Navy Vets: Let's get a list going of Nicknames of vessels.

[Captain Hilts]

Now that nearly every vessel is named for a city or state, there seem to be fewer nicknames.
Here are some of the ones I know:

Kitty Hawk: Shitty Kitty, Battle Cat
Cubera: Cubby Bear
Cutlass: Cuteass
Lewis & Clark: Lost and Confused
Theodore Roosevelt: The Big Stick
JFK: Big John
Sea Robin: Bobbin' Robin
Bon Homme Richard: Bonnie Dick
Toledo: Toodleedoo
...

[tinymontgomery]

1. USS Pensacola

38 Special, ships flag was a picture of a 38

[Captain Hilts]

2. Never heard that one. What's the origin?

Is the hull number 38?

[tinymontgomery]

3. Hull #38, LSD type

not around anymore.

[Captain Hilts]

4. I remember those at Little Creek Amphib Base...Thanks!

[lepus]

54. USS Gato SSN615

The Goalkeeper

[Captain Hilts]

55. I've got a nice, shiney GATO 615 plaque on my wall. I should have gotten that one!

Do you have a tie to that great boat?

[lepus]

72. 5 years and a lot of underways. NT

[jetphixer]

5. Ships nick names

USS Hornet: The Gray Ghost of the Japanese coast
USS Forestall: The Forest Fire
Relative to which Coast one was on: Hornet & Wasp; "The other bug"

[Captain Hilts]

7. LOVE "The Other Bug". Never heard that one!

Speaking of HORNET, I guess SHANGRI-LA is the first ship named after a nickname, as it were...

Keep 'em comin' folks!

[tango-tee]

56. Yes! The Forest Fire.

It's been so long....

[Captain Hilts]

57. A friend of mine was flying off FORESTAL at the time of the fire.

His A-7 was not damaged.

Reading the cruise book was really sobering.

[Speck Tater]

6. "Old Ironsides" USS Constitution. (1797 to present) nt

[sarge43]

8. The Big E - USS Enterprise n/t

[shinyhead]

74. Heh, we called it the Big Pig - NT

[Arctic Dave]

9. USS Merrill: USS ME_ _ ill

[TellTheTruth82]

10. USS Peleliu and Tarawa

Pelelie - Smelleliu and Building 5
Tarawa - Chicken of the Sea

[Independent_Thinker]

14. Tarawa was Decomissioned

Last Friday here in San Diego. Know the CO and XO well.

[Jack Bone]

20. ahhh...Building 5

I remember Building 5 in Long Beach back in the late 80's.

thanks for the chuckle!

[Captain Hilts]

11. Oh, yeah a whole 'nother genre of knicknames: Building...

The MOUNT WHITNEY was "Building ???" in Norfolk.

A lot of tenders were called that. FULTON, etc.

A variation was the SEAWOLF's moniker as "Pier 572" I was horrified to read in Blind Man's Bluff what they had that maintenance nightmare doing!

[tinymontgomery]

12. Mount Witney

building 20, did 2 years on her, worst tour I ever had.

[Captain Hilts]

13. I remember it tied to the pier in Norfolk with moss growing on the North side. nt

[Captain Hilts]

22. Norfolk? I always thought it was a neat looking ship. What's the West Coast one?

Blue Ridge? I'm not sure.

What's with the gold/brass colored anchor?

[tinymontgomery]

24. Late reply

West Coast ship is USS Blue Ridge. Gold anchor is the CNO retention award. Any ship that has high retention wins the award and can paint the anchor gold.

[Captain Hilts]

25. I did not know that about the gold anchor. Thanks!

[Thothmes]

37. Aka Mount Witless

[Captain Hilts]

46. Oh, that one's good! A natural!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

15. Belleau Wood LHA-3

was Big Dog

Ranger was Stranger or Danger

Constellation was Connie or Constipation

those of us on the Commissioning Crew of Belleau Wood called Tarawa Building 1, there were a lot of those in SD in those days... can't remember them all various tenders

Coral Sea was Gotta Pee

[Captain Hilts]

17. I know the CONSTELLATION as the CONSTERNATION. nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

63. I was onboard the Connie in '88 for a big fire... To me she's the USS Conflagration! n/t

[TellTheTruth82]

16. Juneau and Prairie

Juneau - The perfect 10 (LPD-10)
Prairie - who could forget "Love Boat"

[Captain Hilts]

18. Wasn't VULCAN the first "LOVE BOAT"?

Didn't it have the first women on board?

[NavyDavy]

19. USS Orion AS-18 I know there is one but I don't remember,

USS Theodore Roosevelt - Big Stick, but thats also my nickname

[Jack Bone]

21. I was on The USS New Jersey

we called ourselves "THE Battleship"
also known as "The Big J"

USS Iowa was "The Big Stick"
USS Missouri was "The Big Mo"

I can't recall what the USS Wisconsin was...maybe "Whiskey"?

