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.

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!

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...

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.

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.

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

Some of the best years of my career where spent on the Hess. I'd welcome hearing from former shipmates.