Kalamazoo (AOR 6) - Naval Cruise Book

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1. yWEAPoNs DI q M . T' X Y I n W 4 L .4 5 M 1 l va' ! 1 -1 4 . 'fa' + L T ' A l i' T . il -I 55 I-f gr W' i ...., f T 1 A ' 9 5 t A ' ' F T- I A: Quai, GMG3 Wes Pohlmann moves an Asrock during UNREP. IIC Weapons Division is comprised of the Gunners Mates lGunsJ, or GMG rating. There are I0 gunners assigned to KALA- MAZOO. and they are responsible for the storage, handling. and transfer of KALA- MAZOO's cargo ammunition. lt's a big job: we can store up to i000 tons of bombs. mis- siles, torpedoes, and assorted small arms in our five magazines. That's enough to arm an entire carrier battle group. WEPS Division maintains the ship's Ar- mour. which consists of machine guns, shot- guns, rifles, and pistols - enough to stop even Rambo. WEPS is the mainstay for shipboard se- curity. We train all personnel into people of 007 caliber. They learn the firing and han- dling ofsmall arms as well as tactics to defend the ship against armed terrorist attack, and obnoxious tourist. WEPS division handles all ammo admin- istration. The Navy is more concerned about who has ammo and weapons than the NRA seems to beg we maintain precise tracking and accounting for every type of ammo on board. down to the last bullet and spec ofgunpowder. WEPS personnel shoot lines to all cus- tomer ships alongside. We initiate the action so that the KZOO can perform her mission. An M-14 rifle is used to shoot a two pound projectile across to the waiting ship. We have shot lines to ships 500 times this deployment, and we never even hit anyone! WEPS is a really busy division before an ammo transfer. We stage all the required ammo ahead of time ffor the most part, there's always a last minute request to throw a wrench into our flawless operationj. This means putting the bombs on pallets, encasing and banding the missiles and pallets, and sort- ing the requirements for each ship. Gunners then move the ammo using fork trucks. The ammo is transferred to customer ships via car- go station or helicopter. This is very exciting in heavy seas with pitching, rolling decksg we can't afford anyone dropping the bombs . WEPS division maintains and uses over 20 different types of steel sling and pennants used for ammo transfer. Slings encase the ammo itselfand can carry up to 6000 pounds. Pennants attach the sling to the bottom of hel- icopters for vertrep . Choosing which sling to fit the right ammo is an art which all had a chance to practice this deployment, as we have moved 700 tons of ammo! You can be proud of your men in the Weapons divisiong they've met every require- ment for ammo with superior results and with the highest praise possible from their custom- ers! weapons division 23

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DI B RSI S-4 Money and accounting, payday and ship's bills - that's how the three disbursing clerks QDK'sJ spent the bulk of Med '89, The sailors in S-4 have callouses on their fingers tougher than Chuck Berry's from punching adding machines and typewriters all day. Giv- ing some statistics from the office will give an idea of what is happening when the door is closed and no one is cashing checks. Speaking of cashing checks, the office cashed Sl,305,000.00 worth of checks during the deployment - an average of 3,107.00 per person! Now folks at home can ask what they did with all that money. Disbursing didn'tjust give out good old American Greenbacks: over S242,000.00 worth of play money was sold to the crew in the form ofGreek Drachmas, Tur- kish Lira, Spanish Pesetas, Italian Lira, and French Francs. DK's were the only ones who took all the zeros on the Turkish Lira serious- ly.' And did the crew make enough money to support these wild spending habits? They sure did - the office paid out Sl,577,000,00 in checks and cash. Of course most of this went home in the form of money orders tothe lovely wives and families right? The U.S. Treasury knew the KALAMAZOO was spending. Over S2,l25,000.00 worth of Trea- sury Checks were issued. No wonder they won't trust us with credit cards! Very few people come and go from the ship without Disbursing knowing about it. Over 370 travel claims were processed - an- other S40,000.00 spent in moving fine Navy personnel around the world. Every time the ship travelled from port to port, disbursing got involved. Nearly Sl75,000.00 was paid in ship's bills. Each bill paid effected at least eight documents and will ultimately be re- ported to at least six different government agencies. This was definitely not a Budget Cruise for the U.S. Navy! And, last but not least, each DK an- swered l0 to the 73rd power questions, or one question for each atom in the universe, about the Navy's wonderfully complicated pay sys- tem. 22 disbufsing s-4 15- l l I ky , i i NF K , i In t F' l , 2 l I ' l f- if f fm- il l k1 X ,. my. 1 E i , I

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GI EERI G DEPT. X wh- 1 334' 369'