[Glassunion]

70. I spoke recently with a sailor that was on the USS New Jersey

He mentioned the nickname "Black Dragon" for one.

He also mentioned that Navy pilots called her "Ole Blue Eyes". When they removed the AA guns from her deck(I believe either before or after Korea, they left two of the gun basins alone. One was on each side of the ship. The sailors would fill them with water so that they could swim in them. From above the basins looked like a pair of blue eyes.

[bluescribbler]

23. USS James C. Owens, (DD776) and USS Mahan, (DLG11)

USS James C. Owens -- Jumpin' Jimmy C.
USS Mahan -- Mickey Mahan

[Captain Hilts]

26. Harry Yarnell. "Happy Harry." nt

[Thothmes]

38. aka the Harry Urinal

[Captain Hilts]

41. Oh I'd NOT heard that one - great stuff!

[jonnyblitz]

27. two i was on : USS Missouri was "Mighty Mo" and the USS

LaSalle was "Great White Ghost of the Arabian Coast" ( the ship was painted white to deflect heat and homeported in Bahrain)

[Captain Hilts]

28. I remember when they painted LA SALLE! It was at Little Creek, I think. Yes!

[Thothmes]

39. aka Moby Dick

[eirteacher]

29. Tin Can Sailor

I was a Tin Can sailor on board the USS Fletcher DD445 (The Fighting Fletcher or Mother Fletcher) First is line, longest in dry dock.
and the USS Frank E. Evans DD754,(Rank Frank)cut in half South China Sea June 2, 1969. RIP

[Captain Hilts]

30. USS Simon Lake - The Slimely Snake. nt

[MGB67]

31. There were many of the old Essex class carriers on Yankee Station

I was on the Hornet and cannot really remember a nick for her.

But the USS Bennington was called "The Benny Boat" (but then, most of the Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club ships ran on bunker fuel and cross tops).

Less flattering was the nickname "Queerbarge" for the USS Kearsarg.

Saddest nickname, however, was "USS Forest Fire".

[Captain Hilts]

34. Scout response #5. 'Queerbarge' was also called that during Korea.

On my museum vessel, last weekend, a former sailor that came through said he was on FORRESTAL, I said, "Oh, the Forest Fire," and then felt bad about it, but he didn't bat an eye. Later, he had the exact same conversation and got the same 'Forest fire' response.

I had a friend who was flying A7s off the FORRESTAL on that cruise. I saw his cruisebook for that cruise. Really sobering.

To make it sadder, my mother knew James Forrestal, who fought the creation of a Dept. of Defense. He said it was crazy to create a whole new dept. and drop it on top of what already existed and what worked well enough to win a world war. Then, they made him Sec. of Defense. His wife was flagrantly sleeping around on him and people thought he was crazy when he said he was being followed by Israeli agents. He finally succeeded on his second attempt to jump out a high window at Bethesda Naval. Ends up, he was being followed by Israeli agents, and not crazy.

[bsd13]

32. USS Cowpens (CG-63)

"The Mighty Moo" - Can't make this stuff up, folks.

[Captain Hilts]

33. I had not heard that one in a while. COWPENs is at fleet week NYC this week, I believe. nt

[Captain Hilts]

35. Tecumseh - Tea Cup. nt

[Thothmes]

36. Here are a few

USS Kearsearge CV-33 Queerbarge (during the 50s a couple of dozen homosexuals were arrested at one time from the ship)
USS Yellowstone AD-41 Rollingstone (after an incident during sea trials where several crewmen were injured
USS Saratoga CV-60 Sucking 60 from Dixie
USS Brinkley Bass DD-887 Rinkly Ass
USS St Louis LKA-116 Sweet Lou
USS West Virginia BB-48 WeeVee
USS Vogelgesang DD-862 Vogie

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Thothmes]

40. Here is another one

USS John F. Kennedy CV-67 Slack Jack

[Thothmes]

42. Another

USS Coral Sea CV-43 Coral Maru

[Stinky The Clown]

44. ARL 18 USS Pandemus

Cement Bottom .......... for all the cement patches in her bottom.

[Captain Hilts]

45. It MUST have been called 'pandemic' at some point. You could see the frame twisting inside the hold

of these style ships. Eeek!

[UTUSN]

47. USS Luzerne County (LST 902) = "benjo maru" Japanese for "shit ship"

or that's what we were told it meant by shipmates, and THEY wouldn't lie, would they?

It was my ship in Vietnam 1967-68. Built in 1944. Was decommissioned twice and recommissioned twice for Korea and Vietnam. It had one of the highest counts of battle stars, 12. Only a half dozen had more, up to 17. It stayed on in Vietnam three years after I transferred to my second ship and was decommissioned in '71.

