MARKAB   SCUTTLEBUTT

4/11/08

Hi everybody: 

          I have been pre-approved to fly out of Chicago-Midway on June 11, 2008.  It's a 12 hour action day leaving very early and returning that evening. Guardians will be made available at 1 per 3 vets. Buses will be waiting for us at DC when we arrive.  Spouses cannot accompany the vets.  Spouses cannot be guardians to vets.  I must provide my own transportation to the airport.

Ted Tusinsky

3/27/08

January 1, 2008

Hello.

           I stumbled upon your web site the other night and was quite surprised. I was stationed aboard the USS Markab in 1966 and did one Westpac cruise aboard her. I was a Radioman (they don't even call it that anymore). It was good duty. I remember the first time I had to send a message via Morse code and how nervous I was. There was sunspot activity and we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and couldn't use the
teletype. There was around 5 people sending code on the same frequency and I remember turning to the petty officer in charge and asking him "what do I do now"? He told me to send our call letters and listen for them to come back and remember the tone. Surprisingly, it worked. Funny, I still remember the call letters - NBTX.

          We also had to send out an urgent message one night, while we were in mid-pacific alerting them that we had a cracked hull. Fortunately things held together until we were in calmer weather and they welded the crack up or something.

          Another time on the way back to Subic Bay from Yokuska our prop shaft bent and I remember falling asleep at the desk on the mid-watch and being awakened to general quarters. We were dead in the water and a freighter was bearing down on us and wouldn't turn. It finally turned at the last minute but I was kinda nervous for a moment wondering how warm the ocean was. We were towed into Okinawa by an Army tug and spent a week. I remember how beautiful the water was there.

          I remember a bunch of us took a train to Tokyo while in Yokuska and when we got back that evening there was a anti-nuclear demonstration going on outside the main gate. I guess they found out a nuclear powered sub or carrier was due in. The train station was only a block from the gate if I remember right and we headed strait for the fence and inched our way toward the gate. The Japanese were making jestures toward us and shouting something in Japanese but they never touched us. I'm glad I didn't know
Japanese although I can imagine what they were calling us.

          Another time I was coming back from Tokyo and got on the wrong train. I couldn't speak Japanese and couldn't understand what the conductor was trying to tell me. Fortunately at the next stop the conductor found a couple of Japanese nuns who spoke English and they got me on the right train and told me when to get off.

I also remember going through the outskirts of a typhoon on our way to Yokuska and being fascinated how the bow of the ship would plunge into a wave and come up in a huge spray of sea water and foam. I thought it was fun. Another time we had to ride out a typhoon tied to the dock so we could protect a destroyer who's boiler was in the middle of being repaired and couldn't go out to sea to ride out the storm. It was interesting seeing the Markab rolling while tied up to the dock.

          I was a Christian at the time and kinda strayed away from the Lord and took to drinking but I remember standing along the railing with a bad hangover after the third drunk and feeling the Lord telling me "that was kind stupid wasn't it". I thought about how I had acted the night before and agreed with Him. I haven't gotten drunk since. When we got back to San Francisco I was transferred to a remote communications station in San Miguel Philippines where I spent the last year and a half of my enlistment. I think the Lord moved me to somewhere where I would stay out of trouble. It worked.

Here's five pictures I scanned: three from my cruise book and two from slides I took looking over the stern between Hawaii and Subic Bay. I'm in the lower line, the third from the left. (These photos will be in the 2008 Notebook at the Reunion in Colorado Springs, Colorado.)

E-mail me - Bob Hawkins

Shawn Patterson

December 17, 2007

    I was aboard the Markab 1969 and decommissioned her of course the same year.  I have a copy of The Order Of The Mothball from 1969 when I help decommission her. She was my first active duty assignment. I think I was in Supply at the time. I had just talked about string for DK when the word came through the engines were not seaworthy so we would take her to Mare Island for decommissioning.  

