A Good Crew!

After so many years it is difficult to properly describe the atmosphere of NRUF's radio shack. There was, without doubt, a pecking order that often didn't follow the number of stripes on the rating badge, and most of us will never forget how some ops were so much better than others. We all answered to "Sparks" with the pride of men that knew their job to be difficult under the best of conditions and nearly impossible when rolling through the heavy seas of a gale force wind or hurricane.

Each of us has a story to share about some stiff-fisted lid on the other end of the freq. More than once we all heard a well earned "Dah Dah Ditty Dah Dah" float through the ether to our end too! There were nights we prayed something would happen just to keep us awake and still others that we hoped like hell we were up to the task because somebody might die if we weren't.

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Have You Got News For Us?

Come on, you can be a GOFER or a PAYFER, but the Geedunk is open and we all want to know how you are getting along. Most of us are retired now, or trying to figure out how we can slow down and enjoy life. So I KNOW you have the time to sit down and send us a message. QRS 21 OM QRV - send your information to RM2 Wonnacott and it will be posted here.

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Lynn C. Smith

I snatched these photos and descriptions from Roger Wendells Coast Guard site ... a couple of vintage Radio Shack photos of NRUF 'back in the day' of RM3 Lynn Smith, circa 1958. Thanks to Roger for permission to reprint here.
Operator Position Two - NRUF (1958)

  Smith describes;

"This was the standard radio position on the Sebago of which there were three. There were usually two RM's on duty except the midnight-4 AM and 4 AM - 8 AM watches. We had a lot of RM's just out of radschool (like me) so we would stand watch with an experienced (3 months) RM till we got our bearings. I can't remember the names of the receivers shown there, but the "bug" in the pic belonged to me me. I got my ticket a couple of months out of school. You can see the plug sockets were we put the headfones for various frequencies to monitor. We also monitored around 8 and 12 Meg ranges for commercial traffic. The little black box to the right of the typewritter was a remote control panel to switch transmitters if needed.

At this time we had absolutly no gear to monitor aircraft tfc at all. When we went out on patrol to Campeche we took a civilian Wx man with us to take obs info and then we sent it in to NMG."
AN/FRT23 - NRUF (1958)

Smith also explained about the AN-FRT23 transmitter and the freqencies they guarded and worked. Nothing much changed after he left the ship in 1959. Most of you older Sebago ditchasers will remember that transmitter. When I came aboard in the 1970 I watched the AnFart being cut from the deck and replaced by a much newer unit - can't even remember the designation of it, but I do remember that it wasn't a tube unit and didn't need the 'dip and peak' procedure to get it up and running. It also allowed us to 'tune' the long wire antenna to ham frequencies and then connect the ham unit in after steering to the long wire and get a nearly perfect 5x5 quality patch back home to Pensacola. The ops back on the Gulf Coast used to tell us they always knew when 'The Seabag' was coming up for patches because the tuning process just knocked EVERYBODY off freq and then our CQ blew them away, even from the middle of the North Atlantic!

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NRUF Christmas Card - 1958

 

RM2 Bob Wood (58-59);

Bob sends this along with the comments that he spent a year as an AL3 flying SAR with the AirDet at Keesler AFB, that is until orders came for assignment to Argentia and he went back to dit chasing. I can imagine that Bob has some great flying stories and some interesting stories of the Old Guard. Anybody that wants his contact information .. just send me a note and I'll put you in touch.

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RM2 Joe Schmidt (59-60); Finished As Army Aviator

It has been a long time from 1959-1960 when I was aboard the Sebago (in Mobile) to now, and a lot of water has "gone under the bridge" so to speak, and I would dearly love to visit with all of those who will be attending. I will, however, take this opportunity to update you on what happened to me after I left the 'Seabag'.

I went from Mobile to New Orleans, where I worked briefly in the Customs House as a teletype operator until my billet at Radio Station Galveston came open (a couple of months as I recall). I then worked at RADSTA Galveston for several years (where I met and married my bride of 48 years this year).

