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Speaking of submarines...


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Speakin' of Submarines...

 

Nearly fifty years ago, a few of us were known to hang out at a place called The Horse and Cow Ballroom ~ a true submariner's bar in San Francisco - which served the men from the San Francisco Naval Shipyard (later renamed Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard).  It later moved to Vallejo (Mare Island Naval Shipyard) after Hunter's Point closed, .

 

It's now in Bremerton.  I have not been to the new facility, but from what I gather it's now a "family friendly" restaurant, nothing like the original, run by Bill and Jimmy Looby*.  From the bullet-holed Belfast clock patched with band-aids to the submarine crapper behind the bar (once used by some crusty old Chief at his retirement party), THAT place was magnificent!  :lol:

 

*Jimmy Looby, mixing a Margarita

 

Here's something I posted here a few years ago...  

 

Submarine!

Hardpan

 

Back in... oh, lessee... I think it was late 70's or early 80's... I was working for a banking outfit in San Francisco (Western States BankCard Association).  

 

I knew it wouldn't last forever, but I really appreciated my office - not a private office, but my desk (I was the department head) was in a corner, second floor of the three-story building. And it came with a Million Dollar View for sure!  I could turn around and there was the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, and heck... the Bay itself - literally right across the street!  That "street" was the Embarcadero, and IF I had a slingshot and IF my window would open I coulda plunked a stone into the drink from my chair.  So cool...!

 

So there I was. It was a Saturday morning, and I'd decided to go in and do some "catch up" work while the office was mostly deserted and quiet.  Sitting there bleary-eyed, working on budget stuff (pre-desktop computer days). Paper spreadsheets piled on my desk, adding machine cranking away, when ol' Bob Lyons, my boss, comes wanderin' in.

 

"Hey! Rod!  Did you SEE it??"

 

"Uh... huh?  Did I see what?"

 

Bob grinned, and said "Well poop! Turn around and look out the $^%&* window!"

 

Puzzled, I did as directed, looked out the window, let my eyes wander about the vista... and then, they snapped back to center.  

 

Holy Cow!

 

Right there, right in front of me... was a SUBMARINE!  Literally parked across the street!

 

"Damn, Bob!!  Wouldya look at THAT!"

 

"I was lookin' at it. And look again - apparently it's open! I see people wandering about!"

 

So, bein' the bright boys we were, we hauled spuds out of the office and across the Embarcadero to check it out.

 

Sure 'nuff... anyone interested was invited aboard to check it out. And needless to say, we were interested.  A young sailor took us aboard, and gave us a tour - the thing was absolutely fascinating.  And of course, we eventually ended up in the control room.  And there it was... the periscope!

 

Bob asked, "Can I look though this?"  And the the sailor said "Of course!"

 

Well... Bob eagerly plastered his face against whatever the danged thing's called that you look through... smiled... grinned... and busted out laughing. Finally pulled away with tears literally running from his eyes. Gasping, he pointed to the "whatever the danged thing's called that you look through" and gasped... "Look... LOOK! Ya gotta LOOK!!"

 

The sailor sorta smiled, and I took Bob's place, got in position, and looked.

 

First impression...  Huh!  This is just like looking through a riflescope... there's cross hairs... and... and... and it's focused... on a window... and... the cross hairs... are... RIGHT ON MY FREAKIN' CHAIR!!   :o

 

I was quite impressed.  Wish I coulda gotten a picture!   

 

By the way, I wouldn't swear to it, but I think she was the USS Blueback.  The sailor told us that she was one of only four diesel boats remaining in service at that time.

 

The USS Blueback was the last remaining diesel-electric boat fighting submarine, decommissioned 1 October 1990.

 

The USS Dolphin, a diesel electric research submarine, was decommissioned 15 January, 2007.

 

There are now no diesel submarines in the United States fleet.

 

However, as they used to shout at the Horse and Cow... D*B*F ~!  ^_^     

 

 

                                                              Submarine Famous Horse and Cow Bar & Grill patch

 

 

 

 

 

 

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That flaming toilet paper reminded me of the time a 22nd SAS trooper who was seconded to our unit in Germany for a year performed The Dance of the Flaming A**holes on the bar at the NCO club. He used a newspaper rolled into a cone though. :lol:

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19 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

See here, Brother Hardpan....the BOOK!!!!

 

Workin' on it, Joe.  :rolleyes:

 

But there are things I did or saw at The Horse and Cow that I would never write about... even if it were not for the understanding that "What happens at the H & C stays at the H & C!"  :lol:

 

I wasn't there the night that particular fella did the "flaming dance," but Hank was.  I did see Jimmy do the margarita thing a bunch o' times.

 

I'll tell ya... being locked inside a tube underneath the ocean for months at a time seems to take some unwinding to recover from.  Occasionally some skipper would declare the place off limits.  "Hey, Fellas!  Don't tell anyone ya saw me here!"   And for some odd reason, there always seemed to be a bunch of "WestPac Widows" about...  :ph34r: 

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26 minutes ago, Palouse said:

That video cannot be unseen.  :blink:

 

Dooode...!  For the Horse and Cow, that was TAME~!!  :lol:  

 

Hm.  Somewhere, probably in a box in the garage, I have a photograph of Hank wearing a cowboy hat and a Horse and Cow T-shirt, standing in front of the Kremlin - taken on that trip that he and Truman K. took back in '86.  I was s'posed to go, but somehow ended up getting married instead.  Seems the then Future (now Former) Missus Hardpan re-scheduled the event to accommodate her brother.  Dangit!  :angry:

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