Hypothetical: The Navy drafted you in WWII.

[Rain Man]

I found a database of major American WWII ships the other day and pulled it into Excel. Then I found information on crew sizes. Now I have a simple simulator.

So if you were drafted into the Navy in World War II and were assigned to a large ship (e.g., submarine, destroyer, cruiser, or larger), I can now randomly assign you to a ship. Report in this thread to get your assignment.

I'll tell you your ship, and then it's up to you to look it up and see where it went and what happened to it. If the ship took casualties, let me know how many were killed and wounded and I'll do a random draw to see if you would have survived.


As for me, I would have been one of 700 sailors aboard:

Juneau** Atlanta-class Light Cruiser**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Juneau_(CL-52)

That's not really a good thing. I hung out with a nice set of five brothers from Iowa, the Sullivans, but we saw some bad things.

We launched early in 1942 and did some early runs in the Atlantic and Caribbean before heading to the Pacific Theater. Right out of the gate in the Pacific we had to rescue sailors from an aircraft carrier that sank from a sub attack, and then we headed to Guadalcanal.

Our task force fought off four attacks from the Japanese, one of which took down another aircraft carrier.

Then another big Japanese group attacked, and we took a torpedo. We headed off toward Vanuatu for repairs, running with two other damaged ships, when we were attacked again by a Japanese sub. We took another torpedo which blew the ship to smithereens and we sank in 20 seconds.

The other two ships assumed there were no survivors and took off running. In actuality, 100 of the crew survived the sinking, but only about 10 survived the next eight days until rescue aircraft found them.

Based on a random dice roll, I went down with the ship, so my naval career ended late in 1942. I hope America won.

[Kaepernick]

Originally Posted by Delaney37

One of the pics I've liked best so far.
The carriers are (from front to back): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Hancock (CV-19) and USS Ticonderoga (CV-14).
Wasp, Yorktown and Ticonderoga are all painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 10a.
Photographed from a USS Ticonderoga plane.

Link to more pics of the Big T..

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/14.htm

That is a great picture.

I wonder if that camouflage was effective and any Jap subs really were fooled into thinking those flattops were just small destroyers.

[Kaepernick]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Here's the footage of it.

http://youtu.be/eFPb4XMuJWc

OUCH. Those Kamikazes really carried a punch.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Uh-oh. It's bound to happen when you're drafting 500,000 people. You just stay there in on Hotel Street in Honolulu for a bit and when I get back to my computer I will give you an assignment.

We all know the job of a detailer isn't an easy one with all the softball games, three-martini lunches, daily traffic in and out of BUPERS, Spa days, and cocktail parties that they seem be required to participate in!!

A detailer's description of your next command:



When you get there:

[duncan_idaho]

I'm in.

Should be interesting. My grandpa was on a ship in WWII, but I won't share which until after I'm assigned.

[bevischief]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I'm in.

Should be interesting. My grandpa was on a ship in WWII, but I won't share which until after I'm assigned.

My grandpa was on leave and saw the attack of pearl harbor and was a radar operator on a submarine when they dropped the 1st nuke on Japan.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Delaney37

USS Ticonderoga aka Big T.

...

She recovered Apollo 16 and 17 along with Skylab before she was finally scrapped.

Skylab? Just a big piece of Skylab, maybe?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Kaepernick

That is a great picture.

I wonder if that camouflage was effective and any Jap subs really were fooled into thinking those flattops were just small destroyers.

Oh, that's cool. I didn't even notice the destroyer outline.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by otherstar

Did I get missed?

Pogy** Gato-class Submarine**

That's an interesting name. Let us know how it turned out.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

I'm in.

Should be interesting. My grandpa was on a ship in WWII, but I won't share which until after I'm assigned.

Grayling** Tambor-class Submarine**


If it was the Grayling, I'll be kind of spooked.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Grayling** Tambor-class Submarine**


If it was the Grayling, I'll be kind of spooked.

Feel sorry for you.

[Delaney37]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Skylab? Just a big piece of Skylab, maybe?

Did some more digging and found this.....The Big T picked up Skylab 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab_2

Skylab 2 (also SL-2 and SLM-1) was the first manned mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station. The mission was launched on a Saturn IB rocket and carried a three-person crew to the station. The name Skylab 2 also refers to the vehicle used for that mission. The Skylab 2 mission established a record for human spaceflight duration. Furthermore, its crew were the first space station occupants ever to return safely to Earth – the only other space station occupants, the crew of the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission that had manned the Salyut 1 station, were killed during reentry.

The manned Skylab missions were officially designated Skylab 2, 3, and 4. Miscommunication about the numbering resulted in the mission emblems reading Skylab I, Skylab II, and Skylab 3 respectively.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Grayling** Tambor-class Submarine**


If it was the Grayling, I'll be kind of spooked.

USS Grayling-

I was part of the crew of the vessel Admiral Chester Nimitz chose as his command ship upon arriving at Pearl Harbor in mid-December of 1941.

We sank our first ship on our second patrol in April of 1942, off the coast of Japan itself.

Recalled to respond to the Japanese advance on Midway, we did an emergency dive while on reconnaissance duty to avoid friendly fire.

Random patrol duty went well until September 1943, when Grayling went out of radio contact and was never heard from again, despite random sightings by Japanese vessels with an American sub consistent with the Grayling.

