- Jan 19, 2010
- 1,322
Iirc didn’t RO9 have to medivac a US sailor off a Submarine mid Atlantic?
As documented here:
Nice work by the helicopter crew, especially when the casualty and winchman gets washed into the sea.
Iirc didn’t RO9 have to medivac a US sailor off a Submarine mid Atlantic?
That actually rings a bell, whether it was during my time or heard the story im not sure, but yeah. I think it was on way to Puerto Rico
Mad the lot of ya. I get seasick on the Newhaven ferry...
As a "target" I have to agree with Arthur Wilson, "Underhand,unfair, and damned unEnglish"
The crew on SSBN patrols get a familygram limited to circa 40 words and heavily scrutinised, there won’t be any bad news in these as the sub won’t compromise its position by surfacing.
Many crew have returned to find loved ones have past away.
That was one of my jobs when I was serving, transmitting them along with other signals.
The Nsc'er who served on them is [MENTION=152]Charlies Shinpad[/MENTION].
I’ve just completed Commodore (Ret) Eric Thompson’s book On Her Majesty’s Nuclear Service, predominantly about his time on Polaris patrols in the 70’s & 80’s and he recalled one time getting back to Faslane and one of the crew only finding out then that his wife and young child were killed in a RTA [emoji3525]
Edit I hope [MENTION=12089]charlie[/MENTION]sshinpad surfaces on this thread at some point!
I might get a copy of that book. I served right at the start of those boats working out of Faslane in 1968. We were flown up there to stay overnight at HMS Neptune, and given a tour of Reso.
All Familygrams were checked by officers before being allowed to be transmitted.
The rougher the better on Lowestoft we had straps hanging down to hold onto. Seeing people all hanging almost horizontally on the bridge would have made great photo's If we had smart phones back in the day. The force of water hitting the bridge windows was a little unnerving sometimes though
I might get a copy of that book. I served right at the start of those boats working out of Faslane in 1968. We were flown up there to stay overnight at HMS Neptune, and given a tour of Reso.
All Familygrams were checked by officers before being allowed to be transmitted.
I’ve just seen that you got a tour oh HMS Resolution, wow that must have been incredible, in his books he described they had to build new piers as the Vanguards are basically twice as big!!
I think you find that the Sub type is called a “boomer”. Not bomber. Otherwise interesting thread as I wanted to go into subs when I was young. Hearing problem scuppered that.
That was one of my jobs when I was serving, transmitting them along with other signals.
The Nsc'er who served on them is [MENTION=152]Charlies Shinpad[/MENTION].
My job too - I also had to tape up a copy of the news and sport every day and send it to them
When our task group went to the far east, Warspite didnt surface till Cape Town. **** that.
You are quite correct the USN do call them Boomers, however as the the thread title suggests we are discussing RN boats and in the Royal Navy they are known as Bombers.