Neptunus Lex

34 responses so far ↓

• 1 FbL // Jan 21, 2006 at 8:52 pm

  *sigh*

  I feel a bit sorry for me, too.

  Thanks for helping us catch a glimpse of what we’ve missed.

• 2 Curt // Jan 21, 2006 at 9:09 pm

  And have to sttod on the weatherdeck on a clear, moonless night, and gazed in awe at the multitude of stars that you have never seen from land, while the wind whips against your face, as it passes roughly around the form of the vessels that carries you to the next rendezvous.

  I miss that, but know I have seen it, so when the light pollution fills my regular view of my old navigational friend Orion and his close companions in the winter sky, I smile and let my memories fill in the picture, like an internal version of PhotoShop….

• 3 John // Jan 21, 2006 at 11:49 pm

  Thanks, Captain Lex, for refreshing some good memories.

  This former bubblehead and skimmer puke (Destroyers) has seen:

  1. The cobalt blue of the sea off Bermuda, during an unexpected swim call after a workup.

  2. Coming home from a long patrol, on the surface heading due west with the sun setting in front of us.

  3. The scary, very large, yet hauntingly beautiful waves of a storm-tossed North Sea.

  4. The sun, high in the sky, at midnight north of Alta, Norway.

  While there is something to be said for the civilian life, sometimes I do remember the service and miss my shipmates.

• 4 Mike Z // Jan 22, 2006 at 12:31 am

  Every now and then, especially when looking at photos of warships, I regret choosing Army green over Navy blue.

  I must never, ever visit any of the Iowas, or I might kill myself for the missed opportunity (I joined the Army reserve in ‘84).

• 5 Idaho Joe // Jan 22, 2006 at 1:36 am

  I’ll have to pass this post on to my daughter. She just talked to the Air Force Academy Liason last weekend and I think she might have been nudged that direction slightly. She’s still mostly working towards the Naval Academy though. Thanks for such great visualization.

• 6 Former Twidget // Jan 22, 2006 at 3:02 am

  Geez…I thought I was coming here to read harowing tails not made to miss my WESTPAC days. You forgot to mention the pristeen midnight sky that shows the Milkey Way like no where else on earth……

• 7 Jim Shawley // Jan 22, 2006 at 6:11 am

  …Or, during the midwatch, going out to the very pointy end and, looking down, watch the dolphins play in the bow wave, the luminescence glowing where they jump and splash, jump and splash, jump and splash…

• 8 Kevin // Jan 22, 2006 at 7:59 am

  And the green flash. I’ve been lucky enough to see it 2x.

  Or sailing through the Straits of Malacca - the maritime equivalent of the 15 at rush hour - where even a 600′ navy ship feels like a geo among the semis that are the giant tankers that pass through there. (even a carrier might feel inadequate when it notices the 100′ draft of a supertanker)

  Apparently you’ve never been on an amphib… the most frustrating night of westpac is after you drop the Marines at Pendleton and then you have to wait another 18 hrs or so before you tie up to the pier.

• 9 Roachman // Jan 22, 2006 at 11:00 am

  You may have never:

  Spent 10 hours pitching and bobbing on an accom ladder in the harbor of Talin, Estonia helping some 1500 visitors, dressed in their Sunday best, on and off your ship. Then, courtesy of the coolest XO in the Navy, stood in the helo hanger, dress blues soaked and salty from the waves, and slammed a frosty Coors Light.

  Been greeted by the strains of “Home Sweet Home” while breaking down the fueling rigs as the sun rises, one day short of home after the war.

  Walked onto the bridge and announced “Attention in the pilot house, this is SN Roach, I have the Con..” while preparing to get underway after 5 grueling weeks of REFTRA in Gitmo. (My proudest moment as a Master Helmsman, and one of my fondest memories of the Navy).

  Unexpectedly seen your parents waving from the pier as you manned the rails, returning from a wartime deployment.

  Thanks for refreshing the memories, Captain.
  Fair winds anad follwing seas. Go Navy!

• 10 MCPO Airdale // Jan 22, 2006 at 1:39 pm

  Thanks Skipper. . .almost in tears.

• 11 Bill // Jan 22, 2006 at 3:50 pm

  Thanks. Excellent recall. Your words washed out some dust from my memory.Now who can forget becoming a “Golden Shellback” on the way home from Australia!

