[Milsurplus] Dang Dang Battle Stations

[Jerry K]

If I recall correctly, the IC's on my first ship in 1961 had a big 'ol
tube-powered boatanchor type of box on the bulkhead down in the bowels of
Forward IC that did a multipurpose job of running the 1MC and transmitting
GQ gongs, but I have no idea if the box generated the gongs or if there was
some sort of actual bell with a mic attached. The IC's used to bum tubes
from us to fix the box. Might be a trick to find one, and it might be a
bigger trick to lift it! Newer ships must have had a much smaller solid
state box of some sort. Maybe a salty old IC tech can answer the question.
Wish I could tell you more, but I was an ET, so I was usually up there on
the 03 level with clean dungarees, fresh coffee, and air conditioning.

We got very used to hearing the gong, followed by "This is a drill, this is
a drill, General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man your battle
stations". Remember "up and forward starboard, down and aft to port"? But I
can still remember the pucker in the Gulf of Tonkin the first time I heard
"This is NOT a drill. Repeat, this is NOT a drill". I didn't know at the
time the MIG's were coming only part way out, just to jerk our chains.  :-)

Sea story: MIG's used to come out about halfway to the picket ships in the
middle of the night just to harass the midwatch and wake everybody up with
GQ alarms. They knew exactly how close they could get and still be safe from
Terrier missles, and would always turn around at that point. Finally they
started making a routine of this, so one night the Task Force Commander's
staff slipped a TALOS missle equipped small cruiser into picket position
instead of the usual Terrier-equipped unit. TALOS missles had a lot more
range than the Terrier. Surprise, surprise... I was told the cruiser nailed
two MIG's that night, and changed Hanoi's night flight plans a bit from then
on.  Heh, heh.

Jerry W5KP


-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of
Military1944 at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2005 10:35 AM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Milsurplus] Dang Dang Battle Stations


Hi all from a cold a frosty jolly old England.

The battle stations gong on navy ships.. anyone know how it was produced?
Guess there was a electronic unit somewhere, when the button was pressed it
created the dang dang dang sound so familiar of movies.

So, does anyone have one spare.. I have several ship mounted speaker units
and would love to drive them this sound come dinner time etc.

cheers, Captain Ben.
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