SM2 its nice to hear from a fellow ex -2nd class that served in the 60’s. I was a RD2 on CLG-5 and we did a wespac tour 64 thru 66. Home port was Yokosuka , Japan.
Carl
Ennyone ever heard of the Batty Ann? The CVL, not the LHD/LHA which ever the new one is. My old man is a plankowner of the USS Bataan…
Oh well,
LL
My second ship, the USS Normandy, CG-60, commissioned with a less than popular CO that never allowed liberty. So the Normandy was know affectionaly by the crew as “Cell Block 60- The Cruiser from Hell”.
-Devin
Four ships I served on had some interesting nick-names.
USS Yellowstone: “Yellow Stain” & “Jelly Roll”
USS Carl Vinson: Officially nick-named the “Golden Eagle” which we translated to “Brass Buzzard” also known as the “Chucky V”.
USS Nassua: “Nausea”
USS Saipan: “Sigh Pain”
Hey there Fltmedic, I’ve heard the Yellowstone being called the “Jellystone” in honor of Yogi Bear. That was a long time ago, I guess the younger sailors might not remember that cartoon.
Or the ship. She was decommed a long time ago. Guess I am showing my age, I jus tretired on March 31st after 23 years. I can now tell everyone I am a “recovering Chief”. [tup]
Thanks for serving, Chief. Now you gotta get rid of that coffee cup thumb hook!
The cofee cup ain’t the problem. I couldn’t make Senior Chief because I was “under” the weight standards with no belly to rest it on…[}:)]
I’ll add a couple:
USS Sand Lance (SSN-660) was called the “Fun Lance”, USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN-705)was known the the “City of Cocoa Krispies”, USS Batfish (SSN 681) was called “The Bat Boat”, and USS Simon Lake (AS-33) was the “Slimy Snake”. I’ll add more as I remember them.
The USS City of Corpus Christi was also known as “The Body of Christ”. They added the “City of” to its formal name because the boys in DC thought it unseemly to have a nuclear hunter-killer submarine named after the Saviour of man.
The USS Canopus was called many names especially after females were added to the crew. I will leave the possible name modifications up to your imaginations.
Sorry, but Swayback Maru was USS Salt Lake City, not the Indianapolis. There are plenty of WW2-era references that substantiate this.
HMS Penelope: HMS Pepperpot
USS Coral Sea: San Francisco’s Own
USS Bainbridge: Billy B
Cheers,
John Snyder (USS Bainbridge, 1966-70)
The Bainbridge was also known as the “Braindamage”. A few ships share nicknames independently from each other, I remember the Indianapolis being referred to as the “Swayback Maru” somewhere. The Coral Sea had many nicknames including “Cruel Sea” and “Oral Sea” among others.
I also remembered a few more.
The Bon Homme Richard was called the " Bonnie Dick" The John F Kennedy was the “JFK”, Intrepid was the “Evil Eye”
The Jimmy Carter is also called the “USS Peanut” as was the George Washington Carver .
The Halibut was called " The Hell of it"
The Parche was also called The “Too Shay” or “French Fry"or as we called her and Halibut the"Spook Boats” which I’m sure the Carter is also called.
A post on another site reminded me of the whole November Class of Soviet Boats being called “Glow Boats”. ( that class had several reactor problems and they lost a few as well as every boat in the class had a major accident ( or more) with their reactors) I’ll wager there isn’t a single November Class crewman alive today without a serious radiation poisoning or related health problem if you can still find one alive at all. Very Dangerous Boats, more so to their own sailors than to other vessels for sure.
The Skipjacks were called “The S Boats”
In 1960s and 70s Submarine jargon the SS Boats were all called Smoke Boats, or Pig Boats by Nuke sailors. SSNs were also called Glow Boats or Nukes by SS Sailors , and SSBNs were all called “Boomers” or Barges or Turtles. All surface craft were called “Targets” or “Skimmers” and all Soviet Boats were called “Ivans”. The RN Boats were called “Pommy Boats”, RAN Boats were called “Ozzie Boats” & RCNs were “Canook” We also had nicknames for the Italian, China, French and German Boats but they were not "Politically Correct"and I don’t wish to offend anyone…All Submarines were called “Sewer Pipes” by “Skimmers” and their crews were called Sewer pipe sailors a title we were proud of and worked really hard living up to it LOL…
More will come to me I’m sure, us old guys have a problem with CRS from time to time.
During WW2, USS Intrepid was known as the “Dry I” because she spent so much time in drydock repairing damage.
Cheers,
John Snyder
The U.S.S. Zellars (DD-777) was a destroyer with high morale and team spirit. During an admin inspection in the mid 1960s the chief inspector, a Navy Captain, stopped one of my radarmen strikers in the passageway and asked him what the name of the ship was. Without a pause the young sailor replied “the Zippin’ Z.” After writing down that answer, the Captain asked him if he knew what class of ship it was. With a big grin he replied, “It’s a Super Ship, sir!” We never heard the end of it.
The USS Bushnell AS15 nick= the burning bush. a fire in the aft enginroom in 65.
all so captains had nick names too. one of the Bush’s caps was steaming steve. tryed to get under way to go to miami and the wind keped him at dock side, he then got two tugs pined between us and the quay wall. ripped 8 scuppers off the starbord side.
During WWII the flower class corvette named after my town, Baddeck, was known as “The Five Aces” neat thread, Cheers!
And now the nuke sub sailors are called bobbleheads.
the subs be for the nukes were fleet boats.
the USS Midway CVA 41= 47 years in serveice, built on a BB hull over 200 crew died on her wile in service. the crew nick named her, The USS Never dock.
she has some history, from a stright deck to a angle deck then to an up grade that put her at the level of a nimitz class carrier.
Actually Submariners are called “Bubbleheads”. or Sewer Pipe Sailors
The fleetboats were mostly called Smokeboats, Guppys or Pigboats depending on the name caller and the boat they were refering to LOL. They were titles of love not slander…