Trivia Question

[Das Boot]

OK you sub guys. What Navy surface vessel got the dolphins painted on the fantail in the 70s?

[wlambing]

I don't know about a Navy unit, but I do know some Navy divers stenciled dolphins onto the stern of USCGC Eagle in the early 70s. I also know USS Trepang painted a good sized bullseye on the side of USS Ticonderoga in Roosevelt Roads in the early 80s. They were NOT happy!!! Ah, the good old days ...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I don't know about a Navy unit, but I do know some Navy divers stenciled dolphins onto the stern of USCGC Eagle in the early 70s. I also know USS Trepang painted a good sized bullseye on the side of USS Ticonderoga in Roosevelt Roads in the early 80s. They were NOT happy!!! Ah, the good old days ...

Under cover of darkness, I personally swam an open quart can of green paint and a 1" brush to grace the side of a Destroyer unfortunate enough to have tied up to the Key West Naval Station submarine piers. That unit a member of the cocky *******s we played ASW games with during the day. Pricks should have stayed at Gitmo where they belong. Taught me not to sign my work... it cost us a case of steaks and a vat of Napolean ice-cream.

(Only way they could get a kill on us was to have us first launch a green smoke so they could find us and signal the Commadore that they found and killed an ECHO).

[Davjacva]

Green Pyros...in 2001-02, the state of supply munitions was pretty damn bad, and we were forced to accept pyros that we rejected. It was a battle between CINCLANTFLT and COMSUBLANT lost out. So you'd order munitions and when they arrived you had to accept them, even if you rejected them and do the paperwork to then transfer them. This resulted in pier-side battles between officers from the two entities and we just watched in disbelief. This was really 'f'd up'. The pyros in question had all been subjected to flooding, were still covered in salt deposits and the safety pins were rusted. To those not familiar with sub pyros, these burn at 4500-deg f and you can't put them out once initiated. Not something you ever want near a craft let alone a sub. Two subs, the Chicago and the Memphis had pyro fires while in the ejector and it was still pretty bad. Anyway, so we received these right before underway and so they went with us. I had notified the captain all about it and agreed that these would be disposed of by ejecting. We launched over 10 of them at out targets (the battle fleet) and none of them lit off. My CO was ****ed, not at me, but I got an earful. When we got back, someone up the food chain corrected the problem, but it was by default, as there had been none being produced...so you didn't get anything but reds (for casualty emergency use only) and you'd only get the minimum of six.