From there I went aboard a 180 ft buoytender until my discharge (after serving 6 years in the USCG and being promoted to RM1. I then enlisted in the US Army as an E-4 and went to Ft Polk, LA and ended up as a drill sergeant in the basic training unit there. From Ft Polk, I went to 3rd Army Headquaters in Atlanta, Georgia, where I was assigned as the Non-commissioned officer in charge of the Hq's, 3rd US Army Radio Station,(WARMARS), which lasted through President Kennedy's assassination, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and finally, my reciept of orders for Vietnam in 1964.

After serving one tour on the ground in RVN, I concluded that there must be a better way to fight a war, so I applied (and was accepted) to flight school. I entered Basic Flight Training in December 1965, and graduated in September 1966. It was then orders to Ft Sill Oklahoma, where I transitioned into Chinook CH-47 Medium Lift Helicopters, and immediate deployment back to RVN with the 196th Aviation Company as a new WO-1. After being promoted to CW2, I was given the opportunity to accept a battlefield commission to 2nd Lieutenant (which I accepted....more money), and after being shot down a total of three times, returned to the States and reassignment to FT Sill again.

By this time we had both of our sons, and I commenced my collegiate studies in ernest to earn my Bachelor of Science degree in Education. More military schools resulted in Instrument Flight Instructor and Instrument Flight Examiner qualifications and more flight time than I really wanted, but I had no problem with it because the Army was now putting me through my final year of college at Cameron College in Lawton, Oklahoma on what was called "The Bootstrap Program" (They paid for all of my tuition, books, and all of my regular Army pay and allowances, and all I had to do in return was study and fly at least 4 hours a month to stay current for my flight pay).

When I took my direct commission in RVN in 1967, I was assigned to the US Army Signal Corps, and it soon came time to go to the Signal Officer's Advance Course in New London, Conn (as a Captain). My family (all Texans) got a real shot of "reality" when they accompanied me to "Yankee-land". My sons grew up tough, since they had to fight almost every day....why?, because they had short hair, spoke with a southern accent, and were "military brats". (ha!, although it wasn't very funny then).

To make this long story short, I finished out my military career at Ft Hood, Texas as the Maintenance Officer for a 1000 man (plus) Army Area signal battalion following a wonderful three year tour in Alaska, and retired to the "life of a gentleman" in Lampasas, Texas. A few career changes later, I found myself retiring (for the third time) from my remodeling and construction business of eight years and moving 23 miles North of Huntsville, Texas to a small five acre tract in the piney-woods. We love it up here, and wake up each day feeling totally blessed. Health has not been real good, since I have had 13 major surgeries for broken neck, broken back, knee replacements, etc...but I think all that is pretty well over with, and we are both doing well at this time and enjoying the fruits of our retirement.

We would welcome any and all of our old shipmates and aquaintances for either correspondence or visits. Again, I am sorry that I will not be able to attend due to a longstanding previous commitment. Know that my best wishes and prayers are with each of you.

Sincerely, Joseph (Joe) Schmidt
RM1 USCG/Captain US Army (Retired)

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Orestes RATT Code Machines

Orestes KW-7
Code Machine Do you remember that part of each underway watch dedicated to keeping the Orestes KW-7 radioteletype machines in sync and receiving the Navy broadcasts? The things were tricky beasts and the heart of the unit was a 'code block' with 30 wires and seemingly endless combinations of routing from the primary block of 30 to the secondary block of 30.

KW-7 Code Block
Reset every 24 hours We would sit with a ComTac pub in our laps, or another watchstander would simply call out the pair; "Plug 1 to plug 27. Plug 2 to plug 15." The first few pairings were easy, but as you got further into the sequence it was difficult to find an easy way to slide some of the wires around into the plugs without creating a rats nest. It didn't take long for us to look forward into the instructional sequence to find the pairings that made best 'fit' and sort of wrap from low to high. It would sometimes take 20 minutes to get it right, and we had to set TWO blocks each day.

The new blocks would be set into the machine at 0001Z and the machine then had to be 're-phased' or synced with the transmitter/receiver. If we had good atmospheric conditions this took seconds. If we encountered skywave interference it made the phasing a long and frustrating task. This usually happened when there was broadcast traffic pending for NRUF that the Comms officer knew was inbound. He was okay with the delay, but the RM Chief was a different story.

-LB

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If you have photos of the radio shack from your time aboard NRUF - send them along. All of us would really enjoy your stories too!