I Found Something Also........ But What Is It ?

[Rustship]

I see you guys were Black Shoes! This was the real NAVY - Aviation, my squadron VP-5 MAD FOXES
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[Tired Retired]

Oh, Goodie!! Someone brought some TARGETS!!!


Do they still have the ATM machines in the back of those things so you can draw your per diem before you head over to the club?

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Now up pops the Green Stripes. They were good for bringing in the mail. There was a helo deck on the back of the LPD's we were on.

TR,
I didn't like being nailed into the coffin, but it was worth being a Shellback. Plus then continuing down to Austrailia. That made the crossing a lot more fun. We were only a 17 man assault boat unit carried by the ships to our drop off point. Kind of got a hard time from ships personel because we never stood duty, watches, or inspections. But we had to be able to make a run within 10 minutes of notice. By the way, I have a friend who is a Bluenose, rarer then being a Shellback.

Rustship,
We wore jungle boots. Black shoes were stateside only for my unit.

So to relate this to the forum, Carbines were issued to our boat group my first tour in 1967/68 plus we had .50 cals.

[doncb]

Hi. just a thought . It might be used to tie a line to give it more weight on a boat,so u can throw it. Dont really know,just guessing. donb in fl.

[Cosine26]

There is another use for a “monkey’s fist – taking soundings. When I served on cruisers during WWII, every ship had a station called the “chains”. This was a small platform on each side of the prow that hung over the water and was surrounded by a chain. When entering or leaving port, an experienced sailor from the deck force served in the “chains” and took soundings by heaving the “lead” or “monkey’s fist. The “monkey’s fist” was affixed to a ‘heaving line’ that had marks showing the distance from the “Monkey’s fist “to the mark. At the one fathom point there was no mark, at the two fathom mark there was a “mark” consisting of two leather strips, at the five fathom mark there was a red rag, at the 10 fathom position there was a piece of leather with a hole in it , etc. The sailor would wind up, heave the “lead” and rapidly reel it in until it was vertical at which time he would note where the water level struck the heaving line. If the water level fell at the 5 fathom mark ((a white rag) he would call “By the Mark Fiver”. If the water level fell where there was no mark (such as six fathoms) he would estimate and call “By the deep six”. We always had men in the “chains” even though we had a fathometer. A good “chain” man was worth his weight in cold. For non-nautically inclined, a fathom is six feet.