Here is a word or phrase that every one needs to know.

1MC is the term for the shipboard public address circuits on Naval vessels. This provides a means of transmitting general information and orders to all internal ship spaces and topside areas, and is loud enough that all embarked personnel are able to (normally) hear it. It is used to put out general information to the ship’s crew on a regular basis each day. The system consists of an amplifier-oscillator group which is located in the IC/gyro room, a microphone control station, portable microphones at each control station and loudspeakers located throughout the ship. Control stations for the 1MC announcing system are located at the pilot house, OOD stations on the quarterdecks, after steering and Damage Control Central area. The term "MC" is an acronym for Main Circuit.
During an incident involving a casualty, the 1MC is a valuable damage control communication tool used by DCA (damage control assistant) to keep ship members alerted and informed of casualty location area, updated status, and incident response efforts by the DC organization.

The 1MC is divided into smaller sub circuits, such as officer's quarters, and topside. At the option of the officer of the deck, some words are not passed on certain circuits.
Even with the importance that the 1MC carries not every speaker works or can be heard.

However this being said it is still every sailor’s duty to know what is said over the 1MC. Of course the when it is time for that most popular of all 1MC calls, “Liberty call, Liberty call. Liberty Call for all hands, Liberty to commence at 1630.” Everyone will hear that.
Getting this into your every day talk might be hard if you do not have a system like this at work. But if you do you should be able to work this one in. “Hey Bob what did Sally just say on the 1MC?”

So JIm, you were a Turbo Twidget?
I was a Hole Snipe.
Monkey Mate to be exact.

Dave,
Yes, I was a Turbo Twidget, GSM, Gas Turbine System Technician Mechanical, to be exact. I enlisted as a Nuke MM, thank god I made it out of there. But that is a whole long story all itself.

Let have some fun today. The term is mail buoy. This is a gag in the Navy, there is no such thing. When the ship has had a large number of new people check aboard they will start to play pranks on those same new guys. The joke that is used a good deal of the time is the mail buoy.

We did this to our new people one hot sunny day north of Puerto Rico. The word was passed over the 1MC to muster all new ships personnel on the fo'c's'le for mail buoy watch. Theses people were told to watch out for the buoy that was dropped by a P3 Orion and had drifted away from us. They were told directly by the Captain that they had to find it within 2 hours or it would sink and he was expecting a letter from his children. These guys were outfitted in rain slickers, binoculars, sound powered phones, and grappling hooks. They were sent out to the forward most portion of the ship and told to find that buoy.

Slowly a group of us gathered on the deck above the bridge and watch as these poor new guys stood out in the sun with rain gear on. The ship slowed down to a crawl and it was hot that day. Soon the captain stood out on the bridge wing and yelled at them to find that buoy. One of our group said watch this. He yelled and pointed off to the starboard side, they buoy group turned and all looked that direction. Soon the ship changed course and sped up.

This went on for the full two hours with the captain yelling more and more at these poor new guys. After two hours he was totally furious and wanted all of them at Captains mast before the day was out. What I found so funny was none of these new guys knew it was a joke. They all went along with it and fell for it totally. They all thought they were in fro trouble for missing the buoy. But it was a joke and they did not know about it until they finally were all decked out in their whites and standing in front of the captain.

So, the mail buoy is nothing, it’s a joke. To use this in your everyday vocabulary simply do something like this. “Management wants all of us to go to a meeting today. They must want us to chase the mail buoy again.”

A wonderful time honored tradition.

hello Jim,
in the retail business,after we got done with all the work that night,I would send the newbie, out to clean the SKYHOOK.1 poor guy spent 30 minutes looking for it.the most fun was telling the newbie to clean the Froster on the Defrosters used by the ice machine. in a C-Store you can have all kinds of fun,with the newbie.
thanks for the Navy Word of the Day.
cheers,
Bruce

Pranks are so fun. Sometimes we had so many different pranks going on it was hard to keep em straight.

The help kill the time and they are also useful for training.

Glad you like the thread so far!

Now we have a term recently used by one of our fellow forum members, landlubber. This is straight forward it is a nautical term for those who have never been to sea. It can also mean a sailor on his first cruise, or a sailor who never seems to be assigned to a ship.