When a few of us reported straight from Boot Camp, a few salts took us down to the tank deck and showed us leaks at the seams and tried to recruit us into refusing to take it out to sea again. We knew nothing, and finally one of us broke the silence timidly, asking, "Isn't that 'mutiny'?!1"

[Captain Hilts]

48. Oh, man. I heard you could see the hull twisting while at sea inside the tank deck of those...

They had these at Little Creek Amphib Base for years...

[UTUSN]

49. That RUST on MY bucket was NEVER there when *I* was a Deck Ape!1 n/t

[Captain Hilts]

50. What's with the one ship being painted OD? Did the Army have LSTs too? nt

[Greg2]

75. Luzerne County 902

By accident I came across several sites devoted to Luzerne County 902 this evening. I served on LST 902 from 1966-67. I was the yeoman down in the engineering department, the first and possibly last, and later assigned to the main office. I caught the ship in Pearl Harbor, where I was supposed to be stationed for the duration of my military service. Fate had other plans. Luzerne County had just come from Norfolk, VA, and it was a mess, i.e., the difference between heaven (Pearl Harbor) and the other place (902). But we cleaned it up soon enough, and our second ship's captain, a U.S. Naval College graduate and the youngest ships captain in the Navy at the time, made sure we kept the ship spift up. So I was a bit taken aback by the later photos this evening, 1968 forward, where Luzerne County looked neglected and run down. Possible explanations: Later sailors and the ship saw more action than we did and the old ship was hard to keep up. Or maybe the ship got a new captain who wasn't as concerned about appearances. Ah so, it's a long time ago. I was glad to leave the ship after eighteen months. But the memory of Luzerne Country wears well and I look back on that time fondly. No complaints at all. I was young, and it was one of life's unforgettable adventures.

[The River]

51. USS Hancock CVA-19

aka the "fighting Hanna"
or as most prefered, USS Handjob!

[Jeramy]

52. Heres a couple from the mordern navy

USS Vella Gulf, the Hella Gulf
USS Arleigh Burke, Already Broke
USS Carr, USS Cartel( a chief got busted running a drug ring there)
USS Enterprise, The Enterprison, or Mobile Chernobyl, or Three quarter mile island
USS Cole, USS Hole

[Captain Hilts]

53. I'd forgotten 'Mobile Chernobyl'!!! The 'joke' in Norfolk was that if you

ever saw ENTERPRISE coming in at low tide, it MUST have a reactor problem.

I think after the re-fit all of the reactors are working again.

[igfoth]

58. Lewis & Clark

Leaks and Cracks was more common when I was in

[Captain Hilts]

60. LOVE it!

You seem to be a boomer boy...

[igfoth]

59. More Nicknames

USS GW Carver SSBN 656 - Peanut Boat
USS Nathanael Greene SSBN 636 - Nasty Nat
USS Alexander Hamilton SSBN 617 - Pig Boat or Der Waffen Oinker
USS Von Steuben SSBN-632 - Von Stupid

[Hello_Kitty]

61. My favorite was always Puget Sound: Pubic Mound. eom

[Captain Hilts]

62. NEVER heard THAT one!!! Terrific, Kitty!

[MindPilot]

64. USS Tulare (LKA112) Tu-Tu or the Big T

Proud member of the 'Gator Navy

[Captain Hilts]

65. Didn't know this one! My folks lived barely a mile from the main gate at Little Creek. nt

[Submariner]

66. USS Becuna (SS-319), called the Becky B, now a museum boat in Philly

[Stinky The Clown]

67. USS Pandemus, ARL15

"Rock Bottom" for the concrete poured onto the hull at the lowest levels to combat the advancing rust-through.

We used to say she was moored to the pier with welded train rails.

I was on her final sea voyage, a one nighter off the coast of Charleston. We sprung a leak.

[FromNY]

68. Some more

Love this thread! It motivated me to sign up for this site!

O'Callahan -- The Oh-Cee

Fort Snelling --- The Mellow Snell-o (my favorite)

The Hoel --- I think you can guess

Norton Sound - Snortin' Norton

and of course, any LPD was a Large Plastic Duck

[FromNY]

69. Benjamin Stoddard

The Benjamin Stoddard was known as the Bennie Sweat when I was in.

[Stinky The Clown]

71. The person who started this thread is a friend of mine . . . . .

She can no longer post on DU, but she checks here from time to time. She asked me to thank you for posting in her thread.

:hi:

[haele]

73. Norton Sound - the Snortin' Norton,,,

The only guided-missile Sea-Plane Tender in the US Navy. Decommed in 1987.(sniff)

Haele

[MADem]

76. USS Blue Ridge

LCC 19

Large Cabin Cruiser 19....