Who Drives an Aircraft Carrier?

[exNavyOffRec]

What happened to "button" showers? You don't have a plastic head on a hose that you had to hold a button down on? It required one dedicate hand just to get water flow. Basically, you were forced into a Navy shower. Rinse, lather up, rinse. You would have to carry a C clamp rig into the head to get a good Hollywood shower.

I remember those and I started reading this and was immediately thinking "this is why you carry a C clamp" before I read your part of carry a C clamp.

 

[wink]

I remember those and I started reading this and was immediately thinking "this is why you carry a C clamp" before I read your part of carry a C clamp.

No shit! How do you like these soft kids today?

 

[exNavyOffRec]

put your robe back on

back in the early 90's before we added women to the crew of a CVN we just went to the showers in a towel, or carrying a towel and just walked up there naked, or walked back naked after someone took your towel and you had to get a new one, then there was crossing the line ceremony where they would hose us all down and we would walk naked from the flight deck back to our berthings. It now seems like we spent an unusually excessive amount of time without clothes on while on that ship......

 

[exNavyOffRec]

No shit! How do you like these soft kids today?

us nukes were kind of lazy geniuses so we would come up with weird contraptions to avoid using the button and holding the hose, the HT's were not impressed.

 

[nittany03]

back in the early 90's before we added women to the crew of a CVN we just went to the showers in a towel, or carrying a towel and just walked up there naked, or walked back naked after someone took your towel and you had to get a new one, then there was crossing the line ceremony where they would hose us all down and we would walk naked from the flight deck back to our berthings. It now seems like we spent an unusually excessive amount of time without clothes on while on that ship......

Not that there's anything wrong with that . . .

 

[AllAmerican75]

I have never taken anything other than a Hollywood shower... ever.

Most boats seemed to have normal, "nice" shower heads (5gpm or greater) instead of low flow "Navy" heads (1-3gpm) and thus I never felt the slightest bit of guilt about any shower I ever took.

Let's see, 300~ish people on a smallboy crew, if everybody is hustling and uses only 5 minutes of water a day, these things will save the ship a few thousand gallons of potable water every single day of cruise. That's using conservative numbers.

They're also cheaper.

"Don't take Hollywood showers" is one of those clarion calls of hurr-durr leadership, same as things like the guy at the safety stand down who says to always drive the speed limit for safety. FWIW the Army was just as dumb in their hardware choices for field showers...

On the topic of Navy showers:. My grandfather was an Engineering Officer on board Essex class carriers and other old steam powered ships in the post-WWII Navy. I think water used to be a bigger deal for those ships as my grandfather still took "Navy showers" well past his retirement. Old habits die hard I guess and I'd imagine as one of the engineering officers he had a lot of personal incentive for not harming the steam plant.

What happened to "button" showers? You don't have a plastic head on a hose that you had to hold a button down on? It required one dedicate hand just to get water flow. Basically, you were forced into a Navy shower. Rinse, lather up, rinse. You would have to carry a C clamp rig into the head to get a good Hollywood shower.

With the wonders of modern technology, water hours and Navy showers are not as much of an issue. The reverse osmosis systems that most ships (Not sure about carriers) have need to run a certain amount to stay in good working order. On smaller ships we now have the opposite problem where we can't use enough water to keep the RO machine gremlins happy. Thus, many snipes have resorted to supernatural means to keep the gremlins at bay such as making offerings to said gremlins in main control.

 

[Brett327]

It now seems like we spent an unusually excessive amount of time without clothes on while on that ship......

 

[exNavyOffRec]

With the wonders of modern technology, water hours and Navy showers are not as much of an issue. The reverse osmosis systems that most ships (Not sure about carriers) have need to run a certain amount to stay in good working order. On smaller ships we now have the opposite problem where we can't use enough water to keep the RO machine gremlins happy. Thus, many snipes have resorted to supernatural means to keep the gremlins at bay such as making offerings to said gremlins in main control.

