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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Is there an organization for diesel qualified boatsailors. I am a lifetime member of USSVI and extremely proud to be. Great organization...great leadership...in my estimation, the premier veterans organization in any service. I can't offer higher praise. But, I never rode nukes....They are radically different from the boats I rode....I no longer understand the terms, expressions, slang, and nomenclature of today's submersible Navy....Time and the advancing terminology and technology have left me in their dust. There are a lot of us left, who find themselves sitting at tables sharing drinks with youngsters speaking a language that we cannot distinguish from that spoken on the planet Mongo. Since the SubVets of WWII folded their tent and merged with USSVI there are a few more folks that speak the antiquated language of the petroleum powered boatsailor. I just wondered if there was an association like the Order of the Dinosaur Squeezings Powered Submersible Navy....Or the National Association Diesel Qualified Coots? Just wondered. We old septic tank riders need somewhere to go where old boatsailors who can't distinguish a reactor from a brewery vat, can sit around and tell sea stories on fuel hose arguments, changing from FBT's to MBT's at sea, and changing lower cranks. We need a place where we can meet and swap stories of cockroaches crawling up their noses when you were sleeping, sea print movie cases falling out of overhead lines in a state five seas, surgically removing the exterior green fur from baloney to make mid-rat sandwiches.....acid eaten dungarees....sun faded dungaree shirts and frayed raghats....stacking cases of cans in the passageways and eating your way into living space....jackassing fish into the tubes....peeing down the pit log well down during battle stations....and drinking beer in places National Geographic never knew about or visited. I never wore a poopie suit...never understood the term nookie-poo....dink....scram...or the thousands of other words fashioned for a force I was never a part of. If there's such an organization, somebody let me know...if not why not start one...NOT TO DRAIN ANYTHING AWAY FROM USSVI...if that could be a result, forget it. We have an obligation to support USSVI and hold our primary membership in that wonderful organization....Remember you can be BOTH a member of USSVI and still hold a membership in the International Brotherhood of Porta-Potty Pumpers. Just a thought. DEX |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1262
Location: Va.Beach,Va. | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Good luck in establishing yor new organization.
Sadly,I wouldn't qualify for membership(maybe as an associate
member) 'cause I spent most of my time on Glo Boats.
I was ,however, brung up and mentored by Smoke Boat
retreads.This was a badge of honor in the '60s & "70s but
a sure ticket to the road to Hell in the '80s after all my Seadaddys
gave up,went home,and left me hanging.  
Edited by MAD DOG 2009-05-20 11:48 AM
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Senior Crew
Posts: 226
Location: San Diego, CA | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
If there was a "smoke boat" only organization, it would slowly disappear like Sub Vets WWII. All of us diesel boats sailors will fade off into the sunset and only the nucs will be left, until they come up with a new powerplant that will make nucs obsolete.
DBF |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
No, In 20,000 years some sonuvabitch will dig up the petrified carcass of Ray Stone and park his carbonized remains in the Smithsonian labled Dieselboatus Chiefus SOB....and we will be remembered. |
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Mess cooking
Posts: 49
Location: Port Orange, Florida | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
To quote Dex... "There are a lot of us left, who find themselves sitting at tables sharing drinks with youngsters speaking a language that we cannot distinguish from that spoken on the planet Mongo."
Appreciate you calling me a "youngster", since I rode both diesel and nuke boats and know that I understand both languages...But I belonged to Squadron 6 back in the early 60's when I rode Argonaut and Runner at D&S Piers...Serving in Boomers and Fast Boats and with my last boat being a diesel (Bonefish), I know that I could share a drink with you translate for ya....
cobber |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 2191
Location: Port Ludlow, WA (the Olympic Penninsula) | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Dex, On our convention cruise in 2007 I had the privilege of presenting a program that I had put together called the "DBF Tribute". In hindsight I would have to guess that it was well received as the attendance was some 700 (+) that morning. At the time, I started the program with something that went like this: "As of the last newly qualified SN aboard the USS Dolphin last year (2006), we of the DBF Forever crowd have become the newest last man out fraternity. It was true then, more so now, and here we are getting older just like our WWII brothers. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Cobber, I'm in the Northern Virginia Base of USSVI...There are both Nukes and Smokeboat Sailors in the base. I sit at tables and listen to stuff that sounds like a Buck Rogers script. I am convinced that if you didn't ride nuke boats or have some rudementary understanding of nuclear propulsion...sophisticated ordinance...cranial exploding physics...you're a dead duck. Hell, I can't understand the folks at the McDonalds drive-up window...I think they must be qualified nukes. |
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Old Salt
Posts: 431
| Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Crystal
Who is the last man to Qual aboard a Diesel boat?
Im sure the first has been lost to the mists of time but the last one should be remembered.
Have his name on a Silver Dolphin plaque at the Horse and Cow, Engraved over the door at School Street and be bought beers forever more. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3669
Location: Kansas City Missouri | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Sooner or later someone, somewhere in this wonderful nation will wake up and realize that diesel boats are a hell of a lot cheaper to build and maintain than nuclear powered boats. New boats will be built, new E-3's will go through the same fun times of qualifying and the hearts of young ladies will be fondled and broken in ports the world over. Diesel Boats Will Be Forever Again!!! |
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Plankowner
Posts: 5024
Location: Gulfport, MS | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
When I started keeping the database for SubVets WWII (11-08-2006) there were 7,875 names entered in the deceased file. Now there are 11,194 of my heros on their Eternal Patrol. Do the math... the light is getting dim... |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 6180
Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
And so it goes for all of us, Pig. Not to be morbid, but, ain't none of us getting out of here alive. We all get to take our turn at the wheel. It's sad to see old Shipmates depart. Hopefully, some day we'll meet again.  |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1814
Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
Gary, I agree with you 100% that USN will eventually restart the DBF program, but sad thing is us old timers will still be left out in the cold, since the technology even on diesel boats has passed us by ages ago. We are just antique old pharts who can only sit back an reminense about "back in the day". God be with the boys who have the watch today.
Steamboat sends |
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Is there an organization dedicated to Smokeboat Sailors?
