[MRCA] for you naval buffs - USS Intrepid

[Clarke, Tom AIR4.0P NATOPS]

Yep, some of that "black faced" (RBM, etc) would have been more appropriate for the previous Growler.  Fortunately, most of the folks visiting these museums wouldn't know that! Just us fanatics!

The previous Growler (SS-215) was famous for one of her skippers, Howard W. Gilmore, who received the Medal Of Honor during one wartime cruise from Pearl Harbor.  While under Japanese air strafing attack, the skipper on the bridge was grievously wounded while submerging. He realized that it would endanger the ship for them to try to get him below deck, so he issued to his executive officer the command, "Take her down, Schade", thus saving the crew and the boat.

As the Admiral said in Michener's 'The Bridges at Toko-Ri', "Where do we get such men?"  

Tom/W4OKW

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Morrow [mailto:kk5f at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2011 7:40 PM
To: mrca at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [MRCA] for you naval buffs - USS Intrepid

Eugene wrote:

> Took the family to see the intrepid on Sunday.

I enjoyed your Intrepid photos.  I served on the Intrepid in 1971,
when she was CVS-11.  Part of the radio gear in your photos is
consistent with my memories, but that WWII RBM receiver shown in one
photo is very unlikely to have been on board, and even in WWII it
would not have been in the radio rooms (nor would any of that test
equipment).

The Intrepid was decommisioned in 1973, a couple of years after I left,
so she should be in about the same configuration that existed when I
was aboard.  I've never visited it as a museum ship...I try to stay out
of the northeast US!  I am glad some organization maintains her.
(Now, if only the same support could be organized for Philadelphia's
USS Olympia, a Spanish-American War cruiser commissioned in 1895 that
may be scrapped or sunk as an artificial reef if restoration funds
are not found.)

>  We visited the Growler, a 60's era submarine and also the intrepid.

I last saw USS Growler at the inactive ship facility at Mare Island, CA,
in 1974.  Contrary to the claims at many websites, the Growler was laid up
after decommissioning in 1964 at Mare Island, not Puget Sound, and spent
a couple of decades there.  She only had about five years of active service
before being replaced by submarines on which I spent most of my service time,
nuclear-powered ballistic missile boats.  Mine (USS Daniel Boone, SSBN-629)
was commissioned the same year that the Growler was decommissioned.

> Lots of photos of radios, teletypes, radars, sonars, and floating and
> flying hardware.  
>
> http://www.w2hx.com/x/09-04-2011-Intrepid/

I like the photos of the AN/URC-32 on the Growler.

I've seen that countermeasures signal intercept receiver shown in photo
7222, but it was on the Intrepid.  The WWII RAO receiver shown in photo
7227 would not have been on board the Growler, which was commissioned in
1958.

Thanks for showing the interesting photos.

Mike / KK5F