Best memories while in service. Had a great time.

Great tour as EMO with COs Vernon Van Brackle and HD Bulldog Sturr. Made great friend with Third Mate Jimmy Deegan. John Ostensen was Master during my tour. Most names escape me but I do remember some: ETC Mike Emily, HMC LaBonte, ETC Sam Bates, IC1 Tony Maria, RM1 Pennington, SK1 Fuselier, TechReps Barone, Daryl Hoblack, and Kevin Bowen. Sam Bates later served with me as an E8 aboard the Inchon and as an E9 at the ET School in Norfork. These were the best bunch of guys I ever had the pleasure of serving with-bar none.

Anybody know where I can get another patch ? I realize this is now older than dirt but if anyone has one or knows of one available, I would be in debt to you hack them.
Thanks. Radioman petty officer 3rd Class USN Oceanographic Unit One, USNS Bowditch, TAGS-21...

What a great site!

I am the grand-son of former Bowditch Master Allan F. Green who temporarily served on the Bowditch in 1976 while his "regular" ship U.S.N.S. Norwalk was being repaired.
I found this site while doing some historical research with my son, Allan F. Green IV. We were both very excited to find him on the roster and in the "Spittoon", especially since I did not know he served on the Bowditch. The only evidence I have was a telegraph sent by my grandfather on July 4th, 1976 for my sixth birthday, which is on July 7th.

As stated in the "Spittoon", he did transfer back to the Norwalk and then retired a few years later. I have proud to say I was with him on his final voyage between the Charleston Naval Shipyard and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. His "Military Sealift Command" paper-weight sits on my desk today...

Thanks again for the great site!

Allan F. Green III

was on board with Doc Gage, having relieved Rizzo in Las Palmas just before she was hurriedly refloated. Survivor of the Lavino Shipping Company massive goat roping expedition in the Atlantic, without propulsion. Helped get emergency diesel generator which was not cannibalized, operational with IC tech Overby? Worked with Vince Blunn, Scotty Peterson, and RM Mc Kinney, and Rob Muse. I do remember Patrice, Rob's girlfriend, and radioman April Ziems. Spent many long hours repairing fried UYK-20(V)'s on that thing, and working with Vince Blunn on the SINS. Repaired many blown sonar power amplifiers, and aligned many disc packs while there. Fixed Marisat and one of the '2' radars (Raytheon) that the ship had. Manually painting varnish on the homemade contactor solenoid for that diesel generator was fun, me on one side of the room spooling the dried wire onto the coil form, and Overby blopping on varnish onto the spooling off the main roll of wire end of it. The ensuing fires when the 120 vdc bus got energized, were particularly horrifying, as all we had was bucket brigade seawater to throw on the fires in the aft portion of the ship. Being adrift in the Atlantic, trying to keep a sense of humor, was a bit tough. Sure glad I brought my STS AV-7600 aircraft radio with, it turned out to be the ONLY operational radio on the vessel after the ship lost power. Sulfated batteries in the ship's main radio room meant we were screwed, blued and tatooed after the Lavino crew let the boiler feedwater drop below the safety level that day we lost the load. I'll never ever forgive Rizzo for not closing that junction box up the night I arrived in Las Palmas and found them flooding the drydock in a hurry to get us underway. Bad bad idea to assume the hull would not be breached, as it indeed was, taking the SASS down to beam intensities of 2's and 3's at best, due to those cables in the junction box being huge wicks of greasy oil from that void down there in the engineroom. Very bad deal Rizzo dealt us by not sealing that up before leaving. Oh well, he's been long dead, and I guess many of the others who were there now may also be.

Unfortunately for the U.S. Navy, this ship was in such terrible condition due to ungodly zimbabwe technology rigging, it was a miracle it didn't dissolve in the sea from total utter neglect under the M.S.C. crew who turned it over to Lavino.

Anyone find the two tennis balls in my stateroom after I departed? the attached note beneath those taped to the bulkhead balls was something like this;

'whomever takes my place here must have balls AT LEAST this size..or you just won't make it on this pile of ridden hard and put away wet steel.."

Doc Gage's soul no doubt still walks the decks of T-AGS-21, mumbling about that goddamned Cimino..

Last time I laid eyes on Bowditch, it was just before Christmas after we were towed into Rio harbor (before she was rammed by the Italian freighter and 'sunk' there). I remember April Z. was on the motor whaleboat or launch, going in.

There's nothing like having armed guards escorting the gang of us civilians who were leaving, to our departure flight to Miami on Pan Am. State Dept. had to pay Brazil about 8k bucks a piece for each of us so we could leave...I do remember that...as none of us had visa's to be there. Nor did we for the time we spent in Abidjan, Cote D' Ivoire, just before the ship went D.I.W. due to the Lavino crew incompetence. :(

Had a great tour on the Ditch. Remember Rat Radio?

Ahoy! Anyone aboard? The LBJ's are running up and down the ladders and no one is logging them.

Served aboard Dutton from 81 to 84 while in the USN. Spent about 3 months on Hess and left USN to join GI as a tech rep. Spent about 4 months on Bowditch working out of Dakar, Senegal and decided it was time to get back to school.

Finished a BSEE and MBA and live in San Diego, CA
I have lots of photos from those Dutton years on my Facebook page for anyone that served during that time. Email me and say hello.

Michael
mlibrizzi at gmail.com

My choice pick was the USNS Bowditch because of where I placed in rank out of Inertial Navigation Systems School in Virginia. I enjoyed my Cold War tour on the Bowditch and we mainly went into port in the Grand Canaria Islas during 1983 and 1984. We made our way back to states for refit during that time frame and I finally left in 1984 and received 60 days of leave for all of the arduous work. LOL.