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| What is Biden doing??? Ukraine... (Page 2/3) |
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maryjane
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DEC 02, 11:36 AM
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There are different kind of land (and sea) mines nowadays.
Electrically fused (batteries)
When the batteries die, the mine won't (can't) detonate. Some mine batteries by design die within days, some within weeks.
They aren't like theold mines that were between the US base in GTMO and the Cubans in the mid 70s when I was there. Many of those had been in the ground for over a decade and sometimes went off because of corrosion, sometimes detonated because of animals such as deer.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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DEC 02, 04:56 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
There are different kind of land (and sea) mines nowadays.
Electrically fused (batteries)
When the batteries die, the mine won't (can't) detonate. Some mine batteries by design die within days, some within weeks.
They aren't like theold mines that were between the US base in GTMO and the Cubans in the mid 70s when I was there. Many of those had been in the ground for over a decade and sometimes went off because of corrosion, sometimes detonated because of animals such as deer. |
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I shouldn't, but I laughed when you talked about the deer... I can only imagine... it shouldn't be funny, but if I can't laugh at something, then what the heck.
I guess that's a good point, and I hope that's what's being utilized...
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maryjane
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DEC 02, 06:54 PM
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Well, it wasn't real funny at the time. The mines' detonation were a rudimentary early warning that a land attack was under way.
For the thousands of military troops, civilian contractors and military dependents on windward side of Guantanamo, there was no way off that didn't involve a mile long trip across the bay on a converted landing craft to the airstrip on leeward side.
For weeks at a time, there were no US ships in port at Guantanamo.
This photo was taken from the ferry landing at Leeward point, (where the Navy's air base is) with the opposite ferry landing major part of the Navy base barely visible across the bay on Windward.
Most of America doesn't understand, this is one of those isolated 'fight or die' places.
 [This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 12-02-2024).]
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82-T/A [At Work]
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DEC 02, 07:36 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
Well, it wasn't real funny at the time. The mines' detonation were a rudimentary early warning that a land attack was under way.
For the thousands of military troops, civilian contractors and military dependents on windward side of Guantanamo, there was no way off that didn't involve a mile long trip across the bay on a converted landing craft to the airstrip on leeward side.
For weeks at a time, there were no US ships in port at Guantanamo.
This photo was taken from the ferry landing at Leeward point, (where the Navy's air base is) with the opposite ferry landing major part of the Navy base barely visible across the bay on Windward.
Most of America doesn't understand, this is one of those isolated 'fight or die' places.
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I get the sides mixed up, which is the side that has Radio Free America, McDonalds, and the NAVY Lodge? From what I understand, the air strip on THAT side is no longer being used, and totally abandoned, and the other side (Leeward side?) is the airport they're currently using, but everything else on that side of the bay is abandoned. So every time anyone flies in, they have to take the ferry to the other side (where the command and everyone else is).
What I always thought was interesting is that INSIDE the bay, there's dozens and dozens of pylons, which someone told me was meant to be used for mooring battleships back in the day... ships that never ended up there. I know a few past presidents have desired to give up that territory, but I really hope we never do.
By the way, they are still using this Ferry... I assume they were still using it when you were there too:
They have a different one for transporting vehicles, but if it's just passengers, they use this one.
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maryjane
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DEC 02, 09:43 PM
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Windward is the side where most of the base operations take place and where most of the troops are, as well as the desalination plant and electric generators are.
There is an old air field there, right where the windward ferry landing is. McCalla Field which was last used as a sea plane field. The planes would land on the bay and were then pulled up onto McCalla by winch or truck. It's where the tent city was during the 1st Haitian immigrant influx.
No, that, is a newer ferry. 100% ferry purpose design and built.
This is what the ferries looked like back 'in my day'. There were 4 of them, and they ran 2 at a time from 0500 up until 11pm at night. They were converted 1600 class LCUs. (Landing Craft Utility) The pilot house on an LCU is off to one side of the deck, so to build them into ferries, they moved the pilot house to the center and added a passenger seating up there behind the helm. The vehicles parked along both sides of the raised pilot house.
A 1600 class LCU:
On the very rear of an LCU, is a full width, but short stern gate. It's there to allow for marrying up 2 or more LCUs end to end to create a causeway for vehicles to roll off the last LCU and directly onto and over LCUs closer to the beach.
I do have some pictures of the old battleship moorings in Guantanamo Bay. Tied up to many of them when fishing the bay. Not unusual to set there and watch Soviet flagged ships pass by on their way thru the outer bay & into the back bay of the commie side.
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AlanD
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DEC 03, 07:53 AM
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Very cool picture. That is one of the early stern gate marriages I recall grading as an LCU/LCAC/ACB inspector for NBGU2 in Little Creek. I am either the white hat you can barely see on the left next to the cabin or I am in the engineering plant monitoring their systems.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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DEC 03, 08:31 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
I do have some pictures of the old battleship moorings in Guantanamo Bay. Tied up to many of them when fishing the bay. Not unusual to set there and watch Soviet flagged ships pass by on their way thru the outer bay & into the back bay of the commie side.
