Say, for all you current and prior service members, I'm kind of curious as to where all of you have or are currently stationed. I served on both the USS Moinester FF-1097 and USS Carl Vinson CVN-70 between 1980 and 1984 in Norfolk VA, as an operation specialist. If any of you are or have been in the Norfolk, VA Beach area since then, I'm wondering what it's like now. I remember that the enlisted mans club at the little creek amphib base was the most popular back then for all the local base areas. Live bands every weekend, dancing, the works. I'd heard that the zeros even tried to sneek in there on occasion.

USAF- fireman retrained to paralegal
Been to

Charleston, SC 1997-2003
Misawa, Japan 2003-2006
Montogmery, AL 2006- present

USAF- c-130 driver

Maxwell AFB, July 04-Aug 04
Laughlin AFB, Sept 04-May 05
NAS Corpus Christi, Jun 05-Mar 06
Little Rock AFB, Mar 06-Present
Pope AFB, Sept 06-????

For all those who served past and present, thanks

US Navy 88-93
Was a 6 year enlistment, but my last command was decom, so they gave me an early out rather than transfer me someplace else.

USS Francis Hammond FF-1067
USS Kirk FF-1087
Both stationed out of Long Beach, CA

Fire Controlman 2nd Class

Now let's compare ports... ;)

Vancouver
Portland
San Diego
San Francisco
Hawaii
Guatemala
Panama
Japan
S. Korea
Philippines
Bahrain
United Arab Emirates
Bangladesh
Oman
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Guam
Hong Kong
Thailand
Singapore
Curacao (Netherland Antilles)
Grand Cayman Island
Australia

I haven't served, but many of my family have. I know it is never said enough, but God Bless You All.

He who serves for his brother man is truly a noble soul.

USMC 91-93 2nd Marine Div- Force recon

Parris Island
Camp Geiger
Camp Leguine
Camp Pendleton

I signed up for the first gullf war, by the time I was out of bootcamp the war was over haha.

jdXterra, I see you're an ex-Knox class sailor. Man I hated those things, always rocking and rolling, I've never been so sea sick in my life. I was very happy to get on the Vinson. And you've been on two of them to boot, must have been love at first site. Stuffed your self into any mk 68's lately. You know, those things are all gone now, the Moinester is the Egyptian ship "Rashid" now. A bunch of others have been turned into reefs. And for unclehardrock, I remember my first flight in a c-130. You know it's going to be ruff when you have to climb up on the loading ramp, the load master hands you ear plugs, and you sit on web seats facing inwards towards several tons of engine pods, that hang over you head when the pilot banks the plane. The 130's out of the Twin Cities Guard unit practice their "follow the leader" bit over the south central lakes reagion of MN where I live.

matt sr-

yeah, i had the fortunate experience of riding in the back of the herc the other day....not quite as cosy as it is up in the pilot's seat on the flight deck...to make matters worse we had a brand new guy in the seat trying to learn how to land...i earned a whole new level of respect for anyone who ever has to ride as a pax in the back

jdXterra, I see you're an ex-Knox class sailor. Man I hated those things, always rocking and rolling, I've never been so sea sick in my life. I was very happy to get on the Vinson. And you've been on two of them to boot, must have been love at first site. Stuffed your self into any mk 68's lately. You know, those things are all gone now, the Moinester is the Egyptian ship "Rashid" now. A bunch of others have been turned into reefs. And for unclehardrock, I remember my first flight in a c-130. You know it's going to be ruff when you have to climb up on the loading ramp, the load master hands you ear plugs, and you sit on web seats facing inwards towards several tons of engine pods, that hang over you head when the pilot banks the plane. The 130's out of the Twin Cities Guard unit practice their "follow the leader" bit over the south central lakes reagion of MN where I live.

Actually, I loved the frigates. Only time the rocking and rolling was too much, was the typhoon we went directly through, when we left Singapore on our way to the Gulf (Desert Storm). 3 days straight, of 45 degree rolls. Oh... and the one and only time I got sea sick was when we went through the Panama Canal, over to the Caribbean... soon as we were clear of the canal, it was this monotonous, non-stop, back and forth. Luckily it didn't get to the projectile vomitting stage. :D

Other than that, you get used to the rocking and rolling. To this day... I still miss "Sonar Slams". For those that don't know what one is... there is a giant rubber (sonar) dome on the bow of the ship, below the waterline. If the seas are heavy enough and you're headed into the swells... the sonar dome comes out of the water... then slams back down. Its kind of like a roller coaster, with a bouncy bottom.

Hated standing watching in that director. Friggin' metal box, that fries on a hot day. Or if you were standing a night watch... not much room to stretch out and catch a wink or two. But... once I got work center sup... I didn't spend much time up there.

