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USN Salvors - 1970's bits and pieces


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Salvage Sailor

USS SAFEGUARD in Subic Bay with YRST-1 (not shown)

 

uss_safeguard_ars-25 subic w HCU 1.jpg

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Salvage Sailor

Yep, nice reserve unit patches. This is the reserve HCU patch for Hawaii

 

HCU 1 Reserve Hawaii 001.jpg

HCU 1 Reserve Hawaii 002.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
Salvage Sailor

MDSU TWO Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, Naval Reserve Det. 813 Great Lakes

USNR MDSU TWO 001.jpg

USNR MDSU TWO 002.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
Salvage Sailor

My Japanese baseball cap worn around the world

USN Ballcap PO2 001.jpg

 

USN Ballcap PO2 002.jpg

 

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  • 1 year later...
Salvage Sailor

Navy Salvor, HCU-1 RVN 1971

 

1971 009.jpg

 

Dirty faded diving shirt, blue side out, camo pants, web belt and K-bar. This is a converted landing craft with an A frame boom attached to the bow. There were two of these made in-country by HCU One for their use as lift craft.

 

1971 010.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
Salvage Sailor
post-2322-0-36901200-1583291109.jpg
 
Dry-dock collapse New Years Eve in Subic Bay 31 Dec 1975, USS Grasp ARS-24 with James Dunagan on board. Just as the GRASP was crusing by, the Drydock collapsed and the Crane toppled.

 

post-2322-0-84996000-1583291114.jpg

 

James Dunagan sent these 7 images on 17th April 2010 and wrote this: Here are the pictures of the dry dock that collapsed. I was on the USS Grasp ARS-24 and we were entering port for the first time on the cruise. It was Dec 31, 1975. Just happened to have a camera in hand and snapped these. Needless to say there was no liberty that night. What a way to bring in the new year. I later heard the USS Beaufort ATS-2 used her heavy lift gear and took it out to sea. Now a good reef would be my guess.

 

DryDockCollaspeDec311975002.jpg

 

DryDockCollaspeDec311975003.jpg

 

DryDockCollaspeDec311975005.jpg

 

DryDockCollaspeDec311975006.jpg

 

DryDockCollaspeDec311975007.jpg

 

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Salvage Sailor

Our watering hole,

 

post-2322-0-04532500-1583291868_thumb.jpg

Duffy's Tavern, Chin Hae, South Korean Naval Base, the Salvage Forces hideaway from the Seventh Fleet

 

CPO Mess Chin Hae 03a.jpg

 

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Our watering hole, Duffy's Tavern, Chin Hae, South Korean Naval Base, the Salvage Forces hideaway from the Seventh Fleet

. Been there! 1980, USS Henry B. Wilson, DDG-7. As I recall, we destroyed Duffys. One guy had half his ear torn off. It was pretty embarrassing. We had been at sea for 2 days from Subic. Fight was internal, Engineers vs. everyone else. Good days. Good days;). We were restricted to the ship for the rest of our visit and were asked to leave early.
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Salty Seafarer dungarees from my seabag, buried in there since the '70s.

Sunbleached from years in the Pacific, complete with paint and grease stains.

 

Ahh..my favorite kind of dungarees!

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  • 1 year later...
Salvage Sailor
On 3/3/2020 at 6:32 PM, sigsaye said:
On 3/3/2020 at 5:19 PM, Salvage Sailor said:

Our watering hole, Duffy's Tavern, Chin Hae, South Korean Naval Base, the Salvage Forces hideaway from the Seventh Fleet

. Been there! 1980, USS Henry B. Wilson, DDG-7. As I recall, we destroyed Duffys. One guy had half his ear torn off. It was pretty embarrassing. We had been at sea for 2 days from Subic. Fight was internal, Engineers vs. everyone else. Good days. Good days;). We were restricted to the ship for the rest of our visit and were asked to leave early.

 

Well Steve, I did mention that it was our Watering Hole....not the 7th Fleets

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  • 2 months later...
Salvage Sailor

USS BOLSTER (ARS-38) Master at Arms (MAA) Badge, ronson lighter and ships plaque

 

399976118_USSBOLSTER(ARS-38)PlaqueBadgeLighter01.JPG.052f718053e1264a7419f5d29c9b0cae.JPG

 

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1162585875_USSBOLSTER(ARS-38)PlaqueBadgeLighter03.jpg.0de0c49b9f39d8d940c675245c813b8b.jpg

 

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Salvage Sailor

USS BOLSTER (ARS-38) in shipyard

 

Galley.JPG.90e67b6539da60456d731ef8a0107e9f.JPG

Galley

 

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Mess Decks - Milk machine, coffee machine, space where 'Bug Juice' cooler would be

 

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Engineroom - ARS's had four (4) inline diesels powering twin screws.  You can see a 'blower vent' in the overhead, only the Radio Room had A/C, keeping the RM's nice and frosty, the rest of us just had cool thoughts.