There was rumor of the RO systems being installed on the CVN's in the future, might have happened now, when we had all 4 units working on the CVN and we weren't doing excessive flight ops often we would run the machines with the dump valve tripped, we would make good water and pump it right back overboard.

 

[nittany03]

FWIW the Army was just as dumb in their hardware choices for field showers...

Hell, the Aussies used those bag camp shower things you had to fill with a bucket and then haul up with a pulley.

That was an interesting time “out bush . . .”

 

[Rtjenkins]

On 2) What I found with the 1110's I knew on the CVN's was that most of them were on the track to being a civilian, on my last sea tour I knew the CHENG from a previous tour and asked him what the benefit was of a 1110 going to a CVN and he said none, it is essentially a career killer and often the 1110's that go to CVN's were sent there so those that had good records could go to career enhancing billets.

3) I don't know if I understand this, what do you mean by "no interaction with the rest of interested parties" the RO would be at DH meetings, if you are speaking in regards to flight ops that I do understand what you are saying.

7) don't forget nuke LDO's and nuke CWO's on their first sea tour since commissioning so they can earn their SWO pin, I can't tell you how thrilled most are to do this. I had a friend who was a nuke LDO and we ended up being stationed together at sea after he was commissioned, the CO was so impressed by him that every time we were going in/out of port or an unrep he wanted him on the bridge.

I have few questions. Are Chengs. CEC officers or SWOS? Is there a big difference between LDO nukes and regular nuke officers? What exactly would a SWO do on a carrier, I’ve only ever been on carrier? The only SWO I met personally was the deseron “spell check”, maybe because I was air. But I have never seen any junior swos on a carrier before as divos or dh.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I have few questions. Are Chengs. CEC officers or SWOS? Is there a big difference between LDO nukes and regular nuke officers? What exactly would a SWO do on a carrier, I’ve only ever been on carrier? The only SWO I met personally was the deseron “spell check”, maybe because I was air. But I have never seen any junior swos on a carrier before as divos or dh.

The Chengs I saw or know of were all LDO's, however some have said they knew of Chengs that were conventional SWO's.

LDO-N compared to SWO-N are just like the rest of the USN the tech experts, LDO-N's can stand EOOW on a CVN while SWO-N's cannot until they attend and pass the engineers exam.

A conventional SWO would be a DIVO for some non-nuke divisions like E-Div or R-Div, it would be their second tour of their 4 year obligation, not career enhancing.

 

[Rtjenkins]

The Chengs I saw or know of were all LDO's, however some have said they knew of Chengs that were conventional SWO's.

LDO-N compared to SWO-N are just like the rest of the USN the tech experts, LDO-N's can stand EOOW on a CVN while SWO-N's cannot until they attend and pass the engineers exam.

A conventional SWO would be a DIVO for some non-nuke divisions like E-Div or R-Div, it would be their second tour of their 4 year obligation, not career enhancing.

Ok SWOs should stay away from carriers unless they are planning on getting out then?

 

[Hair Warrior]

Civil Engineering (CEC) is only for shore-based engineering projects, like roads, ports, hangars, runways, etc. They get their PE and many are also LEED certified. Maritime engineering would be EDO, SWO, surface LDOs/Warrants, etc.

 

[Rtjenkins]

Civil Engineering (CEC) is only for shore-based engineering projects, like roads, ports, hangars, runways, etc. They get their PE and many are also LEED certified. Maritime engineering would be EDO, SWO, surface LDOs/Warrants, etc.

Oh I see, so the Cheng on a carrier is most likely SWO/EDO like DH (05)

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Oh I see, so the Cheng on a carrier is most likely SWO/EDO like DH (05)

Yes, I made an error on my original post, it was EDO's or conventional SWO's, but all the ones I saw were EDO's. The ones I saw would arrive as O5 and leave as an O6.

The term Cheng on a CVN is misleading as they don't have much to do with engineering items, everything dealing with power generation, and propulsion is Reactor. The items that would fall under a CVN Cheng would be power distribution systems outside of the propulsion plant, waste water systems, and heating systems once outside of the Reactor controlled areas, I am sure there are a few others as well.