• 12 whirlygirl // Jan 22, 2006 at 7:14 pm

  What about how every bird becomes an up bird for fly-off? (most optimistic preflight of the entire cruise)

• 13 Dan // Jan 22, 2006 at 8:15 pm

  Those are exactly the reasons I am doing what I am right now. Can’t wait to get to sea.

• 14 Steph // Jan 22, 2006 at 9:14 pm

  Be still my heart!!! I thank the good Lord that I have seen those things. And Thanks Lex for reminding me!

• 15 Brian // Jan 23, 2006 at 5:52 am

  An excellent post, Lex. Here are two more:

  1) Watched the very first hint of dawn break on the ocean horizon as you preflight your aircraft for the first launch of the day…

  This was always my very favorite time to fly…

  2) Heard over the 1MC, “Miss Piggy [that's the COD's call-sign] just landed with 500lbs of mail.” and hoping like crazy that you might have one letter from home in that plane.

  Course in these days of e-mail and cell phones that last one doesn’t mean much anymore. Guess I’m becoming an old-timer…

  And I agree with Twidget, the Milkey Way spread out across the night sky as you steam towards Australia…simply amazing.

• 16 Steve // Jan 23, 2006 at 6:18 am

  Whenever I get nostalgic about the Nav, I can always…
  1) Buy a dumpster, paint it haze gray and live in it for 6 months.
  2) Dress my mother-in-law in khakis and have her read me the morning newspaper at 0700 in my back yard.
  3) Rewire my water heater to oscillate between 50 degrees and 200 degrees at random intervals.
  4) Run a “man overboard” drill in my car, stopping the shaft by shifting into park at 65 MPH.

  … There’s a huge list of these somewhere. I have a hard copy, provided by thoughtful shipmates upon my EAOS. Prolly on the ‘net somewhere.

• 17 Jonboy // Jan 23, 2006 at 10:40 am

  Standing on the bow of a carrier at night while it is operating inside a fjord above the artic circle with the Northern Lights waving like a curtain overhead.

• 18 Ken // Jan 23, 2006 at 11:17 am

  Hearing The Navy Hymn sung in the mid-Pacific during the fantail Sunday service on a troop ship heading for a combat zone.

• 19 MM2 Slug (Roland Johnson) // Jan 23, 2006 at 12:05 pm

  Carrying a 60 lb bundle of Rags from the chain locker, past the mess decks toward the aft engine room shouting
  “Make a hole, regular navy” and watching everyone get out of the way. Or watching sunset on the fan tail and knowing why you simultaneously loved and hated it.

  “This is a drill This is a drill, Liberty call”

• 20 Sgt. B. // Jan 23, 2006 at 12:16 pm

  From the Marine side of the house…

  1) Returning to the LPD after a FieldEx in Korea, where you know that you’ll sleep in an actual bunk, and not on the ground. You’ll have hot, good tasting chow. You’ll have washed utilities. You’ll have heat.

  You WON’T have the excitement of midnight patrols, rough terrain, and 100% alert in your fighting hole.

  Many Marines look at the Navy with derision… I don’t think my brothers realize how good the Navy treats us when we are aboard their ships… And it’s a pity, because there are opportunities of an almost spiritual to be found once you’re out of site of land aboard a man-o-war…

  Thanks for the memories…

• 21 DE644 // Jan 23, 2006 at 12:21 pm

  I remember, oh yes, I remember well. Never had any Bird Farm duty though.

• 22 Rey Dominguez, Jr // Jan 23, 2006 at 12:27 pm

  Standing on the bridge of USS Swordfish, surface transit to Honk Kong at a a leisurely 12 knots, mirror calm waters of the South China Sea, sunset ahead, cool sea air blowing across the bow, birds squacking above us. Or anchored off Lahaina, Maui, in water so clear and blue you could follow the anchor chain down almost to the bottom of the channel, look aft and see the twin screws reflcting sunlight, sparkling as the waves go past.

• 23 DC // Jan 23, 2006 at 2:29 pm

  0530, hop into the SH-60B, launch 0540. Sunrise, turn on the aps-124, look for bad guys in the Caribbean. Land. Eat gourmet Monte Cristo sandwiches. Fill in logbooks. Watch for green flash at sunset.

  Repeat.

  That was livin’!

  AW1 AW/SW SAR

• 24 FbL // Jan 23, 2006 at 2:59 pm

  I’m getting the impression that Lex isn’t the only Sailor ’round here with the soul of a poet…

  Thanks for sharing, guys.

