ramlovingvet

Snipes

Now each of us from time to time has gazed upon the sea and watched
the mighty warships pulling out to keep this country free. And most
of us have read a book or heard a lusty tale, about these men who
sail these ships through lightning, wind and hail.
But there's a place within each ship that legends fail to teach.
It's down below the water-line and it takes a living toll - - a hot
metal living hell, that sailors call the "Hole." It houses engines
run with steam that makes the shafts go round.
A place of fire, noise, and heat that beats your spirits down. Where
boilers like a hellish heart, with blood of angry steam, are molded
gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream.

Whose threat from the fires roar, is like a living doubt, that at any
moment with such scorn, might escape and crush you out. Where
turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in Hell, are
ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell. The men who
keep the fires lit and make the engines run, are strangers to the
light and rarely see the sun.
They have no time for man or Play, no tolerance for fear, their aspect
pays no living thing a tribute of a tear. For there's not much that
men can do that these men haven't done, beneath the decks, deep in
the hole, to make the engines run. And every hour of every day they
keep the watch in Hell, for if the fires ever fail, their ship's a
useless shell.

When ships converge to have a war upon an angry sea, the men below
just grimly smile at what their fate will be. They're locked below
like men fore-doomed, who hear no battle cry, it's well assumed that
if they're hit, men below will die. For every day's a war down there
when gauges all read red, twelve-hundred pounds of heated steam can
kill you mighty dead.


So if you ever write their songs or try to tell their tale, the very
words would make you hear a fired furnace's wail. And people as a
general rule don't hear of these men of steel, so little heard about
this place that sailors call the "Hole." But I can sing about this
place and try to make you see, the hardened life of the men down
there, 'cause one of them is me. I've seen these sweat-soaked heroes
fight in superheated air, to keep their ship alive and right, though
no one knows they're there.

And thus they'll fight for ages on till warships sail no more, amid
the boiler's mighty heat and the turbine's hellish roar. So when you
see a ship pull out to meet a war-like foe, remember faintly if you
can, "The Men Who Sail Below."
-Anonymous

hotdram

rlv,
That was really good. Tried not to spend much time below decks if I didn't have to, but occassionally went into the hole to perform maintenance on some of our heat exchanger piping. Thanked my lucky stars each time I went down there that I was not 12 on 12 off down there.

Rob (former twidget on EX-USS Wainwright CG-28)

ramlovingvet

Hi Ya Sparky We still call you guys snipes LOL

USS Flint AE-32
USS Jason AR-8
NRS SALEM Or
USS Kitty Hawk CV-63

hotdram

rlv,
You probably got a lot of EM's riled up by including me with them and soiling the good name of real snipes everywhere .
I was an ET, repaired radars and such.

~Rob

ramlovingvet

My bad I was thinking EM You aint no Snipe!! Happy Now.
LOL

bulabula

I broke a sweat reading it, and ears started ringing again from the FDB's. Snipes are a dedicated lot; worked hard, and played harder.

Those were the days before plug and play (gas turbines)

shortround

US Navy ships are painted one of two colors. Either balck or gray.
There are only two types of ships in the Navy, submarines and targets.

Dieseldude4x4

Spent four years on the USS Iwo Jima LPH2 as a snipe in the hole. We were the first ones in the effort to clear mines from the Suez Canal in 1973 when the outside air coming in through the vents was a balmy 120 degrees. Been out of that hole for nearly 30 years now and still remember every detail and the engine room layout. Spent normally 16 hours a day down there between work and watches. Midrats and midwatch. I slept for the first six months after I got out after I realized that I had to have some kind of noise to go to sleep by (our berthing compartment was right dead over shaft alley). Had the biggest gear I ever seen in my life in the reduction gears, it was 16 feet in diameter and four feet wide. She had 22500 SHP at 120 rpms and would do abut 24 knots if I remember right. She was decomissioned in 93. The aluminum superstructure is in a Rio Hondo Texas museum somewhere along with the plaques for picking up the ill fated Apollo 13 and a few other well earned awards. I took the maiden cruise on the new Iwo Jima LHD7 when she left the yards in Pascagoula Mississippi. That was pretty cool but it reminded me why I got out when I did. Still remember Harrier jet testing and ASROC launching too. Captains gig races, swim call off the elevators, GQ, turn too, heave out and trice up, and all that good stuff.

What really use to aggravate me is the fact that to punish the marines that didn't perform up to standards, they would send them down to the fire room to work out on the upper level. I'm thinking what's up with this, I stand watch down here. No, I wasn't a BT, I was a MM but number 1 SSTG was in the fire room on the upper level. Still remember the day I opened up the hatch to do rounds on the shaft bearings while steaming auxilliary and the water level in the shaft alley had just covered up the last shaft bearing. That was not a good day.



The new Iwo.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...cat/500/page/4

Dieseldude4x4

Sorry SR, I couldn't see getting on a ship that was designed to sink. And no windshield on top of that...........

joel

I agree shortround - two types. Targets (including the black ones) and my runway....

RLV - do you mind if I send this poem to a site called "The Goatlocker"? They've got lots of good stuff on there, but I haven't seen this one yet.

ramlovingvet

Love to see it

ramlovingvet

But us skimmers dont need battires

Chrisreyn

I was a deck-ape/coxswain..... didnt want to be cooped up like them snipes were...Good poem tho....


USCGC Durable
USCGC Diligence
USCG SAR STATION Grand Haven Mi

Dieseldude4x4

On good thing about the snipes, we always had shower water when the rest of the ship was without. Third stage off the flash evaps was just about right.

PistolWhipt

Yep ... and if you cut away some of the lagging around the evap, you could heat up a can of beans pretty quick to help you last until midrats !!!

I was a fresh-air snipe (MR and now DC) but spent the majority of my time in the pits for one reason or another.

Great poem RLV !!!

PISTOL

USS CONSERVER ARS-39
USS JASON AR-8
USS MT. VERNON LSD-39

SIMA LONG BEACH
NRD KANSAS CITY
NAS KEY WEST