Shell Back or Scurvy Pollywogg?

I only recently found my dad's certificate..very ornate and very fascinating. Says he was a Trusty Shellback.

Date: October 9, 1944

Longitude: "secret"

Ship: SS Azalea City

 

Well, I'm "officially" a Golden Shellback (equator and International Date Line), but unfortunately it happened in mid-'97, so the PC gang was definitely in power. We rang the ship's bell, circled 360 degrees, and then continued on our merry way to Australia. COMSUBPAC had personally sent down orders (they were posted, so we would know the Skipper wasn't making this up) threatening Admiral's Mast and Big Chicken Dinners (BCD, otherwise known as Bad Conduct Discharge) to anyone caught doing anything even remotely resembling hazing. Most guys who weren't on watch or performing maintenance just went to their racks. This was on the USS Cavalla, SSN 684, a US nuclear fast-attack sub, so yeah, the traditions are/were the same before the huggy-feely types started crying. We were supposed to get certificates and wallet cards proclaiming the feat, but the Chief of the Boat (to date, the biggest douchebag I've ever met, and thoroughly reviled by the entire crew) "forgot" to order them. The boat decommissioned in late '97-early '98, and I got out in October of '98 with a very large aversion to anything naval (still don't like going waterskiing, in fact), so I never followed up on any of that.

 

Dos shells. I kept my trap shut and the salts were kind to me. Especially our Marine Detachment, if you are out there Cpl. Gaudio, Chicago, Ill. - thanks bro.

1. Location 1. Subic Bay to Djakarta, long 118 degrees 50 minutes E, between Donngala, Celebes and Samarinda, Borneo - right down the pipe (Makassar Strait) The Captain was on the Bridge half the night to ensure the NAV had his tracks in a row, only rudimentary gps in those days. Remember Loran?
1B. Subic to Perth, Western Australia same route. My two buddies went over the hill for a couple Arblaster ladies. They were great and their Dad loved us Yanks, he was RAN. They sent me postcards for awhile. Damn hospitable they were, Western Aussies that is. SP's caught my buddies over a year later.
2. Date 1976 1976
3. Ship USS Oklahoma City CG-5, 7th Fleet Flagship, Rear Admiral Thomas B. Hayward CINCPACFLT (spit and polish, haze gray underway)

 

Thanks OP.

 

Dad's certificate

August 22, 1944 - 323rd Inf Crossed Equator southwards at longitude 164 East on USS Barnstable.
All were inspected and passed by Davey Jones, and Neptunus Rex (by his servant J Walsh, USN).
"Found worthy to be numbered as one of our Trusty Shellbacks"
and duly initiated into the "Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep".

General Bell is also "examined" in this Wildcat Pictorial Supplement (date/ship unknown).

No word on any "festivities" crossing the International Date Line five days earlier.

Dropped anchor two days later at Guadalcanal; for training with the Marines before assault on the Palaus (Peleliu, etc).

 

Any more to add to the thread lately?

 

Does non-military crossing of the equator and international dateline count? And being part of the Neptune ceremony. I crossed on the Pacific Princess, LA to Sydey, Sept/Oct 1978.

 

Equator? Amateurs! You aren't a real sailor until you cross the arctic circle and become a blue nose.

 

Long 127
12 Jun 10
USS Peleliu (Go Rusty Nickel!)

 

Um, geez. Did not even name the ship. USNS Observation Island. Navy ship owned by the Army staffed by the Air Force. Go figure.

 

Spoken like a true bus driver

 

What happened to the airdales, deck apes and the black gang?

 

They went away with "Don't ask Don't tell"

 

The new and improved PC Navy?

 

11 - 18 April 1976 En route from Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines to Perth, Australia.

Seventh Fleet Flagship, USS Oklahoma City CG-5 Talos Guided Missiles

CO Captain T.R. Colligan

Flag VADM Thomas B. Hayward

USS Oklahoma City (CLG 5)

Extra credit:
Where do you get relative bearing grease and what is it used for?

 

Golden Shellback, USS JASON, AR-8, 18 March, 1981. Been There, Done That! (had to burn the t-shirt though, Dang it stunk!!)