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dennis cimino general instr
Bowditch 1987
Post # 113
06-15-2011 | 00:01

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. :(
ET 2 SS Bob Mock
Bowditch 1979-1980
Post # 112
05-29-2011 | 00:01

Had a great tour on the Ditch. Remember Rat Radio?
Steve Carlton BsE, ETN2
Bowditch 1972-1973 Michelson 1970-1972
Post # 111
05-21-2011 | 00:01

Ahoy! Anyone aboard? The LBJ's are running up and down the ladders and no one is logging them.
Michael S. Librizzi USN, GI
Bowditch 1984 Dutton 1981 - 1984 H. H. Hess 1984
Post # 110
05-18-2011 | 00:01

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
Eric Conklin ET3 SS USN
Bowditch 1983-1984
Post # 109
05-15-2011 | 00:01

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.
Robert Guttman MSC
Bowditch 1975-1976
Post # 108
05-09-2011 | 00:01

Third Mate on USNS Bowditch from 18 July 1975 until 22 November 1976. In charge of 8-12 Watch, and later 12-4 Watch, on the bridge at sea and on deck in port, as what the Navy would have called the "OOD", but which we called the "Mate-On-Watch". I was also in command of the one of the lifeboats, and in charge of maintaining the fire-fighting equipment.

In addition, upon reporting aboard I was told by th Chief Mate (Casimir Hess) that I was also to be the "Special Service Officer". Never having had anything to do with the Navy before, I had absolutely no idea what a "Special Service Officer" was, and thought I was going to have to become some sort of Commando. It turned out that it merely meant that I was to be in charge of the ship's movies, on reels of 16mm film, of which I was required to pick up and drop off no less than 30 at a time!
PH2 Chris Hum USNR
Michelson 70-71
Post # 107
04-26-2011 | 00:01

Mickey Muru - Best Duty Station during my 2 yrs of active duty (actually had 4 duty stns during the 2 yrs). Best Food, good steward service, shuffle board, 2 man state rooms. Best Basketball court to play in during heavy seas. Caviar and peanut butter...
Roger Pacific USN
Michelson 67 - 68
Post # 106
04-13-2011 | 00:01

I was a Sonar Tech First Class.did alot of photography, also magic, and was the church layleader on board. I will now put together some photographs for your photo albums.
Thanks for putting this site together. It made a lot flash backs.
Roy Waycaster USN
Dutton 1963 - 1965
Post # 105
04-10-2011 | 00:01

I have pictures taken from the Dutton including the Russian trawler international incident where they cut the magnetometer cables several times and harassed us while we were doing nanson bottle drops and core sampling. Also pictures of the British Liberator flying just over the masts of the trawler after the cable cutting.
John R. Randall- IC2 USN
Bowditch 1964-1965
Post # 104
02-22-2011 | 00:01

Nickname was Jack. Served on the Bowditch June 1964 to November 1965. I remember Merrill Pigpen Stone was one of my good buddies.
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