Denny Conrad's mention of Foxtrot relays brought back some fond and not so fond memories.
Circa 65/66, Stg2 Jim Adair was the training PO for sec 4 Argentia. I was a bootcamper during this span and my station (King) supervisor was Charlie Kohn. Charlie was one of my best buddies but at the same time, could be an absolute Ball buster when it came to watch standing duties. I can still see him sitting at his sup desk with his coffee cup and feet propped on the desk yelling "Ellis, Roll your grams", "Ellis, Mark your beams", Ellis, catch your TARFs up", Ellis Make some coffee", "Ellis, sweep the mats".. All of this was normally taken in stride but on one particular mid-watch, Charlie was barking all these orders and when I left the station to make coffee, Jim Adair, of course, knocked King out of phase. We managed to catch it fairly quickly and restored phase in fairly short order when Adair said "i'm thinking of a signature of.......... and he went on to describe it. "Find in in the signature Library, ellis", he said. I'm now knee deep in publications when Kohn yells, Out of phase Ellis. I'm running to the back room when we get the call; "Argentia, this is Norfolk. stand by for a Foxtrot relay"
Now, here I am in the back room phasing, Gram rolls reaching the floor, beams not marked for hours and all TARFs way behind and.............., Norfolk want to hold a FoxTrot Relay!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In this public forum, I can't write the language I used at Norfolk but the gist was, i didn't give a flying ---- about their relay.
Now that I look back on it, I had the time of my life and wouldn't have had it any other way.
John, I stood a lot of watches with both Jim and Charlie as a 3111 supervisor in 64-66. You must have arrived after I left in February 66. Charlie was also my next door neighbor in a 73-76 second tour. Your narrative sounds very familiar, but if memory serves, I think we still used RTTF's, not TARF's in those days.
OB, do not forget the advanced age of Mr. Ellis. He was the only student who was old enough to buy beer in Key West during "A" school 1966, he is allowed to slip on a few details. However he was one hell of Master Chief and a Great Grandpa I bet.
Have a safe New Years Guys
Chuck
Yeah, O.B., you are correct. As I get older, I tend to get a lot of things bass ackards!! :( In addition to the TARF/RTTF thing, I also got the years wrong. I did arrive at arg in 66 so the year timeframe should have read 66/67.
But it still remains one of my favorite duty assignments.
This is a post written ONLY as John Ellis could tell it !! I sure enjoyed all the SOSUS "babble" - but I have to tell you, John......as much as Chuck attributes your slip of the tongue (RTTF vs TARF) to an age-related problem, even I remembered that, although I cannot tell you when we went from one to the other.
About Jim Adair. I know I was stationed with him - but cannot remember where, or when. It may have been in Bermuda (66-69 timeframe). Do you know if he transferred from Arg to Bda?
Hope all is well with you and Pat in Mississippi. One of our retired Navy friends lives in Perkinston, MS (been there several years)- but is moving north to Vermont. He and his wife were originally from our neighboring town of Hudson Falls, prior to his Navy career.
Thanks for the note. Been trying to reach you via e-mail. How about sending me a quick note on e-mail so I can get the address straight in my contact listing.
