Subject: SMML VOL 1521 Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2002 10:48:51 +1100 SMML is proudly sponsored by SANDLE http://sandlehobbies.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS INDEX 1: AO-64 last one errata 2: Unrep and the Coast Guard 3: More UNREP Sea Stories 4: Sea Stories Continued 5: book review 6: Re: Once upon a time... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Infomation 1: Re: MiniCon - Spring has Sprung 2: North-Wet Mini-Con -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD INDEX 1: FLEET AIR ARM MODEL SHOW THIS WEEKEND and REVELL S-BOATS/HELLER kits 2: NEW: MAJOR UPDATE OF THE FRIEDRICHFILES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MODELLERS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: JAVASEA75@aol.com Subject: AO-64 last one errata Just a short note to identify AF-59 as the USS Vega,I remember the name Pictor but not the correct number. I have an old aerial photo of the Vega -AF-59 performing an UNREP in the Tonkin Gulf between the America CVA-66 and the Epperson DD-719. Also have a substantial history of the Vega if anyone is interested. Served as a Shipfitter during 1968-1970 in West-Pac Serv-Ron 7. Jean -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: "Melea/Mike Maynard" Subject: Unrep and the Coast Guard Hello all stations I've read the unrep stories with great interest, US Coast Guard cutters were not immune to the "UNREP EVOLUTION". On my first cutter, training at GITMO in 1970 we did a "High Line" with a Navy AO the USS MILWAUKEE. In 1970 the Milwaukee was brand new and my cutter, the DUANE, was the oldest ship training at GITMO. Prior to the approach the Chief Bo'sun walked the deck, checking gear and checking each man involved in the unrep. I was the "paddleman"(visual signal) up forward on the refueling station and my friend was on the sound powered phones. Now the Chief boats was basically retired on active duty, he spent his entire tour on the ship making knot boards(to sell to boot seaman to send home to mother) in the CPO mess and passing all the work off to the BM1. Well on that unrep day he noticed that my shipmate on the phones had the phone wire passed up INSIDE his life jacket and the mouthpiece STRAPPED around his neck, all in violation of every safety precaution. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!!???" screamed the BMC at the phone talker. After he "squared away" my friend we proceeded to make our approach on the AO. Since they were the sending unit, their gunnersmate was to fire the shot line to us. The whistle blew and we all took cover on the opposite side of the ship. Except the BMC who ducked behind the gunwhale. Well the Navy GM fired his line throwing gun and the shot hit the BMC in his butt, the projectile made a one in a million shot passing through a chock and grazing the bosun. Fortunately the projectile shot was a rubber soft tip, not a solid type. I don't think that shot could have been duplicated even if the gunners mate was paid good money. Anyway the lines were passed, fuel was being pumped and all was well until three blasts from our ship's horn were sounded. We had lost all steering! Things began to unravel very quickly, lines parted, hoses and fittings ripped apart. We veared off away from the oiler and had it not been for our Chief bosun giving an ass chewing to my friend, he would have been pulled over the side and drowned. Life is funny, me and my phone talker friend would serve together again in 1989 on another cutter and guess who we unrepped with-the MILWAUKEE!! Semper Paratus Mike Maynard USCG (ret) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) From: "Jim Johnson" Subject: More UNREP Sea Stories Years and years ago, I worked in a shipyard as a welder. I was not in collage at the time and was waiting for the "Greetings from your friends and neighbors" letter form the draft board. (I got it 3 days after I joined the Navy). The shipyard was the American Shipbuilding Co. - Toledo Yard. They had a contract to upgrade 3 Navy oilers. Two were done in the Lorain Ohio yard and one in Toledo. We did the USS Misspillion AO-105. The ship came in and was put in the dry-dock. The bow was cut off and secured. The rest of the ship was refloated and turned around. The ship was backed in the dry-dock and the stern was cut off. The midsection was floated out and tied up. Before the ship had arrived, the yard had built a new midsection with more capacity and faster pumping rates. This was backed into the dry-dock and welded on to the old stern section. It was then floated, turned and matched up to the old bow. This was then welded on to the new midsection. When that was done, the old midsection was tied up next to the new one and rails were built to slide the fore house from the old to the new. There were of course many other things that were done to upgrade the ship, but that was the major portion. The old midsection was the property of the shipyard to do with as they chose. They contracted with a company (it was either Hudson Waterways or Manhattan Waterways) to do the same thing with it. The Esso Allentown was brought in from mothballs and the bow and stern were added onto the old navy midsecton. There were two problems, the hulls did not match up so transition sections had to be built. They were around 20 feet long. No attempt was made to make the transition smooth. The ship was very ungainly, the midsection had maybe 10 or 