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| Name: Dom F | |
| Hometown: Oakland | |
| Ships: JP Kennedy Jr (DD 850) | |
| Date: 2010-01-30 10:47:31 Eastern Time | |
| I served aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD 850) which is now a historical ship in Fall River, Massachusetts. I was a QM3 and at the time we navigated by either Loran, star sighting or dead reckoning, and of course landmarks on shore such as lighthouses, etc. In the 1960s the QM school was in Newport, RI, which I attended. The job on board the ship was very interesting; my first job was to wind and correct all the clocks on board the ship, even in the Captain's quarters. While learning the job I became the person that corrected charts and sent weather advisories to fleet hdqs. Near the end of my enlistment I assisted the navigation officer with navigating and also was helmsman when in GQ. All in all, being a quartermaster was a very interesting and rewarding job. Dom F QM3 USN | |
| Name: Kenneth N. Kerby | |
| Hometown: Moore, Oklahoma | |
| Ships: DD-851, LST-1186, SSBN-610, SSN-700, SSBN-616 | |
| Date: 2009-12-27 16:23:42 Eastern Time | |
| It is refreshing to see there is a website dedicated to the US Navy Quartermaster. I am a retired Chief QM (SS)having served first in surface ships them submarines. When I first learned of the combining of QM into NAVET, I was appaled at this move, I know that things have gotten more technically advanced what with the incorporation of GPS into naviagtion, but it seems to me that all too often tradition and the pride that goes with it seems to me to not be very prudent. The NAVET's I was associated with during my career were all very good at what they did, but for the most part, while they knew what navigational charts were and how to plot on them werent very concerned about the maintenance of the Chart Portfolio, techniques to correct charts, maintenance of the various navitational pubs, tides, rising and setting of the sun and moon and computation of same, NOTAMS, use of the various Celestial Pubs. and on and on, in short all the Navigational responibilites that the QM was responsible for, primarily the SAFE Navitaion of Boat or Ship. The CO, OOD, and the Navigator all relied on the QM to keep the ship or boat safely on track, whether by DR, Visual Fixes, Celestial, Radar or Piloting. I am proud to have been part of the most important rating that was relied on to provide the navigational information that was vital for safe operation, this information was heavily relied on without question. Also I didnt mention recording the events of the day in the QM log. | |
| Name: Jon Been, ET1/SS (Ret) | |
| Hometown: New Albany, IN | |
| Ships: SSN-637, SSN-646, SSBN -627, SSN-696 | |
| Date: 2009-11-11 00:53:42 Eastern Time | |
| What a great site. NO paper charts? What in the world are they going to do with all that locker space. BTW - If you're just throwing them out; I'll take a couple 11524's and a 19357 or two.;-) | |
| Name: Fred Louese | |
| Hometown: Miami | |
| Ships: CG34, SSN 668, SSN 669, SSN 682, SSN 679, SSN 758, ASR 9, DDG 982, AS 39 | |
| Date: 2009-08-07 13:36:29 Eastern Time | |
| A quick "Note to self". For all you QM/NAVET's shooting bearings during the piloting party in/out of port, DO not shoot left and right tangents to the Navigators wife, especially if he is onthe same radio circut as you. I did routinely did that going in/out of Pearl Harbor. The Nav was not usually on the radio, however, he was, on this trip. Needless to say, he invited me to his stateroom for a post piloting party wrap up, AKA ass chewing. Damn, if the guy could only take a joke... | |
| Name: manbir sandhu | |
| Hometown: amritsar, punjab | |
| Ships: tankers | |
| Date: 2009-06-23 11:46:00 Eastern Time | |
| hi | |
| Name: Hank | |
| Date: 2009-05-25 09:01:57 Eastern Time | |
| This isn't the only web forum I contribute to, this is a message I posted to the other one. Obligatory Holiday Greeting Obligatory, because it's deserved, and it's right. And because we can never allow ourselves to forget. There's a lot of them out there, in different places doing different things, so I will only mention one I can relate to personally, because I was him a long, long time ago. Somewhere out on that endless sea, on the other side of the dateline, maybe the other side of the equator, a teenager is going out on deck, ready to stand his watch. He's lonely, maybe he's scared, and he's a long way from home and will be for a long time. But he's there so you don't have to be, so you don't need to think about him. So think about him today, and if you know him, drop him an email or a letter. You have absolutely no idea how much it will mean to him. |
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| Name: Frank Findlay Barry (QM-2) | |
| Hometown: Hustonville, Kentucky | |
| Ships: AD-19 (Yosemite) W.A Lee (DL-4) Brough (DE127) | |
