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| Name: Captain Charles Becker | |
| Hometown: Novato, CA | |
| Homepage: captbecker.wordpress.com | |
| Ships: Ashatabula, Barbey + 30 USNS ships | |
| Date: 2010-03-07 00:42:35 Eastern Time | |
| US Navy Quartermaster 1971-77. Best rate in the Navy, when my Navigator was trying to get me to reenlist, he asked me, "Becker, what would it take to keep you in the Navy?". I told him, "A change of rating." He said, "I thought you loved being a QM?". I said, "I meant to LCDR." Needless to say, I left the Navy and went with Military Sealift Command. That was 1977 and in 1983 I was promoted to Master (ships' captain) and spent 25 years sailing as Master on Naval Auxiliaries. Any QM1 could be a captain outside the Navy, which seems to have a ridiculously low opinion of the rating. I have been retired for 5 months now and after 40 years at sea don't miss it a bit. But I do know what it would be to feel the wheel beneath my hand again. Oh, my, no one knows the sea like a Quartermaster. |
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| Name: Jackie Shay | |
| Date: 2010-01-30 11:05:20 Eastern Time | |
| As a QM and Master Helmsman (as we were known in the tin-can Navy) there was never a better life than telling the OOD what to do. We knew the ship and what she could do. One of my best moments was having a new skipper ask what the safest course was during a hurricane. Only a quartermaster would know that. Some years later I stood at the wheel of a museum can and cried like a girl. Only a QM would understand what it feels like to know you are keeping your ship safe. --QM2 Shay |
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| Name: QMSN Justin Penrod | |
| Ships: USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) | |
| Date: 2010-01-30 10:57:34 Eastern Time | |
| I am glad to be out of deck and working aloft. I have been in deck department for a pretty long time and finally struck out. It feels good to have a purpose in our fine Navy. People say that our job is of little importance, but I bet they would not be saying that if we were lost at sea or about to run aground. One of the oldest and most finest rates in the navy, I am proud to be a part of this organization. Wikipedia.com has some great info actually. If you Bing or Google Navy Quartermaster, there are many hits that come up; but unfortunately no Navy QM webpages. I would love to see this site boom a little more, many need to know how great the rate really is. |
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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. | |
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