The word landlubber, first recorded in the late 1690s, is formed from land and the earlier lubber. The word lubber dates from the fourteenth century and originally meant 'a clumsy, stupid person, a lout, or an oaf. By the sixteenth century it had developed the specialized sense an unseamanlike person, inexperienced seaman, which is the same sense as landlubber and was eventually combined with land to emphasize the unfamiliarity-with-the-sea aspect.

Lubber itself is probably related to or derived from the word lob, a word also meaning a clumsy, stupid person or a lot, which is chiefly an English dialect form but occasionally appears in America, for example, "He is generally figured as nothing but a lob as far as ever doing anything useful is concerned" -- Damon Runyon. Though lob is not found until around 1500, somewhat later than lubber, lob is clearly related to words in other Germanic languages meaning 'a clumsy person. (Source: The Phrase Finder)

Now to use this in everyday conversation should prove easy. Of course any new person around work, could be labeled a landlubber. Or for those who of you who like to fish you can stick this moniker the guy who catches the least amount of fish. “Well, I see landlubber Jones over there rolled a doughnut today on the tally board.”

Landlubber,yeah~

My navy career was/is medical service crops; together with other medical/health corps (medical, nurse, dental) and their enlisted counterparts, we make up the "landlubber" Navy. Rarely, if ever, close to a ship, and most of us (direct officer commision) are not even shipboard qualified! Perfect timing this post is after the "prank" one, since Chiefs seem to enjoy poking all sorts of jokes/pranks at us landlubbers... of course all that changes if they need medical attention or the source of an outbreak of food poisoning Thanks Jim! Cheers, James

GO NY GIANTS

Nothing better than watching 5 or 6 midshipmen waiting on the mail bouy. Better yet, its even funnier when they are on a sub!!! LOL!

DC

Midshipmen area whole nother thing on thier own. Those just out of high school kids werethe best.

So Jim, being a turbo twidget, did you get the job of PMing the MPA nuts?

LOL

We had out non-rated firemen do that.

One of the midhsipemn did that as well when he spent his time with us over the summer.

Feb 3, 2008


Another playful term comes out today, nuke. This one has several different meanings, but one of them is more enjoyable than all the others. Of course the term nuke means any ship that is nuclear powered, such as submarines or carriers. It also can be any weapon that carries a nuclear payload, such as a SLBM or Tomahawk. Carried out even further it is a person in the Navy who attended Nuclear school. Then taken to its final step it means to nuke a problem, basically over think.

When I enlisted in the Navy I was to attend the Navies Nuclear School. I feel I was one of the lucky ones, I was able to switch schools because of a Navy mistake. At the time I enlisted all nuclear students went to Orlando for Boot Camp. My boot camp company had an easy 30% prospective nuke students. Some were very smart people, others were so smart they had a hard time marching a straight line. This is where the end term for nuke comes into play. Boot camp is an endless string of doing as you’re told and doing it exactly as you are told. Some of those nuke students tend to do things they way they thought they should have been told. Well, this of course it just WRONG! Anytime this would happen the Company Commander would ask, “Stokes, are you a Nuke?”

I had thought I had heard the last of this when I was sent to Gas Turbine School, but I was wrong as well. Anytime a person does something so wrong they cannot explain why they did it they are asked, “Are you a nuke?” Sometimes if something is really important you are told to do it and what ever you do make sure not to nuke it.

We all have people like this around us every day. People who over think things and make a simple task totally impossible to do. So, to use nuke in regard to one of these people is easy. “Joe, why did you nuke that CNC program?” Or “Mary write this report and don’t nuke it.” I actually used this one the other day. A guy was explaining how to do something and making it so complicated, so I told him to stop nuking it. I got the strangest look.

2/4/08

Today we look close to my own naval experience. The word is snipe. These are crew members in the engineering rates, someone who works in the engineering spaces and seldom is seen topside when underway. MM's, Machinist's Mates, and BT's, Boiler Technicians, are true old time snipes. Some people will also include EM’s, Electrician Mates, and HT’s, Hull Technicians, in the class of old time snipes. In today's modern gas turbine fleet, also includes GSM, Gas Turbine System Technician Mechanical, GSE, Gas Turbine System Technician Electrician, and EN, Engineman. It is believed that true snipes cannot stand direct sunlight or fresh air, must have machine oil in their coffee in order to survive, and get nosebleeds at altitudes above the waterline. It is also firmly believed that fresh-air sailors who venture into SNIPE COUNTRY are never seen again.
I have never been able to track done the reason the term snipe is used for the engineering rates onboard ship. No matter the reason snipes relish their reputation. Of all the berthing compartments onboard the snipe berthing is the most feared. For some reason our berthing always had the best heat and air conditioning. We always had hot water and out toilets would rarely clog. But we never had the best looking compartment and it was usually dark.

