Naval Craft Sightings

[rgoff]

As I was making my 22 nm voyage from Dana Point, CA to Oceanside, CA yesterday I spotted 2 types of small Naval vessels up close.

The first is a very unusual one powered by 2 huge fans on the stern. I heard it when it was far away and kicking up spray (photo 1). The noise got much louder as it got closer. Loud, like a locomotive. Couldn't sneak up on the enemy with it, but you might scare the hell out of him.

The second is a "landing craft" type vessel that puts Marines ashore. Oceanside Harbor has the Camp Pendleton Marine Base next to it.

Naval exercises were going on in the vicinity, as there was quite a bit of radio traffic on Channel 16 using "Warship 1" type IDs.

 

[jkm]

Ralph

That fan job is what LACFD used to get the fire equipment over to Catalina during that last fire.

Down in Oceanside their always racing those boats around.

John

 

[rwthomas1]

That is an LCAC. Landing Craft Air Cushion. The most potent hovercraft ever made. I believe the motto is "No beach out of reach" That thing can carry an ungodly payload in from over the horizon at high speed and then simply drive up on land and dump its cargo. Very, Very cool. RT

 

[tenders]

The LCAC, prounounced "EL-cack," is an amazing piece of engineering, powered by gas turbines, amazingly fast over air and land, and able to float right over a surprising array of surf and beach obstacles. As far as cool Naval vessels go, and there are lots of them, LCACs are right up there with the hydrofoils.

I was stationed on the USS OGDEN (LPD-5) in the early '90s and deployed twice to the Persian Gulf with the Landing Craft Unit or LCU #1635 you photographed, as well as #1636, stored in the belly of the ship.

 

[rgoff]

Tenders: Small world in that you knew of that LCU number! Also, thanks for serving.

Here's a site with the specs on the LCAC. Some really good pictures at the bottom of its page.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lcac.htm

Saw several more on my (bumpy and uncomfortable) trip back to Dana Point today.

 

[tenders]

Well, shucks...you're welcome. It was fun, actually. Well, kind of. Hmmm, I guess there were some fun parts.

Oh, I guess I should mention: thank YOU for my Ericson 32. I paid for the boat with my Navy housing allowance!

 

[sleather]

Fun?

Tenders, You are a lucky guy!!! You're the first VET that I've heard of that had fun! GOOD for YOU!--Glad your Safe!--Usually HELPS to be on a BOAT!
Except for the "River Boats" in NAM!

I have a friend that served in NAM, office clerk(like Radar), in a "safe" place, He didn't mind it either! Many benifits! HOT Saigon nights!

Nothing like "coming home" to a FREE boat! Your Welcome!
Glad to see our "tax dollars" went to a "worthy" cause!

 

[tenders]

I said PARTS of it were fun. Being in the engine room of a steamship in the Persian Gulf in August was not one of those parts. Standing on the bridgewing in the middle of the Indian Ocean at two in the morning and reading a navigation book by the light from Venus was.

The Navy in the early 1990s was certainly not Vietnam. I would say most people in my ROTC class and aboard my ship thought it was a stupendous first job out of college, if not a career, and I'm still in touch with several of them. I liked it enough to recommend it to my brother; he followed a different path in naval systems design instead of as a line officer. But heck, if it hadn't been for the low pay, miserable family lifestyle, and lack of control over location and career trajectory, most of us would probably still be in.

(I will also be the first to admit that I am an extremely lucky guy.)

 

[rgoff]

I was a line officer in the mid 60s for 3 years of duty on 2 supply ships in the Pacific. Homeports of Alameda, CA and Pearl Harbor, HI. For a job right out of college you get waaaay more responsibility than in civilian life. I also enjoyed my 3 years. Got to see parts of the world I never would have otherwise and met some good people. Still stay touch on an irregular basis with some of them.

Got married while in the service and decided it wasn't good for family life, so I didn't make it a career. I did stay in the Reserves for 17 more years and now collect a pension about 1/3 of what one would for 20 years of active duty. Hey, it's more than beer money!

Don't think I'd want to be in the Reserves now. Guvmint has let the active forces go down so low in number that the Reserves get called up for almost anything!

