Brinkley Bass (DD 887) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 20 text:

Bock row, left to right: N. C. JOHNSON, D. J. CONNOLLY, V. N. MOWRY, G. J. LIPETZKY, B. L DILLON. Front row: B. E. WHEATON, D. L. HUGHES, C. T. OWSLEY, W. A. MYERS, ond B. D. GRAY

Page 19 text:

EUNNEITS MATES The main duties of the Gunners Mates aboard ship are the upkeep and maintenance of the main and secondary batteries. The ship's guns must be able to fire anywhere, at any time. As can be expected in all machinery and electri- cal installations you have breakdowns. The gun fy ,- mounts are no exception, l 3 therefore you will always find the gunners mates 4,1 working hand in hand ' with the fire control tech- . nicians trying to keep the , guns hot to go. With- out the guns to protect Q l, the ship against the en- ' emy all might be lost, in 5 fact the guns are the only gf' I I reason for the ship being N K in existence, all else T I aboard is designed so that i through some means it sl , -1, r 3- can aid the guns 'in firing. T '- Although the gun gang is X drastically short-handed, ', 4 l . the gunners mates have f 1 it done exceptionally well , 'F' ,T N during the cruise of 54. 2 TF' ll -'lf'7TTIijT-,5L,1L-jfffrgnqfzj Now today's lecture is on Gunnery Safety Precautions

Page 21 text:

FIRE IIIINTHIIL TECHNICIANS The fire controlmen have one of the most technical rates in the navy. During the actual shoot. they are primarily interested in external forces such as the effect of the wind, own ship's movement, target ship's move- ment, and the roll and pitch. ofour own ship on the basic problem of where to point the guns to hit the target. This is accomplished by a large amount of dial reading, wheel and crank turning, and plain know-how. Now here is the big. problemq What if the machine doesn't 'I come up with the right answers? There is the fire controlman's big headache. He not only must know the most in- timate detailsiof mechanics, for ex- 65' ample how do you add, subtract, mul- 'v ' tiply, and dtivide, with screws, cams, L and gears, ut he is ex- i J . Pected to know the fields l JA .J of electronics and radar ' , -9' cold. I 9 The firecontr'olmen ' , 'F and gunners mates for S, l ' ty obvious reasons must be O a well trained team. The gy , M Brinkley Bass has had an 1 1- ' extremely good team as ll was proven while the ship ig 'ml' Q-if-5,5 iCZi't'C i'3eil-fi! fEZeT'ZE Q i ex i a 4 I - force and was able to lock ,L ' lm on more targets than any . other sh-ip in the screen. Oops! l guess l got the wrong knob.