Kitty Hawk's last few miles up the Brownsville Ship Channel - May 31, 2022: Well, everything went wrong for my plans to escort Kitty Hawk up the channel yesterday. First of all, I sold...

Brownsville Tony Loc: Brownsville - Laguna Madre

Well, everything went wrong for my plans to escort Kitty Hawk up the channel yesterday. First of all, I sold my beloved old boat, the "hooker" last week. I sold her to a friend who is the ACOE port pilot for Port Isabel, Texas. He said I was welcome to use her anytime I wanted and I had planned to use her yesterday. But, I had a rough morning and didn't think I could make it out and Padrebino had a medical appointment and couldn't make it either. But (2), schedules being what they are, Kitty Hawk didn't show up for her own Hail and Farwell party until nearly noon and had we known that we might have made it after all. But (3), thanks to the guys at RGV Drone footage we have this beautiful but sad video of part of her passage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHxH21h52Mc

kandydisbar Loc: West Orange, NJ

Brownsville Tony wrote:

Well, everything went wrong for my plans to escort... (show quote)

Really sad.

flyguy Loc: Lake Onalaska, Sunfish Capitol of the World!

Brownsville Tony wrote:

Well, everything went wrong for my plans to escort... (show quote)

Thanks, Tony, for sharing that moment with us.

Rutinbuck Loc: Haysville, Kansas

Thanks for sharing Tony it was a good but sad video.

Gmchief Loc: New Hampshire coast

In the mid 70’s my ship was plane guard for the Kitty Hawk during exercises. It surprised me to see how much a big ship like that was moved by the waves. For those who may not know, a plane guard is a small ship steaming a mile or two behind the carrier to rescue the crew if a plane gets into trouble taking off or landing.

USAF Major Loc: Sea Bright, NJ

Would have been a wonderful artificial reef instead of becoming steel I beams and razor blades.

Whitey Loc: Southeast ohio

Ya might find this interesting. Who would of thought 🤔 they bought it for a penny

Brownsville Tony Loc: Brownsville - Laguna Madre

Whitey wrote:

Ya might find this interesting. Who would of thought 🤔 they bought it for a penny

And they were the high bidders!

Whitey Loc: Southeast ohio

Brownsville Tony wrote:

And they were the high bidders!

Yea an they'll probably sale most of it back to the navy to build a new ship. At a price I'm sure lol

Fireguy Loc: Alton Bay NH

Gmchief wrote:

In the mid 70’s my ship was plane guard for the Kitty Hawk during exercises. It surprised me to see how much a big ship like that was moved by the waves. For those who may not know, a plane guard is a small ship steaming a mile or two behind the carrier to rescue the crew if a plane gets into trouble taking off or landing.

Chief, we occasionally ran plane guard on Yankee Station in the 60s. It was really something to see those fully armed jets drop off and kick up a rooster tail. Crazy!

Gmchief Loc: New Hampshire coast

Fireguy wrote:

Chief, we occasionally ran plane guard on Yankee Station in the 60s. It was really something to see those fully armed jets drop off and kick up a rooster tail. Crazy!

What were you on? Plane guard implies tin can. My ship was 378’ long, 42’ beam, 3000 tons. One ship I was on was a WW2 205’ fleet tug. The berthing areas were air conditioned but not the mess deck or heads. Miserable in the Caribbean in the summer. You would work up a sweat toweling off after a shower. No way to cool off at night because we would darken ship. No chance to air out the boat. I can’t imagine the sailors in the South Pacific during the war. 😓

Fireguy Loc: Alton Bay NH

Gmchief wrote:

What were you on? Plane guard implies tin can. My ship was 378’ long, 42’ beam, 3000 tons. One ship I was on was a WW2 205’ fleet tug. The berthing areas were air conditioned but not the mess deck or heads. Miserable in the Caribbean in the summer. You would work up a sweat toweling off after a shower. No way to cool off at night because we would darken ship. No chance to air out the boat. I can’t imagine the sailors in the South Pacific during the war. 😓

USS Belknap, DLG 26, nice new ship.
We did 2 WestPac cruises, assigned to PIRAZ Station. Then off to North Korea when the Pueblo got captured. I was a Radarman, mostly doing ECM.

We had a few scares and tense situations when on station. But, we also went to some cool places.

Gmchief Loc: New Hampshire coast

Fireguy wrote:

USS Belknap, DLG 26, nice new ship.
We did 2 WestPac cruises, assigned to PIRAZ Station. Then off to North Korea when the Pueblo got captured. I was a Radarman, mostly doing ECM.

We had a few scares and tense situations when on station. But, we also went to some cool places.

Right about the cool liberty. We stopped in Yokosuka for mid patrol break. The Navy line handlers were surprised that the Coast Guard had ships big enough to get there!😂
One patrol in the Bering Sea we were sent to the Line of Demarcation (the border with Russia). The Air Force in Anchorage wanted the Russians to respond an American warship so the could record the Russian electronic signatures. So I guess you could say we were used as a target.

Fireguy Loc: Alton Bay NH

Gmchief wrote:

Right about the cool liberty. We stopped in Yokosuka for mid patrol break. The Navy line handlers were surprised that the Coast Guard had ships big enough to get there!😂
One patrol in the Bering Sea we were sent to the Line of Demarcation (the border with Russia). The Air Force in Anchorage wanted the Russians to respond an American warship so the could record the Russian electronic signatures. So I guess you could say we were used as a target.

Sailors have some memorable tales. I celebrated Christmas in Yokosuka one year. We also steamed off Russia, Vladivostok, during the Pueblo incident. They buzzed us with low level flights every day. I was recording their electronic signatures daily.
Cool things to remember, but not so much at the time.