Sail on,

 

[JohnK]

While my Ericson is my favorite boat...

It was not my first boat. The sleek black baby below was. I got to see a lot of the world too - from a periscope!

USS George Washington Carver SSBN-656G 1974-1982 Electronics Technician Second Class

 

[jkm]

I enlisted for three years in the CG

The "River Boats" were not very appealing and most of the ensigns were going to the Mekong, so I took the extra year in order to influence what I'd be doing.

Pulled lake duty up on Tahoe.

Somebody had to do it.

John

 

[Tom Plummer]

And this was my first boat USS John C. Calhoon SSBN 630 (Gold)

 

[JohnK]

And this was my first boat USS John C. Calhoon SSBN 630 (Gold)

Cool! Forty-One For Freedom!

 

[tenders]

Don't think I'd want to be in the Reserves now. Guvmint has let the active forces go down so low in number that the Reserves get called up for almost anything!

Yes, I think the Reserves have been a very, very bad deal lately. Family issues aside, the repeated disruptions to a civilian career that my peers have seen cannot possibly be worth the money.

 

[rbonilla]

" I paid for the boat with my Navy housing allowance! "

nice !!

 

[tenders]

" I paid for the boat with my Navy housing allowance! "

nice !!

I suspect Gareth may have had a similar deal going for a while.

I neglected to further thank the taxpaying members of the board for the fact that the Navy also paid to truck my E32 from San Diego to Pennsylvania when I went back home after my commitment expired, since it qualified as a "personal belonging."

 

[sleather]

I neglected to further thank the taxpaying members of the board for the fact that the Navy also paid to truck my E32 from San Diego to Pennsylvania when I went back home after my commitment expired, since it qualified as a "personal belonging."

Now you're testing "our" gratitude! LOL

 

[gareth harris]

I suspect Gareth may have had a similar deal going for a while.

I neglected to further thank the taxpaying members of the board for the fact that the Navy also paid to truck my E32 from San Diego to Pennsylvania when I went back home after my commitment expired, since it qualified as a "personal belonging."

BAH in San Diego, to cover a $140 pm slip rental? Oh yes, there was some change. And I paid off the boat while I was at sea.

There was also something unique about an afternoon sail past the piers of grey steel monoliths, as they hissed, smoked, and clanged, sending a presence of grim determined struggle; something about raising my beer as I felt the wind on my face and the freedom of my own boat on the sea.

The latest buzz as far as reserves go is ARI: 'Active Reserve Integration'. Basically, since reserve units have been used up for this conflict, they are farming out reservists to augment active units that are deployable. Anyone who has been in the navy can imagine how the active duty react to them. In another couple of decades it will probably have gone full circle, but for now the good deals have gone away.

I really should have sold Freyja before PCSing to Pensacola, but I just couldn't bear to part with her. The bean counters had clamped down, and it cost me big money despite being my home; only to get stuck in a redneck yard for a year and then wiped out by a hurricane after three days of sailing (they were very, very, good days mind). I hope the resurrection will start shortly.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[Bomr]

Army Officer

I am a former Army officer. I commanded an "A" team with 5th Special Forces Group and I never deployed on a boat (unless you count paddling a RIB through the jungle).
Since I live in Oceanside with all the Navy and Marine types, I figured I might as well learn something about boats. If I knew how fun sailing was, I might have joined the Navy (not really).

 

[gareth harris]

I commanded an "A" team with 5th Special Forces Group and I never deployed on a boat (unless you count paddling a RIB through the jungle).
.

I've worked with the unit, seemed like a good bunch, and certainly good at what they did; although when you mention jungle it sounds like it was well before my time.

The navy still gives all its officers training in sailing, one of the traditions that has been slowly fading for a century and a half but has not gone away. A couple of years ago a met a group of cadets who were getting paid to spend their summer holiday sailing sunfish in Florida. The theory is good, but the qualification these days does not add up to much: I once saw an officer qualified to drive a destroyer have an engine failure while entering the marina in his 36 footer, and jump overboard with a line to swim pulling the boat into the dock (he didn't get far before my friend went out to help with his dinghy).

One of the statistics that goes around is that the army has more boats than the navy and more aircraft than the air force.