From J.T. Linville ’66-’71 Gold M Div:

Couple of short stories come to mind about first cycle gold crew patrols 1 through 9.  Three out of Rota, three out of Holy Loch and three out of Charleston. Sort of a submarine EastLant or something.   A couple deal with the ELT gang of which I was a member.  First patrol our lead was Larry Sorensen who was a good guy.  There also was another ELT who was already qualified ELT but not SS if I remember right.  Anyway back on those days, before the charged disc for you young ELTs, you actually did an iodine separation with chemicals and glassware.  At the end you had to shake a flask with a stopper before filtering the contents.  Well ol’ Charley (who I notice isn’t on the crew list and left the boat immediately after that patrol) forgot to hold his finger over the stopper and shook the entire reactor coolant iodine sample all over his coveralls!  What a mess.  Had to shoot his suit out the TDU and Sorensen disqualified him on the spot.  This then led to the next problem a patrol later.  Boat was in dry dock for something, screw perhaps, and someone decided to retile galley during the refit so everyone was taking a boat over to the tender for chow.  Problem came from someone noticing I was the only qualified ELT on board and we had weapons on board.  So I ate “take out” food that someone would bring back, usually cold and nasty, from the tender.

Second ELT story was coming into Rota off patrol.  I was going topside to do survey.  Sun hadn’t come up yet and it was damn dark topside.  I hooked in the rail with my safety line and took a step or two and my left leg disappeared into an open line locker!  No wonder Sonar kept bitching about a hatch being loose all patrol.  This of course brought my crotch in hard contact with the lip of the line locker causing great pain.  I had an abiding respect for whoever built those ANPDR-27s as the one I had in my right hand hit the deck with great velocity and kept on ticking.  Of course I am trying to get out of the line locker with tears in my eyes from the pain and the XO is hollering from the sail to get the lead out and do the survey. It was a darn brief survey you can bet.

Speaking of personnel on the sail, there was a great moment when our Engineer, one J.A. Schmidt (better known as Jasbo to M Div) was on the sail and a certain young A gang member was up there.  The A gang guy was eating a lifesaver and ol’ Jasbo, said how about giving me one.  Well this young man slipped a Teflon Wahl seal on top of the lifesaver roll and happily offered the roll to the Eng.   He took the top one and put it in his mouth, immediately knew he had been had but kept sucking on it for the watch rather than admit he had been suckered. 

And finally another M-Div story regarding a young second class MM.  I won’t use his name for fear there is still a court warrant for him in New London .  Seems he took his reenlistment bonus and bought a Harley.  Thought he was a real Hells Angel.  We had a ship’s picnic at Gardner Lake .  Well this guy has some townie girl on the back in her string bikini and is leaving the party down that gravel road to the lake.  Well he dumps the Harley, girl and all, and I expect although I didn’t see, she got a severe case of road rash.  Well being a gentleman, that is a sailor well intoxicated; he righted the bike and took off leaving her there.  For weeks after someone, I guess her lawyer, used to come to the ships office trying to find out who had a new Harley.  Seems the young lady had no idea what his name was when she agreed to the invitation.  Of course we all pled ignorance of anyone having a motorcycle at all.