     I received a copy of the Order of the Mothball (12/27/07) Click on the Seal

    I am excited that The Markab Reunion will be so close to Westminister, Colorado. I will make plans to attend as soon as we get the dates. Oh, by the way, I have designed a mug through Zazzle.com. Tell me what you think.

http://www.zazzle.com/brheil/product/168611997147007779

 Pastor Bruce Heil.

           Many of you do not know that a "Plaque" has been placed in the Chester Nimitz Museum in Frederickberg, Texas.

      Visit the Museum -   This plaque  is dedicated to those who served aboard the U.S.S. Markab with a short history, dates and other interesting comments.

December 14, 2007

           Although I never went to sea on the USS Markab I did a lot of work in her shops and thru out the ship ... at least those areas still in use when I was aboard.  This was while she served as the offices, shops, messing and berthing for the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (Mothball Fleet) at Mare Island, CA.  After that closed up she was scrapped ... always a difficult scenario for those who served aboard a ship. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy many more productive and healthy years until the Lord is ready to take you home.

Steve Newbauer

December 13, 2007

    I received the following articles from Dan Sill

December 13, 2007

          I have a copy of The Order Of The Mothball from 1969 when I help decommission her.  The file is too large to send through hotmail and I can send you a copy by mail. I could also bring it to the reunion since I live near Denver. I am excited that the '08 Reunion will be in Colorado Springs.

E-Mail Me:  Bruce Heil

Hi Everybody, 

           It was 42 years ago today 12-11-65 that I first reported aboard Markab.  She was at the Alameda Naval Air Station, and departed for WestPAC in February of 1966.  We came back to Alameda in September 1966, and made another WestPAC cruise beginning June 1967.

           We steamed back into San Francisco Bay on the night of December 16, 1967 after some terrific winds all that day.  We took some 40+ degree rolls, and water ran thru the passageways outside my office in the library.  I got pictures of the Captain’s Cabin- looks like a bomb went off inside. Captain

Charles Gibson was Commanding Officer at the time – he was not a happy man.  

          I transferred from Markab in February 1968 for Staff Duty at INELANTFLT in Charleston, SC. 

E-Mail me:   Jerry Bassett   YN3 (at the time)   Chaplain’s Assistant

    PS:  Jerry sent two photos of Markab AR23 plaques: 

December 4, 2007

    If one of you have the Group Shot from the 2007 Markab Reunion would you scan me a copy and send it to me.  I want to post the Group Picture on the web.

Email me:  Bill & Janice Campbell

December 1, 2007

          I want to thank Ted Tusinski for the 2007 Markab Reunion CD photos.  They arrived today.  Good Job!

Bill & Janice Campbell

November 26.2007

November 19.2007

November 16,2007

November 12:2007

         Many thanks to Ed & Marie Slaney (53 - 56) for hosting the 2007 Markab Reunion at Cocoa Beach, Florida this past week.  It was a perfect time of fun, fellowship and delicious foods.  We enjoyed an evening at the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant in Titusville where Seafood was at its finest.  A Representative from the Audubon Society brought an American Bald Eagle to display and inform us on many of its traits.  A great presentation and photo shoots. 

          On Friday the Shipmates spend the day at Kennedy Space Center.  This fully guided tour of NASA was not only informative but gratifying.  The tour included the vehicle assembly building, space shuttle launch pad, Apollo/Saturn V center where we enjoyed a lunch.

Bill & Janice Campbell

November 11, 2007 - ARLINGTON, Va. (AP)

        Vice President Dick Cheney paid tribute Sunday to veterans of the Iraq war, honoring them for keeping the United States democratic and free and hoping "they will return in victory."  In a 10-minute Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, Cheney said soldiers from World War I to "the current fight against terrorism" have served their country valiantly and "above all they kept us free at the land we call home."    Free to live as we see fit, free to work, worship, speak our minds, to choose our own leaders," the vice president said. "May the rest of us never take them for granted."

September 20,2007