North Atlantic - Blue Nose

 

USS Scott DDG-995

Feb 1991-Jan 1992

North Atlantic - Blue Nose

 

I will apologize if my dates are messed up. I have no idea when we did most of this and am going by a Navy History page. If the dates they have are correct, then I am correct, if not, let me know, and I will fix those. One date, I would like to know was the date we did our Blue Nose initiation. (I want to replace my lost certificate.)

In late August of 1991, we left Norfolk for the waters of the North Atlantic. We were looking forward to a visit to Norway and one to Germany. I know I was excited to be hitting Europe for the first time. Along the way, we were going to cross into the Realm of the North.

I recall it was foggy as hell when we made it up around Canada, and it stayed that way for a good while. The beginning of the deployment was pretty smooth, and the engines god a good work out. We had just replaced one of the LP turbines, so we were back up to full power. We did a high-speed run for well over 24 hours, making sure things were all good. It was.

The initial part of this deployment was pretty basic. First, sit off the coast while America brought her aircraft onboard, and they were able to get in their requirements. I spent this deployment doing time mess cranking and refueling the helo. And I also was on the fuel team fr UNREP.

Also, during this deployment is advancement test time. I had not planned to take the test during that cycle, but my chief pushed me to do it. And he came to me about 2 weeks before the test, telling me to take the BMR test and get my PARs signed off. The BMR was pretty easy, and the weather was cooperating with us that day. Jump to the advancement test day, and it was rough as hell. I was in the crew’s rec room, sliding all over the place.

We operated with NATO and had some Soviet bombers come out and say hello. That was pretty neat.

The day we were going to cross the Arctic Circle, we were also going to UNREP with a Brtish tanker. Since I was oil king on the forward station, we had to get all prepped to receive the flange set up the British use. So, disconnect the standard set up and get things ready. I have to make a gasket and have two wrenches to tighten down the many bolts.

Of course, the UNREP did not happen on time; it happened far later at night. We cross the circle, and they call UNREP stations. It was pretty rough out that night and not to mention cold. We get all set up, and I connect the flange with Scott. We start taking fuel, and then after maybe 20 minutes, we secure forward. I disconnect the setup. We take the standard probe set up aft. I would not mind all of this on a typical day, but damn, it was icy, and I had to do all of that barehand. My fingers were pretty crisp by the time I finished.

The cooks were busy making cookies to send over to the Brits. We even got to have some while standing out in the cold, hot chocolate too. It is bad enough I had to try t see the overflow at night, but in rough weather, it made it even worse. When I heard a big slap sound, I noticed a massive wall of water that followed by the forward station.

As I was going to look one time, I heard that slap and just jumped back in time for that wall of water to miss me. But, the guys on the after station were not so lucky. I heard the oil king down there over his sound powered phone cuss as he was drenched. It was hard not to laugh because I knew what happened. Of course, the guy in central had to tell us to knock it off.

The next morning we did the Blue Nose ceremony. Hot water was turned off, except in the Officer’s country, only the Blue Nose was allowed a hot shower. Us Arctic Scum had cold showers if we wanted one. Breakfast was served cold as well. We tried to make everything blue, but blue coloring in the eggs turned them green.

There were complaints from the crew about the cold breakfast, but we were under orders from the Blue Nose to do this. Later that morning, the crew gathered with clothes on inside out and backward. Then we were punished for entering the Realm of the North. I recall the air temp was in the ’40s, and so was the water temp. Combined, it made for a cold time lapping Scott.

Up to the helo deck for one last talking to by the Blue Nose and then final steps in us becoming one. We had to dunk in some water that I assume was hovering right at 32 degrees; it was cold. One last stop was the pan full of blue-colored lard to dip our nose. I was helped by an Engineer, I remember his nickname, Moose. My face was covered in blue lard. But that was part of the fun. Down in berthing, we had an assembly line to hot the hot showers. It was a fun time, cold but fun.

I’ll wrap up our trip to Norway and the Storm maybe next week.

One of our Soviet visitors.