Don, that one is absolutely true! I was there. Some of the time in SF I pulled a TAD to Mess Deck MAA. I was monitoring the mess line in hangar bay two. A yard bird with drawing and cutting torch showed up to install a 'stuffing tube' in a bulkhead. He went aft to the next door to make sure the light was on in the passageway. Then he measured his place and chalk marked the place he was to cut. While he was burning the hole I was trying to get people past him and down the ladder to the after mess and keep an eye on him. I noticed that he was concerned when he knocked out the plug and it was dark on the other side. He went back down to the next door to check on the light. I can honestly say that is the first time I actually saw someone scratch their head with one hand and their butt with the other and swap hands. He cut the hole bigger and used his flashlight to look in the hole. He packed everything up and left.
The next day a bunch of yard birds with white hats and drawings showed up scratching their heads. A day or two later another crew showed with a double door and more cutting torches. They marked off an area and cut it out and welded in the new door.
Yes it was a machinery space. It was for the boat crews to work on the diesel engines in the ships utility boats.
I heard later that a berthing space was found a week or two later on the other side of the ship. Anyone verify that one?
I Do Remember Water Hours While Comming Around the Horn Do to Someone Opening a Fuel Oil Tank Stripping Valve Instead of the Bilge Well Valve #2 MMR. Pumped Black Oil Under the Hull and one Set of Evaporators in # 2 Auxiliary Picked up the Oil. I Belive It Took 48 Hours to Steam Clean That Set of Evaporators >I also Heard about the Lost Compartment..
Allan Gaetzman (later BT2 KH) on Liberty (A school) in Chicago in the summer of 1960 got a tattoo of his Girlfriends name. I wonder if he still has either.
I remember #5 pump room bilge full of Black Oil due to Stripping valve opened on service tank in #4 MMR The pipe was not on its hanger and rubbed on another line till it broke.
Howard Hodge BT2 1961-64 Oil King
I remember a friend of mine when we were in Phila. on the pre commissioning crew who was going to get a tattoo with his girlfriends name on his arm. He said he was going home to ask her to marry him. I told him I didn't think it was a good idea. he didn't listen and he went home that weekend after he got the tattoo and she ended the relationship.
