Thursday, March 13, 2014

I Stand Corrected


So earlier today, I wrote this "correct me if I'm wrong. (Which, while rare, does happen from time to time...)"

Yes, that's right boys and girls for in that self-same post, I said this "And the Air Force doesn't really have ships, we have boats. But no ships."

So in a post where I admitted to making a mistake now and again, and proclaiming those mistakes to be as common as a fiscally-conservative Democrat, guess what? (And yes that second italicized bit is a clue.)

120 ft Drone Recovery Ships of the U.S. Air Force

Yup, USAF, that's the Air Force!

The ships of the so called "Tyndall Navy" are stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base. That's in Florida. And really, 120 feet is a little large to be called a "boat."

Now I didn't discover this all by myself. Even Old AF Sarges have to look to even "older" AF Sarges, after all, we didn't spring from the womb as non-commissioned officers. An old sergeant of mine, Russ Kinion, pointed out my error, with this comment -

I figured you were referring to the Air Force "Navy" at Tyndall. I learned the hard way never to refer to them as boats. My neighbor in Panama City was a crew member on one of those "boats" and one day when we had a side of ribs in the smoker and were downing some cold brews, I made the mistake of using the term boat and it almost came to blows. He spent almost an hour explaining why they were NOT boats but were definitely ships!! The next Monday his Captain visited me at the shop and I received another lecture to the great amusement of everyone in the shop!
So Russ learned the hard way, from an Air Force "sailor". And the guys who commanded those ships were indeed accorded the title "Captain".

So yes, I was referring to the Tyndall Navy. Way back in the day I remember reading an article in Airman Magazine about the Tyndall Navy. But the picture they had showed was of a much smaller boat, something like this -


That's what I had based my comment on. I should have done my due diligence. But no, Mister Smarty-Pants knows everything! (Picture me slapping myself "up side the head" at this point.)

You can read about the Tyndall Navy here. I had no ideer...

So as I said (more than once) at Kadena, back in the day, and I say it again here - "Thanks SSgt Kinion!"

It's corrected we are...

Shiver me timbers.

Carry on, smartly!

16 comments:

  1. Fiscally-conservative Democrat??!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!

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  2. As a former sailor, I can tell you that a boat is something you can load on-board a ship, within reason. Just the same, I hadn't heard of the Tyndall "Navy".
    Kinda cool.

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    1. Hhmm, I've seen a destroyer loaded onboard another ship. So is a destroyer a boat or a ship. Or is that a special case?

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  3. Correct me if I"m wrong but, don't submariners refer their craft as a "Boat?" Just saying.

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    1. Yes, indeed they do. The senior enlisted guy on a sub is called the COB - Chief of the Boat.

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  4. Crushed. Crushed I am. I was under the impression that infallibility was issued to AF NCOs with their 5th stripe!!

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    1. I know. Of course, retirement has weakened my super powers somewhat. (Something to do with having no airmen to guide and no lieutenants to torment...)

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  5. Experience says that if you are part of the crew of a ship, you can call it "the boat" when talking to your shipmates. If you are not crew then it is a ship.
    Submarines are known as boats, this goes back many, many years when they really were just submersible boats. Now your larger subs are the same size as WW-2 light cruisers and they are still called boats.

    Do a search for heavy lift ships to see just how large of a ship that can be carried by another ship. Try, Vanguard or Blue Marlin for examples.

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    1. Yup. Subs are boats. If it's painted haze gray it's a ship. But to a member of the Air Wing, his/her carrier is always "The Boat". Ship's company on the carrier demand that it be called a ship, not a boat. The back-and-forth between my two daughters (one is Air Wing, one was ship's company) can get amusing at times.

      And yes Jon, remember how the USS Cole got back home, she was loaded on another ship, one of those heavy lift guys. And a 9000+ ton destroyer is most definitely a ship.

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  6. So, in other words, the science on boats vs ships is not settled? How do you naval gentlemen feel about global warming then?

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  7. Screw'em all, the Army has more hulls that both the Navy and Air Force combined.

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    1. I read that somewhere. Maybe that's why SECNAV is changing the way the Navy counts hulls.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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