• 25 lex // Jan 23, 2006 at 7:22 pm

  What she said! Thanks for sharing, all

• 26 Shadow // Jan 24, 2006 at 9:30 am

  Watching 200 men chasing a lizard at fleet landing in GITMO:>.

• 27 Scott D // Jan 24, 2006 at 10:06 am

  Such good stuff!

  How about hanging halfway over the catwalk at night after end of flight ops in the Gulf, and watching the crazy bolts of lightning shoot through the ship’s wake as the carrier churns up algae. So cool…..

• 28 SangerM // Jan 24, 2006 at 2:25 pm

  I never once in my life had a hankerin’ to go to sea…

  I never once felt I’d missed anything…

  Until today.

  I could do the same for sunrises, and shooting tanks, and low NOE in open door hueys and kiowas in Hawaii and Germany, and long, long nights in the woods watching the commies watch us, but it just wouldn’t be the same, I think.

  My father-in-law was a 22 year Navy Corpsman, 11 years w/ Marines in WWII, Korea, and SeeBees in Antarctica (56-57). I never got the appeal.

  Thank you for all of that, all of you!

• 29 slick rick // Jan 24, 2006 at 2:43 pm

  Makes me feel bad about thinking FTN! during my tenure on a CLG and a DLG. Forgot how sweet it was. Not really. Got pictures to prove I liked some of it. Thx Lex, for reminding me of the double rainbows south of the Azores, and swim-call in mid-Atlantic and other things.

• 30 Old Fat Sailor // Jan 24, 2006 at 5:50 pm

  Morning in a PBR on the Song Vam Co Tay when the river is like a mirror, a perfect reflection of the sunlit clouds and the rising White Cranes.

• 31 badbob // Jan 24, 2006 at 7:43 pm

  - Over 35 ships including 4 carriers, in formation on a flat calm, hi-overcast, refelections galore day off the Azores in the largest USN formation since WWII. PACEX ‘89.

  - Min radius turn for ten minutes in S. China Sea over huge school of big sharks tearing into what appeared to be a giant ocean sunfish. Tuna, as far as the eye can see, being chased by tens of thousands porpoises/dolphins.

  - Airwing flyby, east to west, over Arizona Memorial on a perfectly clear early winter day. Flawless.

  -Sitting behind the JBD, Cat 1, on a cold dark night in the Med (before all them lights like nowadays) when a Prowler crewmwmber ejected in a flash of intense light, with his body outlined, until the island swallowed the scene from my view. Boss yelling and EA-6B pilot cooly ground looping the jet to a sideways stop well down the bow and saying (flatly) “my backseater just ejected”…

  Hectic moments that seemed like hours vainly searching for everybody else at the marshalling point during an EMCON, Ziplip recovery, on a mean day at sea 1000 miles north of Midway.
  The relief when bubbas were spotted!

  One hour run on deck of US flagship in 35 degree wx w/snowshowers while transiting the tight fiords of Norway enroute to inport Trondheim. Could almost hear the Viking horns calling down from the mountains!

  Can’t believe they paid me to be there and see stuff like that.

  B2

• 32 Tim // Jan 25, 2006 at 10:10 pm

  Shipmates,

  Flying back up the east coast late at night, watching the cities below pass by. Like fiery diamonds tosed out on a sea of velvet black, the lights on the horizon reaching up to touch the stars above. Watching a group-4 taking black water over the bow in the North atlantic and thanking God I was a brown shoe.
  The smell of JP and the throaty roar of awakening engines, and the sea, spreading out forever, to all sides, alive and breathing with every rise of wave. The tang of salt air, and the mournful cry of gulls on a quiet day at anchor.
  I can close my eyes and smell the sea, the JP and the scent of the berthing compartment. And still, I can see their faces. All so young, all so confidant. I may forget their names, but their faces will always be with me. My shipmates. My drinking buddies. My crew. So very young. Lord where did all those years go? Was it really so very far away from now?

  Thanks, shipmates. It’s good to remember those daze.

  Respects,

  AW1 Tim

• 33 Neptunus Lex » Things you forget about, when you haven?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t been to sea for a while // Jul 14, 2006 at 5:58 am

  [...] Update: I’d about forgotten about this post, which is less worthy for my words, as it is for those who joined in. Selah.   [...]

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