Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,489
- 4,657
After the shooting had stopped - I found myself cross-decked to serve aboard the nuclear powered cruiser, the Long Beach. Heck, I didn't even know that we had a nuclear powered cruiser! It was old, fast, and was at that time the flagship for the USN in the Persian Gulf. Heck of a ship, heck of a crew!
So, one night I'm the officer in charge of the whole friggin' fleet and more... LOL! Me? Yup! I was a Marine Corps Captain, a mere O-3...
In the Navy, a Captain is an O-6... Equal to an Army, Air Force or Marine Colonel... And likely to be in charge of either a really big, powerful ship, or several ships...
One of my duties in the middle of the night, was to use the secure phone to call up each ship in the gulf and the land based Patriot missile batteries and check their status... Like "Are you ready to shoot down a SCUD missile or not?" - but not quite that blunt.
So, I call 'em up one by one (this was my first time acting as a member of the Admiral's staff) and the chief and his sailors were curiously watching and listening to how this muscular young Marine officer would handle what was obviously NOT his specialty...
All the Navy ships answered up promptly (and hopefully accurately) that their air defense systems were ready to go.
Then I got to the Army's Patriot Missile battery ashore in Saudi...
The Sergeant on duty freaked out at being called by what he assumed was a Navy captain.. "Captain Miner, USS Long Beach" - calling in the middle of the night to see if they were ready...
His response? "Sir! I'll go wake the Major now!" :mrgreen:
I went with it and replied "Very well."
The chief and his sailors were trying soooo hard not to laugh...
After a few minutes an obviously sleepy Army Major came on the phone and replied that all was well, his crew was on duty, and the missiles were ready to go. He wanted to know what the threat was. I explained that there was nothing out of the ordinary, and that I was just checking. Oh my goodness... He outranked me, but didn't know it. So he went back to bed. I had another cup of coffee with the chief. The Long Beach continued on patrol nearly 30 years after she'd been commissioned. And we were ready to repel enemy SCUD missiles...
I wonder if that Army Major ever figured out that he was talking to a Marine Captain, not a Navy Captain?
Guy
So, one night I'm the officer in charge of the whole friggin' fleet and more... LOL! Me? Yup! I was a Marine Corps Captain, a mere O-3...
In the Navy, a Captain is an O-6... Equal to an Army, Air Force or Marine Colonel... And likely to be in charge of either a really big, powerful ship, or several ships...
One of my duties in the middle of the night, was to use the secure phone to call up each ship in the gulf and the land based Patriot missile batteries and check their status... Like "Are you ready to shoot down a SCUD missile or not?" - but not quite that blunt.
So, I call 'em up one by one (this was my first time acting as a member of the Admiral's staff) and the chief and his sailors were curiously watching and listening to how this muscular young Marine officer would handle what was obviously NOT his specialty...
All the Navy ships answered up promptly (and hopefully accurately) that their air defense systems were ready to go.
Then I got to the Army's Patriot Missile battery ashore in Saudi...
The Sergeant on duty freaked out at being called by what he assumed was a Navy captain.. "Captain Miner, USS Long Beach" - calling in the middle of the night to see if they were ready...
His response? "Sir! I'll go wake the Major now!" :mrgreen:
I went with it and replied "Very well."
The chief and his sailors were trying soooo hard not to laugh...
After a few minutes an obviously sleepy Army Major came on the phone and replied that all was well, his crew was on duty, and the missiles were ready to go. He wanted to know what the threat was. I explained that there was nothing out of the ordinary, and that I was just checking. Oh my goodness... He outranked me, but didn't know it.
So he went back to bed. I had another cup of coffee with the chief. The Long Beach continued on patrol nearly 30 years after she'd been commissioned. And we were ready to repel enemy SCUD missiles... I wonder if that Army Major ever figured out that he was talking to a Marine Captain, not a Navy Captain?
Guy
