US Navy Navigation Equipment

[knife7knut]

The Squids are so clever. The Marine Corps would have a Private standing out there squeegeeing it off. He gets washed away. No problem. Just get another Private. We got plenty of them.

As a,"squid" who was stationed with many Marines I was always amazed with the rivalry between the two branches.About half of the pilots in our outfit were Marines with a couple Army and Air Force to round out the All Services Evaluation Group.I don't know who was the crazier of the two:the Marine pilot who was convinced he could barrel roll a CH-53 helicopter that we were doing BIS trials on or the Navy pilot;a lieutenant commander who looked and behaved like a preacher(no smoking,drinking or swearing)who during a spin recovery test on an F-4 and had been ordered to punch out if he couldn't pull it out of the spin by 10,000 ft. finally managed to get it out at about 3,000. As he said afterward,"I had one hand on the stick and the other on the curtain!" They were going to ground him for 60 days for disobeying an order but the CO intervened because the project was so essential. He sadly was killed AFTER he left the service testing an aircraft for General Dynamics.

[jerryd6818]

Nothin' but a bunch of crazy kids Ray. I went through Construction Electrician School with the Seabees at Port Hueneme and CW Radar School with the Army at Fort Bliss Texas. We poked at each other constantly but boy did we have fun.

[knife7knut]

Nothin' but a bunch of crazy kids Ray. I went through Construction Electrician School with the Seabees at Port Hueneme and CW Radar School with the Army at Fort Bliss Texas. We poked at each other constantly but boy did we have fun.

That we are(were)amigo! My AO school class in Jax was 50% Marine.We had several in the outfit in Pax River and some of the best fun was our monthly division parties.Plenty of beer and the softball games were,"full contact". Officers against enlisted and whatever happened at the parties stayed there.I remember getting roaring drunk with our XO (a full commander)and pouring beer all over his shoes and both of us laughing like hell about it. Another thing about there was if you were enlisted and you did the pressure chamber check and rode the seat you could get a ride in the back of an F-4. One of our guys was going out for his first and we told the pilot who asked for an unrestricted takeoff on the 13,000 ft runway. Got it rolling and airborne in about 3,000 and at the end of the runway that went out into Chesapeake Bay went to max afterburner and stood it on it's tail pulling about 5G's.Rode it to about 65,000 and both engines flamed out.Took about 15,000 ft to re-light them.They were out about 15 minutes and had a complete pneumatic system failure(both PC-1 & PC-2)and had to bail out.They were in the bay about 45 minutes before we pulled them out.They were both laughing about the experience on the way back to the base. I got checked out and was supposed to go TAD to Hanscom Field in Bedford Mass(about 14 miles from home)for 6 weeks on a Sparrow missile project with Raytheon but my leading chief nixed it because he knew it was near my home and I was getting out soon and we weren't exactly bosom buddies.So I never got my ride in an F-4.

[jerryd6818]

Nothin' but a bunch of crazy kids Ray. I went through Construction Electrician School with the Seabees at Port Hueneme and CW Radar School with the Army at Fort Bliss Texas. We poked at each other constantly but boy did we have fun.

That we are(were)amigo! My AO school class in Jax was 50% Marine.We had several in the outfit in Pax River and some of the best fun was our monthly division parties.Plenty of beer and the softball games were,"full contact". Officers against enlisted and whatever happened at the parties stayed there.I remember getting roaring drunk with our XO (a full commander)and pouring beer all over his shoes and both of us laughing like hell about it. Another thing about there was if you were enlisted and you did the pressure chamber check and rode the seat you could get a ride in the back of an F-4. One of our guys was going out for his first and we told the pilot who asked for an unrestricted takeoff on the 13,000 ft runway. Got it rolling and airborne in about 3,000 and at the end of the runway that went out into Chesapeake Bay went to max afterburner and stood it on it's tail pulling about 5G's.Rode it to about 65,000 and both engines flamed out.Took about 15,000 ft to re-light them.They were out about 15 minutes and had a complete pneumatic system failure(both PC-1 & PC-2)and had to bail out.They were in the bay about 45 minutes before we pulled them out.They were both laughing about the experience on the way back to the base. I got checked out and was supposed to go TAD to Hanscom Field in Bedford Mass(about 14 miles from home)for 6 weeks on a Sparrow missile project with Raytheon but my leading chief nixed it because he knew it was near my home and I was getting out soon and we weren't exactly bosom buddies.So I never got my ride in an F-4.