15 feet more beam than the bow and stern. The other problem was that the Esso Allentown was in terrible shape. There were huge holes rusted through bulkheads and decks. We lap patched the holes as best we could and sent her on her way. Two years later, I was in the Navy on a carrier in the South China Sea. We were going to UNREP and I wandered up on deck from my hole. (I was a snipe). Lo and behold, what were we approaching but the AO-105 USS Misspillion. I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of slides of it. My dad worked at the shipyard, so I sent him the slides and he showed them to the big wigs. One item of interest, they had a huge (15' Dia) orange Union 76 ball on the aft house up by the stack. It was no doubt a sign from a gas station, but it defiantly was not government issue. One other story that comes to mind. When were were in refresher training at Gitmo, I was in a repair party. The head of the party was the ship's bosin, a 20+ year warrant officer. When we weren't fighting fake fires and damage, he used to keep us occupied with sea stories. He was once on the Saratoga CVA-60. They were UNREPing one day and one of the hose handlers was knocked overboard. He had a life jacket on and was picked up by the ship's helicopter. He wasn't seriously hurt, but he was taken to Sick Bay to be tended to and checked out. In the process he was given a shot of whiskey. Accounting to the Bosin, the nest time they had an UNREP, three people fell overboard. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) From: "Katz, Gene S" Subject: Sea Stories Continued >>" I was duty watch and Duty Stoker PO. I was sent for by the Master At Arms. "Were doing a search of the Stokers mess, we want you down there while we search lockers". Each man had to stand by his locker, each about 3' x 3' x 3' deep. On the request everyone was told to open their locker for a search. One of my stokers opened his locker, it was full of cans of beer. Not one item of kit. He said "I think I'm in the S..t PO". "<< To add another sea story to the above, I was a Merchant Marine Cadet aboard Training Ship Empire State IV (the former 1944 troop transport AP Henry Gibbons). We lived in a close cabin (6 cadets) that underwent Captain's/XO inspection every Saturday morning, and by the First Class Cadets whenever they damn well felt like it. Difference being that their inspection was for smuggled food or beer. If any was found in your locker, rack, etc., you went on report, they confiscated your food/beer, and then they proceeded to consume and dispose of the evidence. One time we hid a jar or two of peanut butter, crackers, jelly in the overhead ventilation duct, accessed thru a screwed-in grill which hid the contraband. At an unscheduled inspection by upper classmen, and after searching our lockers and racks for goodies and finding them bare, one of them went straight to and unscrewed the overhead grill. Guess what they found behind the bend in the duct? DUH! After the upperclassmen yelled, screamed, and braced us up, one of us asked "OK, how did you know we stashed it there"? "Easy", the finder answered, "this used to be my cabin"! Same game, different players. But if the owner confessed to "his crime" he wouldn't put the whole cabin on report. The owner came forward and admitted his foul deed. He was put on report. For some reason,the upperclassman asked him what he would do if he ran into him onshore somewhere. The owner answered,"Sir, Mr. Lipari, Sir, I'd probably buy you a beer and then beat the crap out of you, Sir"!! Everyone froze, Lipari turned ashen, upperclassmen left quietly, tails tucked in nicely. The owner was a rather large farm boy, imposing presence, and Mr. Lipari was built along the lines of an emaciated weasel. Oh, Mr. Lipari did not put the cadet on report!!! Nothing more was heard, but they didn't return our contraband either. Gene Katz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) From: "Andrew Jones" Subject: book review Someone the other day was asking about german surface raiders & i replied about an osprey book i saw at the local hobby shop, well i bought it ,thought i'd do a book review for ya all (no im not from the deep south!) Osprey warrior German seaman 1939 - 45 I thought this would be another re-issue of their books, but alas i was mistaken. Seems this is a new release & is a wonderful story about the general life of the german sailors from the post WW1 thru to the end of WW2. Chapters covered: Recruitment (wonderful they eve got a navy when you read what you have to do to apply! if they did that now, no one would have a navy or only enough to crew a rubber duckie); Training ; Apperance (describes the uniforms); conditions (Pay, rations & discipline); Combat operations (not a lot of description about the combat but there is enough out there on german combat ships & their battles already, this just gives a short description & also a real little bit on land based infantry units -i was hoping on the ST Naz' raid seeing that there were or was 1/35 navy figures done as at the time of the raid ) belief & Belonging (mainly about the names & the role in regards to the Nazi party); Collecting (the traps around for the novice or professional collector); Museums & Archives (teels what museums have sub equipment or doctuments) & the colour plates ( new recruits uniform(s) life jackets etc,land training -bayonet & firing, maintenance -shows sailors doing the odd