and protect the guys who put a lot of party energy into a short amount of time. Along about 0200 hours, most of the guys broke, hungry, or drunk had either gone back on the last liberty launch or shacked up in one of the finest village hotels.

Oh yeah did I mention that Fred and I kinda sorta partied too? Being Shore Patrol most of the mama sans will wine and dine you (mostly wine) if you can manage to keep the troops from tearing their bar apart. Well it was just this virtue that Fred and I seemed to possess that night. Only trouble was we were the only poor saps left on the streets with no place to go and no way to get there. We started out walking what seemed a thousand miles meandering from one side of the road to the other discussing what excuses we would offer for getting back late and a little drunk. About the time we reached the Coast Guard station where the liberty boat was supposed to be waiting to take us back to the boat we discovered TM3(SS) Holley laying near the boat shed doing his darndest to sleep. He must have been really tired because its danged hard to sleep on wet sand and gravel. Anyway there we were. A little drunk and a lot tired. We started to look around banged on a few doors at the Coast Guard Station and generally yelled to see if anyone was home and if there was a bunk or two available. Fred got the attention of a PO3 and tried to get him to ferry us back to the boat. No such luck! In fact the Coastie was a bit rude and obnoxious and didn't seem to appreciate being roused out of bed by a bunch (3) of diesel boat sailors in search of a free ride. It was about this time that TM3 Holley had a brilliant idea. He was a qualified coxwain before he became a bubble head and proudly proclaimed that he could pilot the liberty launch all by himself if he had someone to throw off the lines as he backed out of the slip. Of course Fred and I could do that! After all we had years of experience casting off lines backing out of the slip headed to Tonkin Gulf and other places of interest. TM3 Holley got the launch cranked up, Fred and I cast off the lines
and viola! we were on our way home! Or so we thought. Somehow the Coastie sprang to full alert in just a flash and apparently he wanted a ride too. We didn't see it that way. He was dang rude to us so we threw his butt over the side. It wasn't long before we had attracted quite a crowd. Mostly Coasties and mostly mad. They swarmed the launch, got control, and moored it back along side the pier. Unbeknownst to us, the fun was just starting. They took our side arms and placed us inside a quonset hut type building. Awhile later the took us back to the boat where we were met excitedly by the OOD and the Duty Chief. I figured I'd never see PO1. I considered going to church and made all kinds of promises to my maker if only I didn't get court marshalled. We were scheduled to transit Taiwan in about three days but I never thought either myself or Fred would be on board. For the first time in my entire life I was scared spitless.

Somehow the "Old Man" saved our bacon. It cost the boat a heck of a lot of steaks and a beer ball game for the Coasties. Our "Old Man" knew the power of a few cases of prime steak and cold beer. Of course Fred, myself, and PO3 Holley busied ourselves aboard ship as not to be seen in the cheering section at the game. Actually we were restricted to the ship. Dozens of butt chewings later, a lot of groveling, and a warning if I made one little bit of trouble again I would never again see the light of day, I was left to ponder a lot of things about the decisions I made on the beach that night. It was the longest four or five days of my life waiting and thinking about how to hit the beach in Kaoshung to test what I learned in Okinawa. By the grace of Almighty God and the support of the best damn submarine crew in the world, I got my gold chevrons in twelve, right on time.

Donald R. Nelson, STSC(SS) Ret.
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Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001
From: Fred Holley [Fred died of cancer 18 Sep 2001]

Finally, after all of these years, I have discovered two of my co-conspirators in what has become "The Buckner Bay " saga!!! I honestly can't remember who else was involved in the episode.........I DO remember a whole bottle of Johnny Walker Red accompanied us as we cast off and sailed into what I remember as pitch black darkness!!! That was New Years eve, 1969, as I recall. Seems we got into a wee bit of trouble for that adventure! Fortunately for me, and I suspect you two as well, I was awakened that early a.m. by the duty officer informing me that my mother was seriously ill, and the Red Cross had arranged my way home. I was on a C141 winging my way to Anchorage (my second New Years eve) by the time you guys woke up and realized you were in big trouble!

