No more 'Ouija' Board

[HeyJoe]

NOT ONCE in my experience on 8 BOATs did FLIGHT DECK CONTROL ever fall down on the job.

Concur, although I suspect many inhabitants of Flight Deck Control (before the ban) suffer from secondary smoke lung cancer. I remember standing Integrity Watch just as they shut down and the place was worse than any bar I've been in (where smolking was still allowed). Even as they vacated and turned it over to me, it just reeked of smoke and stale coffee (but so did our Maintenance Control before the ban).

 

[A4sForever]

Concur, although I suspect many inhabitants of Flight Deck Control (before the ban) suffer from secondary smoke lung cancer. I remember standing Integrity Watch just as they shut down and the place was worse than any bar I've been in (where smolking was still allowed). Even as they vacated and turned it over to me, it just reeked of smoke and stale coffee (but so did our Maintenance Control before the ban).

Yellow teeth, caffeine hangover, stained coffee cups, and stained fingers ... REAL NAVY !!!

Where DID we get such men ???

 

[Vas Deferens]

Yellow teeth, caffeine hangover, stained coffee cups, and stained fingers ... REAL NAVY !!!

Where DID we get such men ???

I was born a generation late.

 

[HeyJoe]

I was born a generation late.

You can go to Canada and some spots in Europe where this is still the case.

 

[Catmando]

Concur, although I suspect many inhabitants of Flight Deck Control (before the ban) suffer from secondary smoke lung cancer. I remember standing Integrity Watch just as they shut down and the place was worse than any bar I've been in (where smolking was still allowed). Even as they vacated and turned it over to me, it just reeked of smoke and stale coffee (but so did our Maintenance Control before the ban).

You're lucky you missed the days when the smoking lamp was lit all about the ship. All our ready room chairs had ashtrays, and just about everyone smoked cigarettes or cigars continuously there... and most everywhere else for that matter.

I was surprised (pleasantly as a smoker back then) that we could smoke during class in preflight in Pensacola. For "butt-kits" they had several R-1820 pistons turned upside down and passed around during class.

Cough, cough...... :icon_rast:icon_hat::skull_125

 

[A4sForever]

You're lucky you missed the days when the smoking lamp was lit all about the ship. All our ready room chairs had ashtrays, and just about everyone smoked cigarettes or cigars continuously there... and most everywhere else for that matter.

I was surprised (pleasantly as a smoker back then) that we could smoke during class in preflight in Pensacola. For "butt-kits" they had several R-1820 pistons turned upside down and passed around during class.

Cough, cough...... :icon_rast:icon_hat::skull_125

Absolutely!!! I think @ 10-20% of the guys DIDN'T smoke !!! Hell, we smoked EVERYWHERE ... college classes, Navy classes, ship, shore, airborne ... cough.

Besides ... back in those days, when the ship got outside of the 3-mile limit ... a carton of front-line smokes (no generics/cheapies existed then ... we PAID GOOD MONEY for our coughin' ... ) cost US $1 ... in other words, it was such a GOOD DEAL, you couldn't afford NOT to smoke !!!

Cough ... wheeze ... :icon_rast:icon_hat::skull_125

 

[scoolbubba]

Now I know where all that medicare money is going.

 

[BigIron]

On a somewhat related note, I was intimately involved in the transition of my DDG's navigation system from paper charts to electronic charts. The VMS (Voyage Management System, which is the software that utilizes the digital charts) was pretty buggy at first. It was subject to the most random bugs imaginable, such as when the GPS satellites were "upgraded" and caused our system to freeze up nearly every time the number 32 appeared (such as in the clock). It also played a role in our ship magically teleporting over a thousand miles, exactly where we were running a scenario (and no, this time it was not operator error). I imagine that it is much more stable and useful now, but the transition was certainly an interesting one (from a technician's standpoint).

Between VMS, ISIS, and Moriah it's pretty easy for everyone to figure out "where we've been and where we are going."

 

[helolumpy]

Reading the article, did you notice who was pimping the new system? A retired Navy captain who's representing a contractor.

This is why we are getting the new system, the leadership wants to do business with contractors so when they retire, they can apply to get cushy contracting jobs and push new products onto the military.

Kind of like a few years ago, NATEC said they were no longer going to publish paper copies of NATOPS manuals.
We ask how we were get them issued, we were told it would come on a CD.
The NATEC folks looked at us funny when we asked them how we were supposed to access the CD while in the helicopter.
Talk about confused!!!

Newer doesn't always equal better!!

 

[RotorHead04]

Perhaps it's the geek in me ...

... all I could think of while reading this thread was this: Mircosoft Surface.

I can just see it now ... it will work great until something gets spilled on it, and then it will slowly lose functionality and speed until a pocket calculator will have more useful brain power.

I think sometimes people forget that Navy ships go out to sea, and those that inhabit them drink coffee, and that computers, no matter what the MilSpec says, do not like the briny air or the "muddy water."

 

[Cron]

It also played a role in our ship magically teleporting over a thousand miles, exactly where we were running a scenario

Yes, but did it make you travel back in time also??

 

[SkywardET]

To answer schoolbubba's question, yes they still keep paper charts for backup. I suspect, however, that within a decade out of the time when most ships have switched to digital navigation, the skill at using paper charts for navigation will decline precipitously.

Semaphore, after all, is required knowledge for things like the ESWS board, but it is not a requirement that any member of the crew know how to communicate with it.

Yes, but did it make you travel back in time also??

I purchased that movie a month ago and finally watched it two weeks ago. Thought it might be interesting...
I was disturbed by it; both by the juxtaposition of F-14s and bearded sailors, and by the extraordinarily bad acting. It was quite a leap back through time watching it, that's for sure.

 

[Catmando]

To answer schoolbubba's question, yes they still keep paper charts for backup. I suspect, however, that within a decade out of the time when most ships have switched to digital navigation, the skill at using paper charts for navigation will decline precipitously.

Semaphore, after all, is required knowledge for things like the ESWS board, but it is not a requirement that any member of the crew know how to communicate with it.

....

How about the sextant?

 

[eddie]

How about the sextant?

Wooden decks could be replaced by carpenters with... wood (readily available) and sails mended with only some level of expertise.

If somebody shot out the radar and gun directors / analogue computers on say, a Fletcher, at least they could still shoot because engagements of the time were still often line of sight.

If the AEGIS / SPY gets blasted, is a CRUDES ship useful anymore (excepting the helo)? Even if it isn't, there has to come a point at which evolving technology trumps the reliability and operational "simplicity" of older methods, no?

 

[helolumpy]

I'm thinking paper charts will always be around because you can write on them and reconstruct the problem later.
I think everyone has had an issue with 'trons' getting lost at some point. (For example, technicians just found over 22K emails from the Bush Administration yesterday)
Since missions such as SAR, ASW and MIO rely on accurate recreation later on, I would suspect that every ship captain is going to have a paper copy of the event going in addition to whatever whiz-bang electronic creation the Navy comes up with next.