It was lost with all hands, after scoring 5 confirmed kills.


My grandpa served on the USS Arkansas as replacement crew towards the end of the war.

[otherstar]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Pogy** Gato-class Submarine**

That's an interesting name. Let us know how it turned out.

Wow, what a history!

From Wikipedia:

Pogy was credited with sinking 62,633 tons of shipping in 16 ships. She received eight battle stars for service in World War II.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pogy_(SS-266)

Not real glamorous, but high effective!

[Barret]

Did I get missed? Sub duty please.

Or did I die in the "Dive Tower" :P

http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typ...ew_london.html

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Barret

Did I get missed? Sub duty please.

Or did I die in the "Dive Tower" :P

http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typ...ew_london.html

Ah, another historic relic...

http://diodon349.com/Stories/General..._in_Groton.htm

"

Navy sub training tower may rise again in Groton

Forwarded by George Stoffels

By Robert A. Hamilton Published on 6/27/2001 The old training tower at the Naval Submarine Base, originally completed in 1930 and since razed, may be replaced. Groton — The submarine dive tower, for more than 60 years a landmark at the Naval Submarine Base, could return soon, as the Navy seeks to improve training in the area of submarine escape. Lt. Brauna Carl, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said the Submarine Escape and Rescue Review Group has determined that pressurized escape training could be more effective over the long term, so it has authorized a formal “analysis of alternatives. ”“Right now, the Navy is looking at costs and looking at design requirements,” Carl said, but what is planned is a $12 million dive tower at the base here, and possibly a second one at the submarine base in Pearl Harbor. The tower would be one of the tallest buildings on the base since it would have to accommodate about 100 feet of water depth. The old tower was 138 feet tall. The proposal comes as the Navy is moving forward with plans to equip all its submarines with Submarine Escape and Immersion Equipment gear, or SEIEs, which contain a full body suit and a one-person raft which allow someone to survive for hours even in arctic conditions. “The suits are being put on the boats and they wanted to start evaluating the best way to conduct a training program with those suits,” Carl said. She said the Navy is working with other countries that use similar gear, particularly Britain, to study their training methods. The issue is sparking some debate within the undersea community, because with the training comes some risk of serious injury or death from embolisms: bubbles of air that would be forced into a sailor's lungs if he or she doesn't follow the proper procedure. But graduates of the old dive tower said the risk is more than outweighed by the advantage the training would give 140 or more crewmen if a submarine ever becomes disabled in water up to 600 feet deep. “In terms of confidence building, and preparing to deal with those conditions, I think it's worth the risk,” said retired Navy Capt. John J. Demlein Jr., who went through the training in June 1973. “There would be a lot more problems if this ever has to be done if we don't have the training.” “I think it's valuable, and I think the dangers are minimal, because the instructors are going to be well trained,” said Rick Norris of Groton, a retired Navy commander who spent several years in the deep submergence program. “It's like having prospective commanding officers fire torpedoes,” Norris said. “If you don't get to the point where the rubber meets the road, when you're faced with the real situation you might not react properly. ”The previous dive tower was constructed in 1929-30 at a cost of $120,000, and was closed in 1982. A 1986 study showed it would cost $267,000 to repair and $367,000 a year to operate it, versus $265,000 to demolish it, so it was torn down. In the 1980s the Navy instead built a submarine escape simulator that gives sailors experience in operating the escape equipment, but only a few feet below the surface. During the half-century the old tower operated, thousands of submariners got a feel for what it might be like to do a shallow-water exit from a disabled submarine by rising through 127 feet of water. One of the things the instructors stress is to exhale constantly on your way up through the water. As you rise and the pressure falls, the air in your lungs will expand, to almost five times its original volume. Failure to exhale can destroy lung tissue and cause embolisms that can block blood flow in the heart, lungs and other vital organs. Dr. William Norfleet of the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory said there have been some deaths recorded at the old dive tower in Groton, and internationally the experience has been about one death per 100,000 ascents, and four serious incidents per 10,000 ascents. A Naval Submarine School official said with about 2,500 students a year passing through Groton, that could translate to about one serious injury per year. Norfleet also noted that modern dive training is making progress — the Japanese submarine fleet has reported no serious injuries or deaths in more than 20,000 training ascents.Of 170 peacetime submarine sinkings since 1910, about 95 percent have happened in water shallow enough for the crew to escape using the new SEIE suits. But the more acquainted a sailor is with the escape procedure, the better his chance of survival. At 600 feet, you have about 30 seconds from the time you start pressurizing the escape trunk until you have to be on your way to the surface; if it takes any longer, you risk the bends. Demlein said many of the risks associated with the pressurized escape trainer can be mitigated by proper supervision. If the staff is looking for people who are not exhaling properly, they can stop them from ascending until they let their breath out. “I don't remember any really serious incidents while I was there,” Demlein said. “The instructors were all well trained, and they were pretty quick to handle it if you weren't doing things right.”Demlein said if someone is going to panic, however, it's better to have it happen in a training situation. “You never get a chance to do that aboard ship, and it allowed you to have confidence that you could actually make a free ascent with the submarine escape apparatus we used at the time, the Steinke hood, and do it well,” Demlein said. Carl said that is the same conclusion reached by the Submarine Escape and Rescue Review Group.

"