This term can be used in a couple of ways in your everyday life. Any of those guys out in the shop that always seem to be climbing in the under reaches of the plant can be called a snipe. Or even any mechanics you know whose hands are always dirty looking could be called a snipe. “The snipe down at the garage said my car needs a new transmission.”
“The snipes in maintenance need to come up here and fix my A/C vents.”

Jim,

I would venture to guess that they are called snipes because even though you know that they are there, they are rarely seen.

"Some snipe species have been hunted for food and sport since the invention of the shotgun. They can be extremely difficult targets, confounding even very skilled hunters with their erratic flight, their unexpected flushes, their excellent natural camouflage and the treacherous and difficult terrain they typically inhabit.

The elusive nature of the snipe is well-known among hunters. In the days of market hunting, the most skilled hunters of all would often bring many Common Snipe to market earning the nickname "sniper" as a badge of respect for the difficulty in shooting this amazing little bird. The term has evolved into the modern usage sniper, referring to a skilled anti-personnel military sharpshooter. "

Kenny,
You might be right about that. There were sometimes days when we were really busy down in teh engine room when we wouldn't see sun. When I went to the oil lab I did get to go outside every day, but just to refuel the darn helo.

I did know that about the term "sniper". But I bet you are on the right track with the navy term. Thanks for the input!

2/5/08

Today’s installment is a phrase you may or may not have heard while watching your favorite navy movie, Make a Hole. It is a command to a group of people to separate to allow a senior ranking person to pass through. This is especially common on submarines. Also ordered by shipboard brig prisoners escorted by a Master At Arms (MAA) personnel, "Prisoner - Make a hole!"

In reality it is not just used by senior ranking people, it is used by pretty much everyone. When having inport fire drills the fire party will yell this out as they are moving quickly around the ship. When other sailors hear this they will move to the sides of the passageway and allow the fire party to pass. When a sailor is carrying a large package you can use it to move people from your path.

Pretty much anytime a sailor needs to get past a group of other sailors they will use the term make a hole. It does work out pretty well.

This is easy to work into your every day use. “Make a hole, hot coffee coming through.” Or “Make a hole paychecks in hand.”

If people do not head your call to make a hole you can repeat it and then add “Don’t be a hole” on the end. “Make a hole, Don’t be a hole.” That will get them to move.

2/6/08

Going way back to my boot camp days is a word recruits hated to hear, mash. A common boot camp and OCS term where the entire company of recruits or class of officer candidates are 'mashed' into the ground by doing physical exercises such as running in place, squats, etc. This undesirable situation is most common after committing some offense or poor performance in a review. Examples of usage are "I'm going to mash you till your eyes pop out!" or "We got mashed pretty hard last night when too many people failed locker inspection." A common exercise while being mashed is the dreaded "hop'n'pop." Sailors completing boot camp at Great Lakes in the early 1990s were told, often, but not always, by their recruit company commanders, that "MASH" was an acronym for "Make A Sailor Hurt."

The following some people might call a sea story, but this is true. During the late winter/early spring at Great Lakes a sailor wrote home and included a mention about being mashed. He also told his mom what it meant, Make a Sailor Hurt. She was so horrified at this that she contacted her Congressman. The congressman then placed and inquiry to Great Lakes about this. Several of my A school class mates were in the company of that kid. Needless to say he caused plenty of problems for that company.

In Orlando we were cycled as recruits, but the results were the same. Sometimes no matter how good you do during a certain inspection you still would get mashed, just to make a point.

In everyday speak just use mash instead of punish. Tell you kids something like this, “If you don’t stop using up all of our cell time, I am going to mash you till your cell phone battery dies.”

Well I should tell my basketball coach that way he doesn't have to explain what he is doin... Lol

2/7/08


UNREP, this is short for underway replenishment. This term is used to describe the activity of refueling while at sea. It is a fairly complex operation and requires some pretty tight nerves and a good hand on the helm.