| Date: 2009-05-24 17:08:23 Eastern Time | |
| Just found this site... was looking at the clouds from our front porch and remembered learning their types and characteristics from Bowditch on all those mid watches..great days for me I'll never forget. | |
| Name: Robert Myer | |
| Hometown: Middle Island NY (Long Island) | |
| Ships: USS Clamagore SS343 & USS Tinosa SSN606 | |
| Date: 2009-05-05 19:45:42 Eastern Time | |
| I can't belive a website for QMs. This is really cool. I always find myself explaining this rate to people. I served between June 72 & June 76 and made QM2(SS) before getting out. I loved the QM job. I liked navigating 'boats' in inland and international waters. I like working with charts, even drawing in my own Loran A lines when we weren't using Loran A charts. I also got trained as a signalman in one of the QM schools given at the New London Sub Base in the spring of 1973. This was just before we took the Clamagore on Unitas XIV to South America between July & December 1973. Navigation down there was an art. Diesel boats transited the surface in all weather conditions and I did get sea sick once in awhile. Especially when we hit a hurricane off the coast of Brazil near the equator and rode it out on the surface. But, I had an opportunity to learn a little celestial navigation using the star finder, shooting the stars with the sextant and using the pubs to plot a fix. Other types of navigational aids to us out to sea included RDF, Azimuth of the Sun, fathometer, etc. This was the time of NAV-SAT(Doppler),which used orbiting satelites to get fixes. In the southern hemisphere though this did not work as well as the northern hemisphere. I also got an opportunity to use my signalman skills using morse code/flashing light. We operated with 3 types of destroyers (DD, DLG, and DDG)while down there and needed to communicate while off the coast of Chile while simulating a radio blackout condition. I was based out of the New London Sub Base (Groton). In the 70s, nucs did not go up the Thames River to the sub base. The Tinosa was usually tied up to the Fulton or the State Pier, near where the New London to Orient Point(LI) Ferry now runs. I believe it was called state pier. it's been around 33 years since I got out.... While on the Tinosa, we made a trip down the coast to the 'Tongue of the Ocean'.(San Andros Island) We headed east thru the Bahamas after getting near Lauderdale while submerged. I took over the watch just after the turn and after a few hours, the soundings began to not match the chart. I figured we were ahead of the DR track because the soundings were getting more shallow, basically heading toward an island which would be like hitting an underwater mountain. After coming to scope depth to get a fix, we were much ahead of track and figured the reason was because the gulf stream was actually pushing us at an aditional 5 knots. I'll also never forget all the logs we kept as well as the Captain's report. I remember every 30 minutes we needed to take readings from various pieces of equipment, like Nav-Sat, Ship's DRAI, SINS, and having multiple course/speed/depth changes being announced and having to keep up and remember these changes along with times so I could later update the QM Notebook. Sometimes we were really busy.... I also liked training Lookouts, Helmsman, and Planesman. As a QM, we were always looking over the shoulder of the helmsman to keep us on track. There are probably many things I forgot to mention, but it's been awhile and the job was a lot of fun.... |
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| Name: Henry Cordova | |
| Hometown: Tampa, FL | |
| Homepage: www.sandyjdesigns.com/page19.html | |
| Ships: USS Dewey, DLG-14 | |
| Date: 2009-04-25 20:48:20 Eastern Time | |
| I've just had part I of a two-part article on small craft navigation ("Piloting") published in Florida Wildlife Magazine. Part II ("Dead Reckoning") will appear in an upcoming issue. No, it's not about GPS either. The articles are illustrated by renowned marine atist Fritz Seegers. Check 'em out! I owe it all to my QM days. |
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| Name: Prince Bryant | |
| Hometown: Charleston, SC | |
| Ships: SSBN 655, SSN 637, SSN 669, SSBN 734, SSBN 741, CTF 69 SUBOPAUTH EUROPE | |
| Date: 2009-04-17 08:05:17 Eastern Time | |
| The maneuveing watch is stationed,the piloting party is manned...oh, wait, QM3 Bryant is at the end of pier Mike kissing his girlfriend goodbye. With seabag in hand, crane boom overhead, QM3 Bryant dashes across the brow of the USS Sturgeon, jumps down the weapons shipping hatch, throws his seabag behind the Fire Control console and mans the foward plotter. Did I mention that QM3 was the PRIMARY PLOTTER? Ready for those "S" turns! Ahhhhh, what ever happened to those days? | |
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