An Electrician''s job is never done! Buffing up shore power connections on the USS William H. Bates (SSN 680) alongside the pier in Subic Bay, Olongapo, Philippines - 1984
Every one of the crew of the USS William H. Bates (SSN 680) spent a few minutes sitting on the stern in the middle of the night on a long and boring duty day, staring out across the harbor, pining for wives or sweethearts, and wishing they were somewhere else. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - 1982
A sailor has a reputation in port, justly deserved for the most part, but traveling the seven seas on the USS William H. Bates (SSN 680), we all found time to appreciate the scenery and sunsets. Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territories. - 1983
The USS William H. Bates (SSN 680) tied up at the Royal Australian Navy''s Rockingham facility on our visit to Perth, Western Australia during Westpac 83-84. - 1983
The bridge crew scans the horizon as darkness falls on the USS William H. Bates (SSN 680) surface transiting the Gulf of Siam. - 1982
The Avalon (DSRV 2) is lowered into her cradle on the back of the USS William H. Bates (SSN 680) in preparation for sea qualifications. San Diego, California -1983
Those of you that haven't spent hours at a watchstation underway might wonder what a "Sea Story" is. In a functional sense, it is little more than an anecdote or short tale of an event or events that took place in the life of the story-teller while on-board the submarine.
For the story-teller, it could be bragging, boasting, decompression, passing on of critical truths, teaching the unqualified, or a hundred other things. For the listeners, it was always taken with a grain of salt, because sea stories had a way of evolving, in which the story-teller always became the 'good guy', and the tale, despite having taken on the proportions of Paul Bunyan and the blue ox, Babe, was still unarguably "true". Whatever it was about, it usually started with the expression "this is a no-s_____r".
Regardless of who was talking and who was listening, sea stories were a way of life, a part of the tradition of sailors from ages past, a way of passing time, that filled our endless hours and sometimes, for a brief moment or two, helped us escape the reality of the present.
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