set condition one mike: Pacific beach, the rented car, and no shoes-4th of July 1982

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Pacific beach, the rented car, and no shoes-4th of July 1982

Dan Rodriguez, Pete Baker, and Tommy Delos Santos and I all pitched in together to rent a car, so we could go down to Pacific beach- SanDiego for the 4th of July, 1982. Ernie and I lost the group after a long day of drinking beer, and called the ship's truck to come and pick us up, but they said no way, too many people down there. So we walked back to the ship. The catch... Our shoes were in the rental car.

------------------------------------------------------Tom Delos Santos---------------------------------------

It is 5.17 miles as the crow flies. We couldnt walk as the crow flies.
We were picking broken glass out of our feet for the next month.

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Condition One Mike

"Condition One Mike" (Cond1 M) is a special type of General quarters aboard Ocean Going Minesweepers. The ship is at full alert and all battle stations are manned. The crew is deployed about the weather decks, the only persons left inside the skin of the ship being the helmsman and lee helmsmen. Bed mattresses are placed on the overhead of the pilot house for the benefit of those two crewmen in the event of a mine detonation too close to the ship. The deck crew is stationed on the fantail and tasked with deploying and recovering the sweep gear. This is hazardous duty, a mixture of some of the same hazards found on flight decks, with wires under high tension and sailors working in very close proximity to such wires, explosive cutter cartridges which have to be armed one at a time as they are set out and disarmed before being brought back on board , often by a Boatswain's mate or Gunner's mate hanging over the very ass end by a safety harness. They are armed and disarmed with a small cotter pin similar to a hand grenade. The whole scene is very similar to the modern TV show "Deadliest catch", but the crab pods are mine sweeping devices, and the "catch" are big round and cylindrical BOMBS capable of sinking an aircraft carrier.