And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
USS Cowpens rolling in heavy seas in Typhoon Cobra in the Pacific Ocean, 18 December 1944.
Those rolling problems were characteristics common to round bottom carriers of that era. Having served on one briefly in a combat situation (LPH-11 - Operation Just Cause - Panama), I can attest to the rolling issues even in relatively mild seas. In a typhoon? Please, no.
In January ‘67 we were aboard Iwo Jima (LPH-2) steaming circles in the South China Sea awaiting Admiral Weather’s permission to go ashore. On the fringes of a tropical storm, sea conditions were such that when Iwo rolled one direction, bright blue sky shone in from one side of the hanger deck while the other side revealed ocean’s dark blue. And so it went as we steamed about. Deciding on a haircut, I made my way to a makeshift barbershop in the forward most part of the ship – the “foc'sle”. Waiting my turn, I began experiencing the heretofore unknown effects of “pitch & yaw”. Simply put, pitch & yaw is an almost simultaneous combination of going left-to-right, forward and back. Soon enough my stomach was giving me warning. Seasick. Couldn’t be, albeit briefly I’d been on float before! Finally discretion prompted me to make an uneventful journey aft to our berthing area and the only treatment available; hit the rack face down the same way as having had too much drink. Finally it passed and I was OK. A day or two later we made our landing on what became an anti-climatic operation; the bad guys had all but got out of Dodge.
In Halsey's typhoons, there were ships taking 70 degree rolls. A few kept going over and didn't come back.
ReplyDeleteGood thing the tie-downs seem to be doing their job.
ReplyDeleteThose rolling problems were characteristics common to round bottom carriers of that era. Having served on one briefly in a combat situation (LPH-11 - Operation Just Cause - Panama), I can attest to the rolling issues even in relatively mild seas. In a typhoon? Please, no.
ReplyDeleteThe rolliest boat I've ever been on was an VN era ex-mine sweeper with hard chines. Oh boy, did she roll! Whether in the trough or fine on the bow.
DeleteIn January ‘67 we were aboard Iwo Jima (LPH-2) steaming circles in the South China Sea awaiting Admiral Weather’s permission to go ashore. On the fringes of a tropical storm, sea conditions were such that when Iwo rolled one direction, bright blue sky shone in from one side of the hanger deck while the other side revealed ocean’s dark blue. And so it went as we steamed about.
ReplyDeleteDeciding on a haircut, I made my way to a makeshift barbershop in the forward most part of the ship – the “foc'sle”. Waiting my turn, I began experiencing the heretofore unknown effects of “pitch & yaw”. Simply put, pitch & yaw is an almost simultaneous combination of going left-to-right, forward and back. Soon enough my stomach was giving me warning. Seasick. Couldn’t be, albeit briefly I’d been on float before! Finally discretion prompted me to make an uneventful journey aft to our berthing area and the only treatment available; hit the rack face down the same way as having had too much drink. Finally it passed and I was OK.
A day or two later we made our landing on what became an anti-climatic operation; the bad guys had all but got out of Dodge.
Fuck.
ReplyDelete