If the truth be known, our guys probably thought the whole thing was pretty damn funny. So, I missed the rest of that cruise. (Probably would have been restricted anyway! ) And to think that wasn't even close to some of the stuff I pulled and got away
with!! Anyway, I have the feeling that without one of the main culprits, they really had no choice but to let you off easily.

Thanks to Jeff, I have rediscovered some of the past that escaped me for years. In fact, I was so busy chasing life that I never gave much thought to it all. This must be another manifestation of aging........Since December, I have been in touch with Alan Volbrecht, John LeConte, John Wetzler, and Doc Davis. Sure wish more of the guys would learn of Jeffs' site and add thier input. Names I had not thought of ( and many forgotten ) for years were welcome, indeed! It sounds like most of us turned out pretty good in spite of all the diesel fumes we inhaled. (Among other stuff!!!!!!!!!!!) :-)

I wound up driving airplanes for a living. Not too surprisingly, there were several of us who got the flying bug. It must be the mentality of sub sailors to pursue the unusual.........I'm sure Dr. Nelson must have given that some thought!! Who would have ever guessed Don becoming a Dr.??????? Fred, I'm not sure what you did after the navy.......maybe you can enlighten me.
<snip>
Best regards, Fred Holley

-------
   Date:        Mon, 26 Feb 2001
From:        Fred Holcomb
    To:        Fred Holley
Fred,
Great to hear from you!    Believe it or not, not a word was said to any of us after the Buckner Bay incident. When you left on emergency leave, it put the whole thing to bed it seems.    LTjg Brian Baumbruk (Beautiful Brian) took the base commander out for dinner. After steak, drinks, and many trinkets from the boat (lighters, patches, plaques, etc), the base commander dropped charges and commented, "Sailors will be sailors!" I didn't find this out until just before I got out. The event took place, as you remember, New Years Eve 1969, Don and I were shore patrol that night assigned to the EM club. Being the duty section leader, it was my privilege to assign shore patrol. Chief Losby won a gallon of Early Times at the door and they were giving away green beer. We had an all girls Japanese band and their husbands/boyfriends were the only ones dancing, and they were dancing with each other.   Everyone else said their defense was, "I was drunk!" All Don and I said was, "We were Shore Patrol, we plead mercy." Most of the 1st Class on board were on that boat. That was another reason to hush, hush it. They couldn't bust all their leading petty officers. Besides, that was a small incident compared to other things that went on that WestPac.

YoYo Strings and Poker Decks
Subject:           Re: Sabalo 59 Change of Command - Photo
     Date:           Thu, 11 Jan 2001
     From:           Jeffrey Owens
       To:           Jim Gellett
> Jim Gellett wrote:
>
>     THAT PICTURE SURE BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES, I WAS ON THE SABALO FOR A
> VERY SHORT TIME WAITING FOR A MISSLE BOAT AND A RIDE NORTH, IN THAT
> PICTURE I WAS HIDING BEHIND THE FOURTH PALM TREE FROM THE LEFT, I HAD
> POLISHED MY SHOES AND LEFT THEM IN THE RADIO SHACK, GONE ON THE BEACH,
> AND DRANK TOO MANY PEPSI'S. I SLEPT UP AT THE SUB BARRICKS AND WHEN I
> WOKE UP IT WAS TOO LATE TO MAKE THE INSP. I HAD SOME NICE CLEAN WHITES
> AND BOONDOCKERS AND DIDN'T THINK THE OLD MAN WOULD LOOK TOO KINDLY ON
> MY DRESS.
>      I DON'T KNOW IF YOU HAVE HEARD THE STORY OF THE SABALO'S YO-YO
> TEAM OR NOT, BUT THE TWO RM'S ABOARD WHEN I GOT THERE WHERE NAMED MAC
> AND MORRIS. THEY WROTE THE DUNCAN YO-YO COMPANY AND TOLD THEM THAT NO
> YO-YO STRINGS WHERE AVAILABLE IN THE ENTIRE PACIFIC, AND THAT THE
> PACIFIC FLEET YO-YO CHAMPIONSHIPS WERE COMING UP AND WE WERE DISPERATE
> FOR YO-YO STRINGS. THE DUNCAN YO-YO COMPANY SENT A WHOLE CASE OF
> STRING TO THE BOAT. WELL SEE YA J.A.GELLETT
<snip>
****
We had a similar experience to the yo-yo thing. Somebody wrote to one of the casinos in Las Vegas telling them how we were dutiful sailors on station in the Tonkin Gulf and our playing cards were worn out. Very soon thereafter we received maybe a dozen cases of them, maybe 12 decks per case in their individual boxes. The decks had holes drilled through them. We thought it was special at the time, but later we found out that casinos regularly give out their used decks in this manner. They only use the cards for a few hours at most and then dispose of them. Anyway, we never played with a dog-eared deck after that.

