USCGC Blackhaw WAGL-390, GM1

[Fred H]

Salty 68
Let me add a few more of the Bhaw 60-61 crew

Cdr Harbourt CO
Lt  Martin(twinkie)XO
Bosun Dyer
BMC Reynolds
BM2 Zeke Bryson
YN2 Perkins
QM2 Smiley
QM2 Gallager
SN Henry
ET2 Mittlebock
EN1 Gilbert
SN Dushak

Thats me as cox,n of the LCVP in your pics at Ulithi. I hated that boat it was single screw and sailed in the wind rather badly and was a pain in the butt to load. It took up a lot of space on the buoy deck and as you remember we always had a full deck load of buoys when making the westpac run.

 Any of you 180 sailors ever see a 10X40 buoy, worked a bunch of 9X38's in my time but only one 10X40. It was somewhere around Subic area and had not been picked up for years, it still had acetylene accumaltors and about 2 foot of buoy critters on it.

Westpacs were great trips for single sailors 5 months out of Hono,lots of Islands to stop at and Saipan,Japan,Hong Kong,and Okanawa with wonderful weather most of the time. I slept in a hammock on the fantail most of the trip. Real lax conditions,cut offs,no shirt,and beards when away from the civilized areas."Old Guard" was fun.
The Tahiti/Samoa run was also nice.

I think I remember you as the "scullery maid" one trip and didn't I buy a pistol(380 LLama) from you in Hong Kong or Japan,which I still have .
Don't believe I ever knew the ET you asked about, I spent most of my time in the 8th dist at Galveston/Houston and on the Point Spencer at NOLA.
Will probably remember others as old brains get stirred up a little,will be retired from CG 32 years end of August.
Fred

[EX-CG-GM]

Hey Fred!  Uh....I think there might be a  typo in your profile.  Either that or you spent 120 years in the CG.   

[vftb]

I slept in a hammock on the fantail most of the trip.

I passed out on the fantail a few times, does that count 

All kidding aside, I have never read anything or heard anything from anyone that served on the Blackhaw while she was in D-14, under COMPHILSEC or CGACTV that wasn't real fond of the old girl    BTW, our XO was a "twinkie" too, but had a different name 

[EX-CG-GM]

Even today I would have to think a buoy tender in the 14th would still be some of the best duty in the CG.  I think there is one in Guam now.  maybe that hits all the good spots and the ones from Hono just mill around the islands.   

But I think Sangley(Cavite) had to be the absolute best homeport.  Hell, I could envision pirates pulling into a place like Cavite a century ago!  Come back from a hard working voyage, grab the booze and chase the wenches!   

[Fred H]

Naw its right!!
I always had a hard time getting all my hash marks up one sleeve and down the other and all that gold cost 1,573.22.Would have made a hell of a sea story.You know BM's and numbers.
Thanks for the correction.

Vftb --Charles E Martin was probably the most inept sailor I ever served with. He had three years at West Point washed out and somehow got in the CG Academy. He would beg the CO to let him take the deck and conn when we were far out to sea.The Captain would tell the QM,helmsman, and myself, when I had the BMOW to stay on the bridge and watch him very close.Don't know whatever happened to him.
I did two tours in the 14th and about 6 years in the 17th loved them both but hated the long inports in Hono.

[Salty68]

Salty 68
Let me add a few more of the Bhaw 60-61 crew

Cdr Harbourt CO
Lt  Martin(twinkie)XO
Bosun Dyer
BMC Reynolds
BM2 Zeke Bryson
YN2 Perkins
QM2 Smiley
QM2 Gallager
SN Henry
ET2 Mittlebock
EN1 Gilbert
SN Dushak

Thats me as cox,n of the LCVP in your pics at Ulithi. I hated that boat it was single screw and sailed in the wind rather badly and was a pain in the butt to load. It took up a lot of space on the buoy deck and as you remember we always had a full deck load of buoys when making the westpac run.

 Any of you 180 sailors ever see a 10X40 buoy, worked a bunch of 9X38's in my time but only one 10X40. It was somewhere around Subic area and had not been picked up for years, it still had acetylene accumaltors and about 2 foot of buoy critters on it.

Westpacs were great trips for single sailors 5 months out of Hono,lots of Islands to stop at and Saipan,Japan,Hong Kong,and Okanawa with wonderful weather most of the time. I slept in a hammock on the fantail most of the trip. Real lax conditions,cut offs,no shirt,and beards when away from the civilized areas."Old Guard" was fun.
The Tahiti/Samoa run was also nice.

I think I remember you as the "scullery maid" one trip and didn't I buy a pistol(380 LLama) from you in Hong Kong or Japan,which I still have .
Don't believe I ever knew the ET you asked about, I spent most of my time in the 8th dist at Galveston/Houston and on the Point Spencer at NOLA.
Will probably remember others as old brains get stirred up a little,will be retired from CG 32 years end of August.
Fred

I don't know Fred, my CO was LCDR Wood, I'm the one who has memory problems....This says January of 1962. I remember having to use my P-Coat in Hong Kong and from Hong Kong we went to Subic and I got off..    

[vftb]

Vftb --Charles E Martin was probably the most inept sailor Roll Eyes I ever served with. He had three years at West Point washed out and somehow got in the CG Academy. He would beg the CO to let him take the deck and conn when we were far out to sea.The Captain would tell the QM,helmsman, and myself, when I had the BMOW to stay on the bridge and watch him very close.Don't know whatever happened to him.

I've told this story before, but I've been on this site long enough where I guess I can't help but repeat myself.  First of all, the CO rarely, if ever, gave the XO the con.  Here's an example though (the repeat story):  Leaving Tan My at night-time, got a shipment of new illumination flares (different type), XO wants to try one, so he fires one off of the wing of the bridge.  He was so impressed, he called everyone out to ooohh and aaaahh at it; mean time we ran hard aground on a submerged wall and had to wait for the tide to shift so we could get off  (BTW, we were in small-arms range of the shore, luckily the bad guys were somewhere else  ).  Whoops, guess I should have started this story with "this is no ****" 

All in all, Lt. XXXX was a pretty good guy, just not what you'd call an "old salt".

[vftb]

Crap, now you've got me thinking about it; I do try to give recognition to crew members when I can (lot of them have been forgotten  ).  We had a couple of dynamite "butterbars" on board;  Ens. White,  Ens. Ryan. 

This is obviously not meant to be a fitness report (far be it from me  ), they were just generally good guys 

[EX-CG-GM]

Maybe the Blackhaw had one officer billet that they had to keep filled.  As in "Lousy at everything officer".

We had one while I was on the Blackhaw that wasn't allowed to stand underway OOD alone.  The BMC stood the watch with him.  Needless to say, the BMC was not terribly happy about it.