jobs, Naval flak guns -the heavy guns mounted on the warship & gun ready lockers & the control housing position, An s-boat in action being atatcked by a Beaufighter while launching torpedoes & the S boat badge, an auxillary cruiser Schiff 16, Atlantis, as the japanese Kasil Maru & how to desguise its main gun, the badge & also how to look like a russian sailr (turn your hat inside out & the cryllic script backwards would resemble russian text & place a red star on your hat), next is the minature submarine crew -Marder/Neger & teh final colour plate shows the end of the war for 2 sailors surrendering their arms to a british Red cap. The photos during the book cover a wide variety of life thru the german navy, from photos of recruits @ school thru graduation & there are some fine shots of the ships themselves, even a photo of a crem man working on probbaly the first ever model of the Tirpitz, compare this to your large scale @ home, see how good this one looks! For the German navy fan this is one for the collection, I guess it should be available at the normal locations, i got mine from Hobbyco in Sydney for $28.60 Andrew Sydney Oz (having another bad month building models) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) From: Dizzydismal@cs.com Subject: Re: Once upon a time... Really good to hear these stories. Had 4 years in the Navy, but never saw a ship. My sea duty was a year walking the heaving decks of RVN with the 5th Marines. Saw plenty of choppers,though. Dennis Disbrow, ex HM3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model club & SMMLcon Infomation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "R N Pearson" Subject: Re: MiniCon - Spring has Sprung >> So then, does anyone want to do the Norwesters MiniCon again? Any suggestions ??? One of the suggestions last time was to have it over on the island maybe.....hmmm.... anyone have any connections for us over at Esquimalt? Or maybe some can arrange something in Bellingham or Everett? What will it take to get Loren to row the two miles over to Victoria? Or Victor to hand deliver his spring MSJ issue? ;-) << Well, I was planning on coming down about this time next month to go to some model show in Seattle . . and also because Internet Modeler is sponsoring an award for (I believe) 'best green model'. .. this would be the first time I would actually meet both of my partners (we have only been working together for 4 1/2 years!!!!) .. however the death of my mother this week may have thrown that for a loop. But if there is a way, I *WILL* be down there. . so howzabout the following Saturday (after the IPMS Show) .. the 16th of March? Regards, Bob Pearson Flower Class corvettes http://www.totallyconfused.org/flower Managing Editor / Internet Modeler http://www.internetmodeler.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Keith Butterley Subject: North-Wet Mini-Con Hi Malcolm, Count me in! If we don't go off-shore, how about the Vancouver Maritime Museum? I know I could get John Mckay (AOTS Agassiz, amongst others) to give us a little speech or something. Happy modeling. Keith Butterley warshipbooks.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADERS, ANNOUNCEMENTS & NOTICEBOARD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) From: "WEM" Subject: FLEET AIR ARM MODEL SHOW THIS WEEKEND and REVELL S-BOATS/HELLER kits Hi Guys, The Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, is hosting its 5th model show this weekend, Saturday 9th February, starting at 10am. This is the largest one-day model show in the U.K. and is sponsored by WEM, Airfix and Toyway. WEM will, once again, be supplying the "Grey Funnel" Trophy for the best warship model. Make it a day at one of Europe's finest museums. Note that we will be inside the museum this year, in the "Leander Gallery" upstairs, rather than in the Swordfish Centre as in previous years. We advise pre-booking of tickets via the FAA Museum to save a long queue. We look forward to seeing you there. Just had a restock on the HELLER 1/40 PRINZ EUGEN at 18.68 Pounds ($26.72) plus shipping at cost. Also REVELL 1/72 S-BOOT. This kit is priced at 11.91 Pounds ($17.00) plus overseas shipping, airmail, of 5.00 Pounds ($7.15) giving a total cost of $24.15 (U.S.). Just arrived: PE 632 1/600 HMS ARK ROYAL (WW2) etched brass set for the Airfix kit 16.13 ($23.00) Post Free http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/white.ensign.models/wembrass/wempe632.jpg PE 743 1/720 HMS ARK ROYAL (WW2) for Revell kit 16.13 ($23.00) Post Free http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/white.ensign.models/wembrass/wempe743.jpg Cheers, Caroline Snyder Business Manager White Ensign Models LATEST WEM NEWS AT: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/white.ensign.models/news.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) From: Friedrich Kappes Subject: NEW: MAJOR UPDATE OF THE FRIEDRICHFILES http://picpage7.tripod.com/united-nations.html Come and see.... or right from the start: http://www.geocities.com/friedkappes/flagship.html Friedrich The FriedrichFiles http://www.geocities.com/friedkappes/flagship.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the SMML site for the List Rules, Backissues, Member's models & reference pictures at: http://smmlonline.com Check out the APMA site for an index of ship articles in the Reference section at: http://apma.org.au/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Volume