THE SS-2 RADAR - Jeff Owens
Obsolete radars became my specialty on the Sabalo. I always thought it was the original radar from WWII as installed [However, from various recent reports, it is unclear whether there was an earlier radar installed by Cramp originally and then updated shortly thereafter by Electric Boat, or if the SS-2 was maybe installed during a later yard period in Pearl Harbor. Most comparsions with other boats of that time seem to indicate an earlier equipment.] It had very few field bulletins, actually a great design by Westinghouse.

The SS-2 main antenna, used for surface search, had a small parabolic antenna, solid aluminum, about 3 feet across. The antena was mounted on a retractable mast which was operated from a hydraulic control in the radio room. It operated "perfectly" during our first Viet Nam deployment.

We only had a problem during our second deployment, which was created by a shipyard in Taiwan when the internal wave guide in the retractable mast was bent by an inadvertent mast lowering while the waveguide was not secured. ...No new wave guide to be had - supposedly coming from Pearl; must have ended up in a warehouse in Nam someplace - we never did get it. The Taiwanese yard people were apologetic, and said they'd find a place to "fix" it. It was returned in very quick time and looked great. They had 'straightened' it, filled the exterior dents with gobs of brass brazing, and buffed it to look like a bar rail, BUT inside you could barely see light from one end to the other. Astonishingly, it worked just fine and actually seemed to increase 'ring time'(if you remember that spec). We didn't get a new piece until returning to Pearl some months later.

Don't be mislead by the description 'working perfectly' about the SS-2. What's meant is, that while working, it operated pretty well for the purpose intended. I was radar operator for maneuvering watch and special ops. We went into many a port through the fog with just radar shots, and the quartermasters recording and plotting bearings and distance to maintain our track.

It did have plenty of breakdowns. It was all tubes, no transistors or solid states devices. The lead ET, Fred Holcomb, ET1, my boss, fished a rectangular tomato basket with a handle out of the trash one day. We used to keep a complete set of tubes (pre drawn from supply) in that basket which was kept in a small locker in the control room with other "off the books" spares. When we would go to work on the newly reported 'down' radar the guys would razz us with, "here comes the fag ET's with their Easter basket".

I reported aboard the Sabalo at the shipyards in San Francisco on 15 Mar 1967. She was just finishing an extensive overhaul. It was the night before our first sea trial when I came onboard. All hands were busy most of the night reloading the ship. Cooks with food; storekeepers with spares, electronics gangs with all kinds of stuff from the barge where everything was stored. After trials we returned to the new home port of San Diego. (The home port just shortly before the yard period was Pearl Harbor.) I remember the trip down the coast. The sonar room was piled high with boxes, portable test equipment, and 'stuff' - what a mess!... It took a few days after arrival to find a 'pooka' for everything. Additionally, because of late installation of certain gear, the sonar room never got painted. So that was one of the immediate duties also.

