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Thread: Boom!...

  1. #1
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    Boom!...

    A large part of my writing in other media concerns WWII US Navy ships and other vessels...I chose to research and chronicle mostly the activity of the thousands of auxiliary ships which include cargo and passenger transports, repair and surveying vessels and other ships not designed for, nor expected to engage in active combat...Nevertheless, the danger level for those officers and men (I've always chuckled over that distinction) who were assigned to duty aboard ancillary shipping craft faced every bit as much risk, and sometimes more, as those who went to sea with the expectation of being shot at...Even the tiny wooden ships, such as APc-48 aboard which my uncle served,with barely enough speed to get out of their own way, yet crossed and recrossed the Pacific under their own power, faced their own levels of risk, including active combat against enemy warships a hundred times their own size...

    But even in the relative safety of a protected harbor, unloading cargo carried thousands of miles to its destination without an enemy warship within many miles, danger can erupt into disaster in the flash of a moment...One such ship, the USS Mount Hood (AE-11), and its crew were the victims of one such incident only four months after being commissioned...While engaged in unloading some of its cargo onto other ships, the 3,900 tons of ordnance remaining in its holds detonated and in an instant of noise and shock, the ship and 22 other ships tied to it ceased to exist...No single cause of the explosion could ever be determined by a board of inquiry...No human remains were ever recovered as all victims were vaporized...The biggest piece of the wreckage that was ever located, even in the intervening years, was a part of the hull measuring 10 by 16 feet...

    The USS Mindanao (ARG-3), pictured in the video, was one of the repair ships to which my uncle's ship was once tied for servicing, although not at the time of the incident...Look at the damage its steel hull received from a distance of 350 yards...The only survivors of the Mount Hood's complement were the 17 members who had gone ashore minutes earlier on other duties, including two facing courts martial...

    Memorial Day, during which those who gave all for their country will be honored and remembered, will soon be here...I hope we all take a moment to remember that not all of those who did not return from war lost their lives in a glorious moment of combat...Death is still final, no matter how or when it arrives...The life lived before that moment is always priceless......Ben

    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  2. #2
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    You are having a significant negative impact on my productivity Ben.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Grubb View Post
    You are having a significant negative impact on my productivity Ben.
    I never intended to impede progress, Dave......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Truckman View Post
    I never intended to impede progress, Dave......Ben
    So you say as you look for more bait :fishing :

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Grubb View Post
    So you say as you look for more bait
    Guilty as charged, yeronner......Ben



    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  6. #6
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    Truk...on every diver’s bucket list. Deep, short time and dangerous. These divers were on helium oxygen mixture with all those extra tanks and wetsuits in a tropical clime. Not for divers of my caliber even in my younger days.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  7. #7
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    It is a sobering thing to begin to realize how many war time ships are lying on the bottom of the ocean. Off the coast of NJ it seems like a marine scrap yard. Many of the sunken ships are shown on the charts, but not all. There is at least one German sub that I have fished over.

    Wreck fishing as it is often called is bottom fishing. In most cases, you can expect to sacrifice your end of line hardware when you snag something on a wreck. I also tend to feel a bit uneasy about it---the fish aren't the only things down there
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Grubb View Post
    I also tend to feel a bit uneasy about it---the fish aren't the only things down there
    I would look at it as well as wreck diving in the same way as when I visit my family's graves...I enjoy the tranquility and peace, pick up any litter and sweep off the headstones...Fishing and diving accomplish the same thing when done respectfully, and remembering who occupies what lies beneath the surface......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  9. #9
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    I’ve seen Truk photos of skulls of Japanese sailors still in the wrecks.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by wacojoe View Post
    I’ve seen Truk photos of skulls of Japanese sailors still in the wrecks.
    I think there were some in the video above...As long as they are still there undisturbed, I'd be OK with it...The Japanese have had seven decades to recover and rebury any remains......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

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