 

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SNIPES - tribute on one of our Caterpillar Diesels

 

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Radio shack door

 

RadioRoom.jpg.047a9dc194b6f855f817c0773f4d7792.jpg

Radio room with CT and HF/VHF gear removed and stored

 

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Bridge Wheelhouse (wheel removed and stored), Gyrocompass repeater, Magnetic compass binnacle, Engine Order Telegraph (EOT) removed, Captain's chair removed, outer battle ports (covers) down on the exterior of the wheelhouse, chart table in left foreground

(and yes, asbestos everywhere on WWII era vessels, including our asbestos firefighting hoods, suits and gauntlets)

 

WHouse2Port.jpg.ec8a8aa30f5d230b2145e86b6b1ddae9.jpg

Chart table & chart drawers and gyrocompass repeater, rudder angle indicator on overhead, voice tube to signal bridge, horn lanyards, battle lanterns with batteries removed, magnetic compass binnacle.

 

 

WhouseStbdExit.jpg.8261b339f6c1db4209472c8c641ac4e1.jpg

Tote board, MC comms, towing lights switchboard, sound powered circuits, growler, the cable above is for heavy rolls and seas. Hatch temporarily marked 'Emerg Exit' for the yardbirds in case the load (power) drops goes out to the starboard bridge wing.

 

CIC-Machines.jpg.fb8676d304487cfafed0c344b4c9aa58.jpg

Combat Information Center (CIC) - My office behind the bridge.  The machinery is being junked, the safes held the tactical codebooks, secret microfiche, classified charts & manuals.  I also had a sledgehammer, fireaxe and weighted burn bag to destroy these if necessary.  The radar repeater is off camera to the left side.  The empty space on the shelves above held the LORAN & OMEGA receivers.  There was also the chart drawers & fathometer in here.  Tight space with lots of sharp crap all around so you had to keep yourself together in rough seas and rolls.  It was also kept dark like a bat cave should be with red lighting.

 

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SPS-25 Radar repeater - the most common 'scope' used in the 1960's to 1980's for surface search radars

 

SignalShack.jpg.d997ed98d76ab52b842386d0c76b9244.jpg

Signal bridge, signal shack and flag hoist locker.  The gun mounts, 'Big Eyes' mount and non-skid on the deck have been removed.  The helmet rack on the stack shown earlier in this topic is on the left side

 

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Towing winch outside of the Dive Locker & recompression chamber (the open white hatch you can see in the right background).  You can also see one of the red light globes which were out on the weather decks and exposed spaces.

 

AftWinches.JPG

Towing winch and 'H' Bits, towing controlls & after conning station above where we could control the ship when switched over from main control below.  Windlass on the left of the H bits.  The cable reels and rollers held manila line. The hatch on the upper right is the paint locker (oddly, still painted).  The air hoses are for sandblasting by the yardbirds to remove the paint and rust.  The colored buoys spelled out 'BOLSTER'.  Our nickname was the LOBSTER due to our great pinch, later in the 1980's it became BATTLESTAR BOLSTER.  Somewhere around here I have a photo of our LOBSTER flag flying from the halyards.

 

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Salvage Sailor

Mailbag from my sister ship, USS SAFEGUARD (ARS-25) shown here at HMS TAMAR (Royal Navy port station), Hong Kong, 1976

 

984460217_ARS25USSSAFEGUARDatHMSTAMARAUG1976.jpg.a2315c5deed86727f8b8e524d952e7c8.jpg

 

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The mail bag is of the same construction as the burn bag would be, but it would have been weighted in the bottom and had multiple brass grommeted holes on both sides to let the sea water in should we have to dump the classified codes and microfiche over the side.  A brass USN lock would go on the ring hasp.  USN lock keys cannot be removed in the open position, so you can't lose the key and you know when it's not locked.  Only when it's locked can the key be removed.  I'll show some USN locks later in the topic.

 

IMG_6850.JPG.1a2bcd2b079465a3f1c53967bbb943a9.JPG

Hong Kong belt buckle, USS SAFEGUARD (ARS-25)

 

373531095_USSSAFEGUARD(ARS-25)OriginalPatch.jpg.e7d9adf59b6f4d3cc62beff6d7b771c2.jpg

Silk USS SAFEGUARD (ARS-25) patch

 

 

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Salvage Sailor

Hong Kong plaque for the USS GRAPPLE for 'being good on liberty' and not busting up the city

 

1770777558_ARS7USSGRAPPLE002.jpg.7b4a793478744c37097a342ff325fc01.jpg

 

She was later sold to Taiwan, my ship, the GRASP, was sold to South Korea in March 1978

767451673_GrapplesoldtoChina.jpg.eaf051bd174c1336b3fd0176820a2c31.jpg

 

Other styles of GRAPPLE plaques

1124384158_USSGRAPPLEARS7PLAQUE1.jpg.a33d7b6aff3ced45927dc88b9f97c569.jpg

 

1905465041_ARS7USSGRAPPLE001.jpg.90ac614fe47d7c1b4d967524dff839b9.jpg

 

 

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Salvage Sailor

Back to lax uniform standards.....

