AVAST, MATEY!

Nostalgia is a funny thing.  All the bad memories seem to recede, to be called up only with a conscious effort.  The good stuff comes flowing back, unbidden.  At least that’s the way it is with me and my time in the Navy (1967-1969).  So when my old fraternity brother, Dave, who had preceded me in signing up for OCS while we were seniors, called a week ago and asked if I wanted to go to a dinner/tour on a brand-new ship, well, no hesitation.  Heck, yes!  Some of the fleet is ported at San Pedro, and the port was hosting the annual “Navy Days” celebration with a variety of events.  One of those was a dinner (catered barbeque) on the USS Anchorage, which is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, the second of its kind, and only recently commissioned.  The Latin motto translates as “Nothing Left To Chance” (or “fate”, if you prefer). Naturally, I had to dig out my 46-year-old “Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club” cap, which is still a tight fit.  The dinner was held on the helo deck, which is all the way aft.

  As the one above, the first pic below is taken from the stern, looking forward.  The white-clad figure in the foreground is the captain, who came out to greet us.  Very distressing to realize he wasn’t even born when we were serving.  The steel band was enthusiastic, but not compelling.  Dave had lost his original ship’s cap, and that ship is in mothballs, but he managed to find a source online for a replacement.  He and Chris are sitting with Loni whilst the painfully young officers gab. 

There were a surprising number of women officers in the ship’s company, and the dinner was attended by two female captains (4-stripes) from the Coast Guard.  The CG gave a SAR (search-and-rescue) demonstration over the channel next to the ship.  That’s a huge container freighter docked on the other side.

One of the nifty sights was that of the

battleship,USS Iowa, which was tied up right behind the Anchorage.  The Iowa is now a permanent exhibit here, and has excellent tours of most of the ship.  Mighty impressive piece of hardware.  I took a tour when it hadn’t been open long, with the scooter club.  Some of the stuff you can see now wasn’t accessible then.

As for the Anchorage, she’s no Iowa but no slouch either.  Displaces 25,000 tons, 684 feet long, and 105 wide.  Top speed is 22 knots.  She carries 32 officers and 364 enlisted, but when acting as a troop carrier can embark up to 800.

As the cutaway

above shows, it can carry two big hovercraft, and three or four helos, as well as a host of Marine vehicles and gear.  The odd exterior shape of the ship is designed to reduce reflected radar.  The stern opens up and the aft well deck is flooded, permitting the watercraft to motor in.  Then, like canal locks, the rear is closed and the water pumped out.  Currently, this well deck is housing some space capsule display.

The San Antonio-class ships are the first in the Navy to be built with mixed-gender crews in mind, including the embarked Marine contingent, as we saw when our guide for the tour was the ship’s female medical officer, and part of the Marine display was explained by a woman in fatigues.  That’s one small nook of the crew’s mess at top left, and the officer’s mess at bottom left.  Both are served from the same galley.

Do YOU know how to make an IED (improvised explosive device)?  Thanks to this guy from the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Mobile Unit (aka, the Bomb Squad), we do.  Not at all sure that’s a good thing.  Rather scary to see how easy these things are to construct and operate.  Basically, a jerry-can full of fertilizer, a blasting cap, a battery,some wire, and a pressure-sensitive trigger (the block he’s holding).  We also learned that the fertilizer can isn’t particularly sensitive to being thrashed about – it needs the cap in order to be set off.  Interestingly, the same is true of C-4 plastic explosive.  You can throw it on the floor or whack it with a hammer and it won’t go off.  Don’t think I’ll try it any time soon.  And, don’t get any ideas, Loni.

 

It’s always fun to tour the berthing quarters to see how the sailors live.  Much better on this ship than on the older ones, but it’s still cramped quarters.  We got to tour the bridge, which was kept dark for night vision purposes.  Like the old salt I wasn’t, I sat in the Captain’s chair.  “Make it so, Mr. Sulu!”