NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2013 Apr 9, 14:29 -0400
Chief
How many years did you spend with the Navy?
Brad
Byron: My background. The anniversary 50TH. Of the submarine Thresher ,sinking At that time 50 year ago
I was a Chief Quartermaster and had just finished basic Submarine school when the Thresher sunk.(Sub duty is a volunteed service, and some sailors devolunteered because of the Thresher.)
I was assigned to go to Sins school in VA. Normally the sub fleet did not allow
Chiefs to transfer to the subs, but due to the new Polaris Sub program they
wanted to have all the experience sailor they could get for the new type Subs.
The first sub that I was assigned to already had 4 QM Chiefs aboard, they reassigned (It was unuseable for most ships to have even one on board.)
me to the Abraham Lincoln SSBN602 It already had one QM chief aboard, The QMC made one patrol, before I reported aboard and he had problems with his men and decided not to stay in subs and was transferred back to the surface fleet. I was in an unusable passion, to be the senior in Navigation and not to be qualified to wear dolphins as did all the rest of my men under me. That pull pressure on me to qualify for the Dolphins in one patrol, I did. I stayed on the Lincoln from 63 to 65 than, she went to the yards and 602 was transferred to HI.
I was over my rotation to shore duty and was transferred to Officers Candidate School Newport RI. I taught OCS 65 to 69. I first taught all forms of Navigation Piloting and celestial,than I was sent to teach Tactics and Maneuvering board, than I was selected to teach the new personnel “how to teach” I was kept at OCS over my scheduled transfer date because of replacement problems. I developed the Franklin Piloting technique about 1956 on an old Liberty Hull the USS Outpost with a bad old gyro. She was a radar Pickett ship. The technique Technique was sent to Mr. Brown at HO, Navigation Science Branch and was placed in Bowditch about 1969.
The USS Intrepid CVS11 was transferred to a home port in Rhode Island, on the trip to her new pier, she was coming in with a heavy fog. Her crew could not navigate becase of heavy fog, but because of publicity and waiting Governor the pilot navigated her on to the rocks. She was stuck for many hours and tugs and other craft got her off and worked her way to her pier. I was transferred to the Intrepid as her senior QM, Master Chief Quartermaster. Mr. Brown of the HO asks me what I could have done if I were on the Intrepid at her time for navigation need. Within a year I sent him the answer, techniques both now in HO1310 ,still even today, The Franklin Continuous Radar and the Special Radar plot. After me on board the CVS 11, 69 to 74. I was sent back to the Submarines, but, in Squadrons 10 than 11 at New London CT.The main job was to inspect and train.----------------------------------------------------------------
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