Following the initial settling in, the boat was assigned to many exercises off San Diego for mostly anti-submarine warfare practice with various surface craft, mostly destroyer types. Many of these operations included dummy torpedo firing exercises. From my viewpoint, most of these seemed to go well, and along with the general evolutions of ship operation that go into these maneuvers the crew was becoming pretty efficient. I remember that the dummy torpedoes could be erratic. Either the pingers wouldn't work, or the blow of the torpedo nose didn't, and they sank. On quite a number of occasions we spent a number of hours chasing around with the retriever boats looking for them.

I am not sure of the full nature of what was accomplished during the overhaul completed in March '67, but remember that the hull was opened and all four engines were completely removed and rebuilt. They operated near perfectly during the succeeding months including the first WesPac/VietNam deployment. In fact, there seemed to be very little operating difficulty of any kind during the same time frame. During the WesPac of 68-69, we did experience some engine failures, but none of these affected our operating status. The enginemen did a good job of repairs and rebuilding, and other than losing the service of an engine for a time, no other difficulties are remembered.

As an ET, I did notice one flaw which was never corrected. The Loran receiver, which was originally designed for Loran A type signals, had a modification which was designed to allow reception of Loran C, a different signal entirely.[This conversion was to make the AN/URN-12 into AN/URN15C.] Even though we went through the mod documentation with a fine tooth comb, and many tech reps came to try, it never did work. It was never really a detriment because we had a really fine QMC in Ron Gorence, a man who could see over the horizon, and through fog just by looking into #1 scope.

Between the deployments of 67-68 and 68-69 Sabalo had a scheduled dry dock period in San Diego. This was supposed to be for hull sand blasting and repainting. However, most of the paint which was applied at Hunter's Point was in such good condition that engineers and inspectors were called in when the sand blasting to bare metal proved extremely difficult. Subsequently, most of the hull was only cleaned, and then a new coat of paint applied.

During my time on board there were two other occassions to be put in dry dock. While cruising near Japan we developed a vibration in one of the prop struts. We spent about ten days in Yokosuka having repairs accomplished. And I was recently reminded that we also were in for repairs in Subic Bay drydock. [This could have been during the period in early Nov 1967 when we are recorded as having been in port for 8 days there. Anyone have more details??]

UPDATE 24 Feb 2004 - I never went to sub school. After following my younger brother into the Navy I had been trying to get brother duty since enlistment . After a number of tries at various junctures through the standard transfer request procedure it finally happened by a few "pulled strings". My brother got me aboard by making a deal with the XO, Wells to have me come straight from completing 'A' school to the boat. Roy, USNR, was due to finish his 2 yr active, and XO knew that a Wespac was coming, and Roy would have been xfrd off because he only had 2 mos. left. So he had Roy sign an extension until after the Wespac of 67-68 and got me straight out by going to BUPERS and having my orders changed. I hadn't a clue about how boats worked. I had a wild notion of submerging and experiencing all kinds of sensations. It was somewhat of a let down as I stood in control as an observer during my first dive which was the shakedown after the yard period in S.F. I though, is that all there is? Of course, later I had to get qualified without any background to go on.

Great Sub Stories
I know that the links page says this site will concentrate on Sabalo related material, but Ron Gorence, QMC has put me onto this site with the recommendation -
"Open it with a beer, and I promise you a tear and a smile. Some real great writing."
If this site doesn't remind you of boat life, and Sabalo characters, nothing will.
"The After Battery" http://www.olgoat.com/substuff/abr.htm
There is a collection of more than 50 stories on this site written by Bob 'Dex' Armstrong which truly capture the life and personalities of the 'smoke boats'.

This web page authored by Jeff Owens using Netscape Composer and MS Front Page Express.
Please report any errors, comments or suggestions to him. owensj At Sign