virtual tour of WWII Submarine

[Kymbo]

thought some of you might be interested in a look
Great tour on an old WW2 submarine.

The link is at the bottom and once you have it up, you can rotate the view of every compartment to see it 360 degrees. And then click on next page to change  " rooms" .

Use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

Check the index as there are many different objects to view.

 
http://www.nonplused.org/panos/uss_pampanito/html/01.html

[..]

 

[big turkey]

I took a tour of one of these in Charleston, SC and the pictures I just saw on this site,

told a better story.

Thanks

I feel slightly cloustraphobic after that though.

No wonder most Submariners were Volunteers, a different breed those Submariners.

Big AL

[Jabba]

No wonder most Submariners were Volunteers, a different breed those Submariners.

Big AL

Yeah... today's submarines are Hilton's compared to the old diesel boats.  But rest assured... modern sub duty is still no picnic.

Jabba

[Walküre]

No wonder most Submariners were Volunteers, a different breed those Submariners.

Big AL

Great tour! The racks where sailors slept, were almost an after-thought - put up after all the important equipment was in place. They also had about 1/2 the number of racks, as men, and the men would "hot-rack" - that means when one got out, someone else got in. they also slept pretty much wherever they could, on board.

Dad was a submariner, starting during the Korean War, and got off subs in 1960. He told me years later, the ONLY reason he joined subs, was the sub-pay, which came in handy for anyone in the service, back then, especially with 3 kids. The one I remember was the USS Pickerel, famous for the emergency surface photo that's often seen:



Dad wasn't on it, until 1957. I recall many tours of the sub, and fondly recall the diesel smell that permeated it.

Dad then was in communications for ComSubPacFlt. This enabled us to live in Hawaii, for 8 years! Nice place to grow up...

[Jabba]

We still hot racked in 1991-1993 when I was on the USS Omaha out of Pearl Harbor.

We still slept anywhere we could, like in the torpedo room, which I did, rather than hot-racking until I was senior enough to warrant my OWN rack.

Sub pay wasn't near enough to justify sub duty for me.  I had sea pay, sub pay, AND pro-Pay (for being a Nuke) and still only made $17K as an E-5 in 1993.  Omaha was away from home port over 300 days in each of 1991, 1992, and 1993.  And I worked 90+ hour work weeks when in home port.  Going to sea was a break.  Seriously.

I had buddies who couldn't afford a POS car for their wives to be able to drive to the commissary to get groceries.  Luckily MY wife was an RN and made good cake, even back then.

It was a good experience for me, even though I left skid marks when my time was up.

Jabba

[czuch]

I went on the Bowfin in Hawaii. The room in those is frightening when you consider 65(?) men lived in there. I've read alot and had the honor of knowing several of the heros who rode those chariots to war. Anybody who voulinteers for that is a different breed of cat.

[highcountry]

We still hot racked in 1991-1993 when I was on the USS Omaha out of Pearl Harbor.

We still slept anywhere we could, like in the torpedo room, which I did, rather than hot-racking until I was senior enough to warrant my OWN rack.

Sub pay wasn't near enough to justify sub duty for me.  I had sea pay, sub pay, AND pro-Pay (for being a Nuke) and still only made $17K as an E-5 in 1993.  Omaha was away from home port over 300 days in each of 1991, 1992, and 1993.  And I worked 90+ hour work weeks when in home port.  Going to sea was a break.  Seriously.

I had buddies who couldn't afford a POS car for their wives to be able to drive to the commissary to get groceries.  Luckily MY wife was an RN and made good cake, even back then.

It was a good experience for me, even though I left skid marks when my time was up.

Jabba

Jabba, I was on the USS Kamehameha SSBN642 which was a Polaris sub from '67-'70.  I was an E-5 and I believe that the most I made was about $330/mo take-home pay.  LOL  After the Vietnam fiasco, they significantly raised the pay.  I also remember getting $38/paycheck after bootcamp as an E-2.  Needless to say, I didn't save much money.  But I sucked them dry on the GI Bill to pay for undergrad and graduate school.

My father was a WWII submariner operating in the south Pacific.  His subs sunk a number of ships including an aircraft carrier.  Here's a photo of the commissioning of one of the subs that was on.  He is the young officer on the far left.

[R J]

On the forward battery compartment, there is a black item on the right lower side with keys on it.

What is that piece of equipment?

[R J]

Jabba, $17K a year, got you must of had a hell of a lot of rank.

I was a Buck Sgt and only made $1,080.   Dat is a YEAR total Brother.  We made $90 a month.

When I got out with a rank of Tech Sgt, I was making like $120 a month....

If it hadn't of been for the pess poor salary, I might have staid in for 20.

[Rowdy]

  cool - I'm forwarding to my Uncle - he was Navy Submariner in WWII
Navy Chief retired GT Ernest 

[Robert]

That was really cool forget it if your claustrophobic, I went to some of the other ships and the power plants man that was great. Thanks   I liked the LA fireboat too.