The process is fairly involved and I will not make this a long drawn out post about that. There are times when hearing an UNREP is coming is a bad thing, then other times it can break the everyday cycle of sleep, eat, work, watch, shower, sleep.

Normally when you UNREP two ships approach the oilier on opposite sides. If a carrier is taking on fuel, then is always takes the port side of the oilier. We always refueled while America was taking on her fuel so we always took our fuel from the starboard side of the oilier. Refueling can take 30 minutes to 2 hours to finish.

An UNREP is not just about taking on fuel it is also used for taking on supplies. Normally when this happens a different term is used, either MIDREP or VERTREP. MIDREP is taking on supplies at the midsection of the ship. This is where the kingpost is located. VERTREP is taking on supplied using the helicopter. Normally a CH-46 will carry supplies to your ship using a cargo net. These are then dropped of either on the flight deck or the forward and aft VERTREP stations.

We would use UNREP in a few different ways. The most used phrase was “While you’re UNREPping.” It has the same meaning of “While you’re BSing.” So working that in shouldn’t be all that hard. Of course who ever you spring it on will have no idea what you just said to them.

I might get a wild hare and write a little more in depth about the UNREP. So until then or the next WOD, “Adams Out!”

2/08/08

Something that is at first thought to be funny, but in reality is serious, Screaming Alpha. Damage control in the Navy is serious business, because if there is a fire and you are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there is not help. Damage control is every sailor’s second job. No matter what your primary training is, you will learn damage control onboard your ship. Starting in boot camp sailor’s are taught the basics of damage control starting with the class of fires.

Fires are defined by class, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. Alpha is anything that will leave an ash. Bravo is a flammable liquid, such as fuel or lubricating oil. Charlie is an electrical fire. Delta is a special class that contains any thing exotic. This includes flammable metals, deep fat fryers, and torpedo fuel.

To make the point how serious fire is to a ship the term screaming alpha is used. This is for a sailor who is on fire, because they would be running around screaming. Sure there are chuckles at first, but soon everyone realizes how serious fire is to a ship. So pretty much every time after boot camp when they as what class a burning sailor is, every one says “Screaming Alpha.”

You could use this in reference to a person who considers them the Alpha salesman’s at work or the top administrative assistant. But be careful using it because you could get into trouble. Only refer to a person as a screaming alpha if that person thinks they are hot stuff and brags about it. So maybe something like this might work, “Jane is such a screaming alpha since she was promoted.” But, like I said, be careful, this one could be dangerous.

Seaman Schmuckatelli: Generic name for a sailor, used in a similar manner as "John Doe," "Joe Blow" or "John Q. Public". Poor seaman Schmuckatelli was that fool who always messed up what you were trying to get done. No matter how well you secured something he would stick his hand in and mess things up. He is used for all of those what if’s out there. "You're working on an electrical system without tagging it out, when along comes Seaman Schmuckatelli, who energizes the circuit and ZAP, you're fried calamari."

His main purpose is to make you pay attention to the details. In the military it is the small things that count and if you are not careful Seaman Schmuckatelli will get you.

You can use this term with easy, but you might want to drop the seaman part. “Mr. Schmuckatelli came over while I was working on my car and dumped a can of oil on me.” Or maybe “Mr. Schmucktelli went and cried to the boss about our football pool in the shop.”

I won't be around Sunday, so here it is a day early.

2/10/08

And now for something I hope you will really like, Airedale. Simply put these are the sailors who work on or around aircraft. These are the people who take care of the aircraft when it on board ship or handle anything that deal with aircraft. It also includes the administrative group at the squadron headquarters.

When their aircraft are onboard a certain ship these sailors ride along to take care of those same aircraft, otherwise they are shore based. For example the ship I was on carried one helicopter. Unless that helo was on our ships we carried no air crew. When we carried our helo we had the aircrew on board. They were called Airedales, riders, air det, and passengers by the regular ships crew. Some of the hard nose salty sailors looked down on the aviation people.

You could maybe use this term in reference to those pesky salesmen that drop by trying to sell your company a new machine or computer system. “Those darn Airedales are back again hawking their wares.”

Schmuckatelli - good one, never heard of that one, I may use it at work