Dang!! That was an expensive joy ride. (assuming the F-4 was not salvageable or even if it was)
The F-4 Phantom and the C-130 were the only two planes I could recognize. The C-130 has a pretty unique profile so it was easy to pick out of a crowd. As for the F-4, our HAWK Missile Battery at MCAS Cherry Point was set up on the apron of the strip where the F-4's did their "touch & go" practice. That's part of the reason I developed hearing issues. The raw power of those studs of the airways is just awesome. I am Phantom, hear me roar!

[knife7knut]

[/quote]
Dang!! That was an expensive joy ride. (assuming the F-4 was not salvageable or even if it was)
The F-4 Phantom and the C-130 were the only two planes I could recognize. The C-130 has a pretty unique profile so it was easy to pick out of a crowd. As for the F-4, our HAWK Missile Battery at MCAS Cherry Point was set up on the apron of the strip where the F-4's did their "touch & go" practice. That's part of the reason I developed hearing issues. The raw power of those studs of the airways is just awesome. I am Phantom, hear me roar!
[/quote]

My first duty station after boot camp was NAS Boca Chica(Key West)where I worked the transit line.We would get a lot of Marine(and other)aircraft that were coming in from Gitmo or Rosey Roads PR and had to go through customs before they could deplane.Ir was amazing the number of places you could store hooch on an F-8 Crusader! In the wheelhouse inside the downlock bag(they put them in the cockpit)or inside the IFR probe door.Very imaginative!
Speaking of touch and go's I was driving the Follow Me truck one night to lead an aircraft in because we only had one runway open and there was a lot of construction going on.The aircraft was an Air Force T-33 with a code 5(major general)aboard.My buddy Neil was in the tower that night.In order to get to the transit line I had to pick the plane up at the end of the runway,lead him half way up the taxiway and then on to the runway to the line.As I'm starting out Neil calls and says there is an F-4 that was doing touch and go's and he will be making a low level pass over us. As I'm going up the runway I see the F-4's lights dropping lower & lower and then the pilot of the T-33 starts flashing his lights on and off frantically thinking the approaching plane doesn't see us!(Neil never bothered to notify the T-33 pilot of the flyby)
That F-4 lit the burner just before he reached us and I could count rivets on the bottom of it he was so low! Got to the line and the canopy on the T-33 was up and the general scrambling out of the rear seat with steam coming out of his ears! The OOD was out to meet him and he stormed past him and up the stairs of the tower and chewed Neil's ass out for about a half hour! Some great memories!

[jerryd6818]

Love it.

[zzyzzogeton]

Finally scored a trim clinometer. This one is from the 1980s, not from WW2, but they haven't changed since then.



These are mounted along the centerline up on the bridge.

In port, it is used to determine how out of trim a ship is (how many degrees out of level), fore and aft wise.

Underway, it shows how much pitching (bow moving up and down) the ship is doing.

[treefarmer]

Jerry, you need to quit releasing such top secret info!
Treefarmer

[zzyzzogeton]

This is a Hamilton 4992B 22 Jewel Bureau of Ships US Navy Comparing Watch. The engraving on the back is dated 1943. The serial number inside breaks down to having been made in 1941. That is most likely because Hamilton made a ton of them in 1941 and this one sat arround in storage until it was engraved and issued.

A Comparing Watch was issued with each Chronometer issued to a ship, and a ship is usually issued 3 chronometers.
Comparing watches were used for a variety of tasks.

One of them was for one of the Ship's Quartermasters (which have absolutely NOTHING to do with supplies) to go around the ship and wind and reset all the mechanical clocks on the ship.

Another use was during celestial navigation sitings. The Navigator and Chief Quartermaster would take multiple sitings on several of the 54 "navigation stars" at dawn and dusk, and to take sun sitings during the day. One of the junior quartermasters would write down the time when the Navigator or Chief Quartermaster said "Mark" indicating he had taken a siting on the star being "shot". The recording Quartermaster would write down the time to the nearest second so that the ship's position fix is as accurate as possible.

Face


Engraving on back


The guts

[jerryd6818]

That right there is quite a time piece Wayne.