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Damn, so... that was going to be one of my questions... we basically enclose the entire entrance to the bay. We allow traffic to the rest of the bay to pass through?
I found this...
I was only there for two weeks, and then again for three days. I tried to see as much as I could while I was there, but of course I had work to do... so I really only spent a single day (I extended my trip so I could do some "sightseeing"). I pretty much spent my entire time in a concrete bunker right off the beach that apparently was originally a gas station, converted into a server room, that also was storage for all of the hard drives from the entire base of excessed laptops due to the non-destruct order (because of the detainees). Of all the places where they had servers, it seemed like the most ridiculous place I could even imagine. It was this concrete box just off the shore. Made no sense at all. I think they ended up moving it...
There were entire neighborhoods in Guantanamo that were abandoned. Weeds as tall as people crowding around houses that were abandoned. From what I could tell, Guantanamo had been significantly more staffed at one point than it is now. It was still nice, and plenty of drunken NAVY people to make sure the curbs and fences were well painted every weekend. But it was clear that back in the day, a lot of people brought their families there (as there were tons of homes).
There were a few new neighborhoods that I saw, but it was clear those were flag officers and probably some 04 and up, or maybe senior enlisted (don't really know how that works)? Most of the people I saw lived in barracks. They had a couple of apartment buildings too. The guy who was driving us around all week, the command had to pay $1,200 a month to the NEX to rent his Ford Focus... which was a 2004 (?) Focus in 2016... hahaha...
Was that jerk chicken place there at the time? How about O'Kelley's Pub? The drive-in was still there, but I was working late nights and didn't get the chance to go see a movie there.
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cliffw
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DEC 03, 09:40 AM
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Very interesting discussion.
| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
A 1600 class LCU:
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A boat on a boat ?
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maryjane
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DEC 03, 11:15 AM
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Todd. There was a housing shortage when I was there, tho there were 'subdivision' type mil housing neighborhoods everywhere.
1 for junior enlisted.
2 for mixed enlisted, E4 thru Chiefs. (I lived in this one for about 11 months)
Another very nice area exclusive for E7 and above.
And, officers had their own housing areas.
The main Navy barracks for single sailors was Gold Hill Barracks.
The only major Navy enlisted club was the Windjammer, which was pretty new during my tour there.
The 'drive-in' was called The Lyceum and there was a little Navy Ex snack bar nearby.
The other clubs for junior enlisted were:
1. The Barrel Club, a small place run by Jamaican workers but USN were welcome and they had some of the best food on base.
2. Fleet Reserve Association which was way out Sherman Blvd, kinda a shack looking place. Private thing for career USN and Marines tho I never saw a Marine in there.
There was a major hurricane that hit there about a decade ago (maybe longer back) and a lot of infrastructure was damaged.
I believe the Barrel Club was lost and re-emerged as the Chicken-Jerk.
There was no O'Kellys.
The only other place to drink was the bowling alley.
The housing I lived in was a ways out away from the ship maint area and was cookie cutter cinder block construction built by Navy Seabees. No AC, you had to buy your own window unit if ya wanted air conditioning.
The townhouse looking buildings are Navy Lodge. Temporary lodging for families and vip visitors. There was only one small one while I was there.
Yes, tho the US controls entrance to the entire bay, we do by treaty have to allow all other vessels to pass thru to and from the upper bay but they cannot stop in the lower bay.
Permanent ships and vessels there during my time were:
A Torpedo Retriever.
A USCG bouy tender.
A small USCG patrol boat.
2-3 LCMs (Mike Boats)
4 LCU converted to YFB ferries (Yard Ferry Boat)
The Admiral's "barge"which was more or less a nice but not extravagant yacht.
The Captain's Gig, which was a wonderful old wooden boat with 2 screaming turbo'd 6 v 53s in it that would run across that bay like a scalded dog.
A whole bunch of rental fishing boats from Navy special services.
A scheduled(every 2 weeks) civilian ro-ro ship that brought in supplies and household belongings of people being stationed at GTMO.
Yes, in my time there, the base was very busy, with ships and entire naval units coming and going for REFTRA and shake downs.
I do have google earth paid subscription on my laptop. I'll have to look gtmo over and see how much has changed.
You had to be very careful where you drove if away from 'downtown'. There were USMC tank trails cut thru hillsides everywhere that intersectted the paved roads and the Marines did not slow down one bit coming across the roads.
There were frequent Defcon drills. A loud wailing siren..day...or middle of the night. You kept ONE bag packed for your family to bug out, but the civilians all got transported to the Eclub. All the rest of us went directly to our battle stations. My station was on one of the ferries, and we generally took on M-60 tanks and Marines to transport across the bay to guard the runway.
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maryjane
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DEC 03, 11:17 AM
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"A boat on a boat?"
Yes, it's on a trailer.
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