My last ship, the Kirk, was decom from U.S. service and leased to the Taiwan Navy with 2 other Knox class. I was supposed to get out, after the Kirk was decommisioned... but ended up getting extended and attached to the Fleet Introduction Team, tasked with training the Taiwan sailors for use of the MK 68 system (since I was one of the only system techs on the West Coast... grrrr!). Then spent the last 28 days of service sailing to Guam with them.

Ok, the first is a Mk68 (if I remember correctly), the next is a phalanx, or a 20mm cannon mini gun, and the last is me (on right) before I made petty officer. The guy smoking the cigarette is my roommate, I don't remember his name, but he was from Texas. As I understand, that's how they smoke them down there. Maybe supercharged can attest to this.

Yes, that is the MK68 director, with the AN-SPG53F radar on top... which feeds its data back to the radar console, that then feeds it to the MK47 Gunfire Control Computer... spits out a firing solution to the MK42 5" gun.

I'll see if I can dig up any of my old pics and scan them.

The MK15 Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapons System) is one badass gatling gun. If you look it up, most will say it shoots 3000-4500 rounds a minute. But, 5000 would be more accurate. That thing rips. Some of the still photography of it shooting, looks like a laser beam. It shoots a depleted uranium round, that literally melts its ways through metal and comes out as sharpnel on the other side... a wicked, wicked round.

Interesting thing about the CIWS, is that it can't/won't track slower moving targets. Its primary purpose is missile defense. However, helicopter pilots hate the thing. Their birds are too slow for it to pick up... but it WILL see their blades spinning. So when it locks onto them... its tracking those blades. It is SO accurate, that it can pick the blade off, during its rotation. Its not shooting through the rotation and the blades are just shredding themselves on it. Its actually hitting the blade at a certain moment in its rotation. That's wicked accurate.

I keep a big Gerber combat knife tie strapped to the drivers pillar grab handle. People ask me what it's for, and I tell them it's my CIWS, they ask what that means and I tell them "Close In Weapon System". That MK 68 is the one on the Moinester, the one you see in that picture had a death in it. One of the FT's accidently hung himself doing that thing with your neck while you masturbate. Couldn't wait for his wife. That R2D2 unit is the one on the aft end of the Vinson, our berthing area had a porch type thing just outside of one of the hatchways. I use to sit on it and watch the GMG's work on it and fire it sometimes. Hell of a thing to watch, the bursts look like a swarm of angry bees out-bound. As I was told, it fires so that the target hits the burst, and not the other way around. Sounds like a big chainsaw when it rips.
The GM1 on the 1097 was a big guy, well over 300 pounds, he'd shove himself up in the bubble and it was probobly all he could do to drive the thing. Did you train on the old BPBDMS system, and did you take any B school training at Dam Neck? I went to A shool there, and I remember the FT's had a school there. Yeah, if you have any cool shots, scan them, I'd like to see them. Did you mess crank by the way??

Air Force C-130 E/H Dedicated/Flying Crew Chief

Lackland AFB, TX JUL 92-AUG 92
Sheppard AFB, TX AUG 92-DEC 92
Pope AFB, NC DEC 92-SEP 94
Ramstein AB, Germany SEP 94-NOV 96
Dyess AFB, TX NOV 96-OCT 00
Fairchild AFB, WA OCT 00-DEC 00

Army OH-58 Kiowa Warrior Pilot

Fort Knox, KY SEP 04-OCT 04
Fort Rucker, AL NOV 04-JUN 04
Fort Drum, NY coming soon!

The GM1 on the 1097 was a big guy, well over 300 pounds, he'd shove himself up in the bubble and it was probobly all he could do to drive the thing. Did you train on the old BPBDMS system, and did you take any B school training at Dam Neck? I went to A shool there, and I remember the FT's had a school there. Yeah, if you have any cool shots, scan them, I'd like to see them. Did you mess crank by the way??

Nope... didn't train on the BPBDMS system. They had ripped it off and put the CIWS on the fantail before I ever got onboard.

We had 5" gun, ASROC/Harpoon launcher fore and CIWS aft. Plus torpedo tubes just forward of the helo hanger.

Oh yeah... and when we went to the Gulf for Desert Storm, they put a 25mm chaingun starboard side, aft.

By the way, for those wondering, CIWS is pronounced "see-wiz". You know, bL1x, my dad likes to tell a story about his having experienced engine failure, and having to put down on the Mendota Heights golf course. Two little old unfazed ladies asked if they could play through. I have yet to figure out if that's some old rotor head urban legend or not.

I had to land in some old farmer's field last summer because my AC belt locked up on my tail rotor drive shaft and started shaking all the controls. Scarry 45 seconds.