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Post by ibugly on Aug 20, 2010 20:43:59 GMT -6
LOL i knew where a bunch of buttons & switches were. I knew how to shut the thing completely down without having to go down into the Boiler Rooms too. That weren't secret information but only the Snipes and a few other fire fighters knew where the emergency shut offs were. Too bad you didn't get to do what I did. I walked underneath it.
I wasn't stopping you from having a look see at the magazines but the Marine with a loaded M-16 standing watch at the hatch may have had a say in the matter. I didn't fly on or off the ship either. When I left they had put a new anti-aircraft defense system in and that thing was wicked. It was a servo operated fully electronic controlled Gatlin Gun. It could move faster than the eye could follow. I got to see them test it out before I left.
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Post by caretaker on Aug 20, 2010 20:50:08 GMT -6
I wanted to push the big red button that launched the big nuke.
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Post by ibugly on Aug 20, 2010 21:18:56 GMT -6
LOL it weren't that easy and yes they were on board when we pulled in. I got to see the weapons magazines and control rooms my last year in while it was in overhaul. I was on Fire Department for six months and did walk through inspections. I saw a lot of spaces I never knew existed. I'd say there wasn't too many spaces a person could go into on it that I didn't during that time. I also walked inside a boiler and up to the bottom of the stack once. The worse thing though was to be doing a walk through on the 6th deck {very bottom deck} and have your boss hold a fire drill on the 0-10 level with was top deck on the island. That was 16 decks to climb up to get to it. Now you know why my legs are wore out. Running on steel. We'd have to run up there geared up. Then after we got there we had to have our breathing under control to use the oxygen canisters. We didn't have Scott airpacks back then. These things were chemical reaction oxygen generators. Kinda like wearing a grenade on your chest if they exploded.
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Post by caretaker on Aug 20, 2010 21:23:03 GMT -6
Mine would exploded just to spite me.
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Post by ibugly on Aug 20, 2010 21:43:51 GMT -6
If one drop of oil contaminated water managed to get into the canister it could do it. I hated those things. They were also notorious for failing. I was working a small fire about two decks down one night and had to get out because it failed. You ought to try communicating with one on. LOL. The canisters would also get real hot.
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Post by caretaker on Aug 20, 2010 22:01:54 GMT -6
Glad they got some better equipment.
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Post by ibugly on Aug 23, 2010 19:51:30 GMT -6
Yea they went to Scott Air Packs a few years after I got out. I don't know why they didn't do it sooner. We had our own O2N2 plant. We could fill oxygen cylinders, make nitrogen, or make Liquid Oxygen.
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Post by caretaker on Aug 23, 2010 20:19:30 GMT -6
That ship is a floating city.
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Post by ibugly on Aug 23, 2010 20:37:03 GMT -6
Yep. We had a fully equipped machine shop, Hospital operating room with surgeons on board, a dentist, Electric motor rewind shop, Diesel engine shop, Jet Engine shop, Boiler repair shop, Fuel and boiler feed water test lab, a Post Office with it's own zip code, 4 enlisted mens chow lines a Chiefs Mess, Officers Mess, Captains, Mess, and Admirals Mess. Believe it or not there was even a elevator built into the bridge. There was two cranes capable of lifting aircraft, a fire truck, a HAM Radio room, even a shop that handled all the movies and we also had closed circuit TV. Only thing w couldn't do at sea was call home unless it was an emergency and we went to the HAM Shack. Guys on carriers now can call home while underway via satellite communications.
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