[GreenKeys] More on the TTY ribbons?

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

On 8/10/2011 11:57 PM, Bill wrote:
> I don't think anyone was too concerned about the amount of 
> copies we ran. We had Flag aboard and they /had/ to have 
> 50 or 60 copies of everything. 
The only "big brass" we had on board was Subron 15...   and 
they were so secretive I don't think THEY even knew what 
they were doing half the time! <grin!>.  Being a SINS 
(navigation ET) tech  (weapons dept.) we had little to do 
with Ops (radio, teletype, RADAR) during normal work. But 
being a tender - we weren't staffed very deep in several 
areas - so since we (and similar shops) weren't real busy 
"underway" - we were used to "flesh out" short departments.  
That's how as an E4 I wound up on the Propulsion Switch 
board during our trip from Guam to San Francisco (Dec 71). 
By the time we got out of the yards in Nov 72 - I had made 
E5 - so pulled a more "responsible" job in CIC - learning 
everything from CIC Phone "talker" to RADAR watch, DRT, to 
Maneuvering board plotting. By the time I left Proteus Dec 
75 - I was filling the CIC Officer's job while underway (I'd 
made E6 Jul 74). All of my radio and teletype "experience" 
was at home - we had a bunch of the stuff - which we used 
both for our own "entertainment" (and news) as well as 
passing MARS traffic from VN to CONUS.
> Guess so they could fill the burn bags to show everyone 
> that they were doing something. When we would deploy, we 
> would have at least 100 drums in stock. It was hard to get 
> the RM's trained on how to load the paper so it would not 
> jam and scratch the drums. Along with all the TTY's 
> onboard and those two Xerox machines, my small TTY shop 
> crew of 6 and I were kept on the go. The RM's were on a 12 
> on 12 off watch sked. I was the leading RM so my hours 
> hardly ever stopped. When we would return to home port, we 
> would send the drums back for referb.
> I sure miss those days!! Great times.
We worked from (IIRC) around 6AM to 2:15PM - then had the 
rest of the day off - unless we had the duty.  Most of the 
enlisted crew below chief caught duty every 4 days. The duty 
section would stay on the ship overnight - doing mostly work 
on the ship itself unless a boat needed something - and of 
course the duty damage control party was made up of about 
150 or so of the duty section (since about 1/4 of the E6's 
and below - as well as about 1/10 the officers and chiefs 
made up the total duty section - that made for around 250 - 
260 aboard at all times - and of course the rest of the crew 
weren't far off (I mean Guam is only 33 miles long - it was 
hard to get too far away!).

We worked hard - and played hard - yeah - those were great 
times - we knew who the good guys and bad guys were - things 
seemed so much simpler "then"...

best regards...

-- 
randy guttery

A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
so vital to the United States Silent Service:
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