 

763593656_ARGOonLusiadExpedition1962.jpg.379f1619fd5742c0e736b422700140f3.jpg

Warrant Officer in CIC in 'field expedient' short sleeves and huraches working the OMEGA/LORAN Navigational system

 

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Salvage Sailor

Loot from the 'Connie Maru', USS CONSERVER (ARS-39), sister ship to the BOLSTER

 

USN Growler (i.e. hand cranked multi-circuit phone)  You turned the dial to your station, gave it a crank, and it 'Growled' the other station

555530072_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)Growler01.jpg.54288fa9b4d4223c10a5489da15dcdd5.jpg

 

1887585959_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)Growler02.jpg.bd343776c9c9c5f974c1a602f21dd423.jpg

 

562488223_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)Growler03.jpg.c0e9143ef30bfa9a95c3f5c28ef2820e.jpg

 

137576582_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)Growler04.jpg.712f6b991e1d111fb006dfa18b26b429.jpg

 

856429279_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)Growler05.jpg.36e3cf48ab18e74e3fdac958867957ca.jpg

 

1934609304_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)Growler06.jpg.d7fa16aaccb93e5410708856069323c3.jpg

 

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160724047_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)ReductionGearPlate02.jpg.12222db2f90bf45c7bb8cdd21abae60c.jpg

Brass plaque from the reduction gears controller, 1943 USS CONSERVER (commissioned in 1945 as was the BOLSTER)

 

1447408959_USSCONSERVER(ARS-39)ReductionGearPlate03.jpg.a9bb6b170deba8e13402c9a35efc099b.jpg

 

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Salvage Sailor

USS RECOVERY (ARS-43) Life Ring (preserver)  I have one from the BOLSTER & CONSERVER too around here somewhere with the strobe lights attached.

 

1382999850_USSRECOVERY(ARS-43)LifeRing01.JPG.351458ff44ccdfed78f5feec904f9dce.JPG

 

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1124835777_USSRECOVERY(ARS-43)LifeRing04.jpg.20bb1acc7f4d08bbeb8d36fbb48a3f87.jpg

 

1677930655_USSRECOVERY(ARS-43)LifeRing06.jpg.bcdaef6f68b2c52640e2f0a04cfc4422.jpg

 

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928462298_ARS43USSRECOVERY006.jpg.8846abde1dcba244ab4344250868183e.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/30/2014 at 12:40 AM, Salvage Sailor said:

Aloha Everyone,

 

The following photos and examples I'll be posting are from my personal experience, and are therefore not definitive or comprehensive in regard to other commands or units serving in the USN during the 1970's. They are an accurate portrayal of what 3rd & 7th Fleet Salvors wore during that period when engaged in training and operations. I'll add to this topic now and then as I come across other slides and photos I have stored away.

 

This first example is a good representative photo of what we wore on a daily basis aboard ARS's in the Pacific Fleet. As mentioned by many others, we had very lax uniform standards when at sea or on ops. We only spiffed up when we returned to port or had to leave our base at Alpha Docks (Hickam AFB) to go onto Pearl Harbor Naval Station proper.

 

post-2322-0-56982800-1396157493.jpg

 

The gentleman on the left was my Communications/Operations/LT(jg)DV diving officer who served with me aboard two Rescue Salvage vessels. He is wearing from head to toe:

 

A Greek fisherman's cap

Knotted commercial black bandana

Blue and Gold diving shirt (blue side out)

USN dive shorts

USN boondockers with no socks

 

I am seated on the ready box wearing:

 

An USN airline mask over a wetsuit hood

Skivvy shirt

Pocketed Parts Vest attached to a harness

Civilian cutoff Levis

Rubber booties

 

Behind me in the background on the fantail are:

 

Our Zodiac boat (flipped over on the deck) which we used with a 40HP Mercury outboard motor

folded up atop the Zodiac are my Seafarer dungaree pants and shirt and the rest of my wetsuit

My flippers are also on the Zodiac and on the deck are my slip-on boondockers which I found much more comfortable than the lace ups the LT(JG)DV is wearing.

 

Bolster Kona Bay.jpg

The Mask is what we call a band mask, this is a U.S. Divers MK-10 later Kirby Morgan would buy U.S. Divers and rename this and its predecessors KM-8 KM-10and KMB 18 respectively. I've got two of these and still dove them up to 2017. Great tools in the spring and summer!

s-l400.jpg

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  • 9 months later...
Salvage Sailor
On 1/15/2022 at 7:11 AM, Salvage Sailor said:

Thanks for the info, we called it the Mark 10 Airline Mask.

 

1752510933_AirlineMask001.jpg.5f96eacce96699307f5886f1632d82ac.jpg

 

864340485_AirlineMask002.jpg.e56e96101c4f579a003991776c88b034.jpg

 

2104954702_BolsterKonaBay.jpg.e9df0f2296183cddafadbe6f33aab227.jpg

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