March 26, 2023 - 
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Navy Adventure In Africa 1974
While in the Navy I never got as far west as WESTPAC*, but almost got there by going East...
My
job at NSGA Rota (Spain) was going TAD* on destroyers. That was my
version of "preferred overseas shore duty", ham radio Field Day on tin
cans* for a job....
We flew our QUIC
Vans on Air Force C-130s to Naples or Athens, and once to Bahrain, for installation on
the various ships when they were in the area.
-- DIRSUP*
in the Indian Ocean in 1974 --
After the USS Brumby DE-1044 was in the I.O. for a
few months with our van and a team of CTs (summer 1974), they pulled into
Mombasa, Kenya so I could de-install the equipment shelter (van) to have it moved to the USS
Paul DE-1080 coming into the Indian Ocean and reconnect power and communications to the ship. I was the only CTM (Maintenance Tech) with the team. I had to arrange for a crane to move it off one ship, wait on the dock all day and have it put on the next ship. I was a CTM3, E-4 rank.
QUIC Van on USS Brumby
Then
about 6 weeks later two of us had to leave and get back to Rota
before 90 days were up or we were going to lose our BAQ* pay for the
whole time we were TAD. So the ship pulled into a little port along the
coast of Kenya, I left with an E-6 CT analyst-type and we got a taxi in
this village and asked to go to the airport. The OIC* of our CT team, a
Navy Lieutenant (O-3), gave the E-6 money, we didn't have tickets.
The
taxi driver took off and headed out of the small town into the African
bush, it turned into a dirt road and damn I thought we were going to be
ambushed and killed right there. In a while he stopped and it was
a dirt airstrip in the middle of nowhere, 5 ft high bushes all over.
No building in sight, I was getting scared. We asked him where we got tickets
and he said from the airplane.
Eventually a DC-3 taildragger came roaring in, bounced a few times and landed on the dirt
strip, all I could think of was the movie "Casablanca". A ticket agent got off the plane and
sold us tickets and got back on with us. The DC-3 flew to Nairobi,
then we got a jet to Addis Ababa, Ethopia and on to Athens and Madrid,
all commercial airlines. Madrid was still 500 miles north of Rota, so
we had to take a bus. What an adventure, haha..
When
my 6 year enlistment was up 3 yrs later, and I was at RAF Edzell in
Scotland, the Navy Detailer* told me that if I re-enlisted I would go to another TAD billet because most Matmen (CTMs) didn't have
experience with the shipboard gear that I had from the 2 yrs DIRSUP job in
Rota.
Fuck that, I got out..
https://radioandtravels.blogspot.com/2021/04/traveling-and-camping-by-motorcycle-in.html
WESTPAC - various Navy duty in the Western Pacific area
Tin Cans - Navy ships of the various Destroyer classes
TAD - Temporary Additional Duty, except for some it was actually your regular job
DIRSUP - Direct Support, Teams of Navy Cryptologic Technicians with equipment to provide intelligence to the Commanding Officer of a ship that the regular Navy wouldn't have access to.
BAQ - housing allowance the Navy gave us to live off-base
OIC - Officer In Charge
Navy Detailer - Person in the U.S. that schedules military personnel duty assignments