Posted on by Mister Mac
“There are men working in the sail… do not raise, lower, rotate or radiate from any mast or antennae… there are men working in the sail!”
6 thoughts on ““There are men working in the sail… do not raise, lower, rotate or radiate from any mast or antennae… there are men working in the sail!””
Leave a Reply
OH My Gosh Mr.Mac!
I can even now hear my voice over the One MC while inport.
Funny thing is that I heard my own in my head as I typed it.
Great reading our nostalgia Submarine posts out here.
Thank you shipmate
Thanks. Its a passion of mine to make sure the stories are not lost
Although this article took me back in time due to the extensive info provided on Blueback (which I served on up until she was decommissioned), it was the quotation of the 1MC announcement for men working in the sail that REALLY took me back to a vivid memory.
My first boat was the Guardfish, which was a 594 class (fast attack tough). Not only did we have the lengthy announcement for men working in the sail and for divers over the side, but we also had one for men working in the freeflood. On one particular day I was the poor sap who had to take the twenty some odd deck screws out of the man hole like cover to access the freeflood area beside the sail to work on an electrical hull penetration. I informed the topside watch that I was headed down the hole when he said “oh, great… now I have to give all three announcements. That’s going to take 5 minutes every time”. So he grabbed the topside 1MC and said “There are divers over the side, there are men working in the sail, there are men working in the freeflood…. Don’t f**k with anything”. The duty chief flew up the hatch so fast he almost tripped and would have fallen over the side had I not been standing there. The duty officer was right behind him, and I had a front row seat to perhaps the best ass chewing I ever witnessed in 20 years of submarine service.
ICFTBMT1(SS) Maxey, USN (retired)
That is a great memory
Mac