I served my 4 year hitch on the Intrepid from Sept. 1968 to May 1972. The first 2 years were on her last war cruise, Yankee/Dixie Station off Vietnam. She was designated a CVA (Special) - which meant she was operating as an Attack carrier. We had Scooters, (A-4's), Crusaders (F-8's), and Spads (Skyraiders), plus a couple of Fudds (E1-B's). Intrepid, believe it or not, was running Alpha Strikes.
My Uncle served aboard in 1944, and other than the angled deck, and the steam cats, she was pretty much the same as she was when HE served. We slept exactly the same way my dad did in '44, three racks stacked, hanging from chains. He told me later, my berth in OS was an 20mm magazine back then.
The third time I ever flew was my delightful tour of California, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Cam Rahn, to the Intrepid on the line. In 3 days. 45 minute stopovers the whole way.
4th plane ride was in the back of a C-1 Trader (COD), and the last landing was a trap. Great introduction to Naval Aviation. (you don't even want to know how you take a leak in a Trader)
After mess-cooking, was a deck ape in 2nd Div, working UNREP station in hanger bay 1, chipped/painted every foot of that starboard sponson.
Got TAD'd to G Div, spent 3 mo.'s doing fin/fuse/wire to Mk. 82's in bay 1 by the bomb elevator. (well, the PO didn't trust me to fuse.) (g) Worked 12 on, 12 off, and I can't even believe how many tons of ordnance I pushed in those little yellow wheelbarrows.
Spent the rest of that cruise in 1A Div, got to do all my chipping and painting inside hurricane bow anchor station. Till I found out how you chip/paint the OUTSIDE of that nice hurricane bow in port ... think cargo nets strung under the catwalks, tied off through the line ports. LOTS of nice gaps around those nets, 60 feet above the filthiest water in the filthiest ports in the world. (Hong Kong, Singapore) I USED to be afraid of heights. I'm not anymore.
Came back to the world round the horn of South America, and 'cause I kept my nose mostly clean in Weapons I got sent to BE&E school in Great Lakes and Sonar C school in Key West while Intrepid got her Steam Cat's boilers replace in Philly Naval Shipyard.
Came back when Home Port was changed to Quonset Point, spent the last couple of years in OS Div. as a ping jockey. Betcha didn't know Intrepid had a AN-SQS 23C sonar. Sonar dome was so far down, it usually stuck through the thermocline in the North Atlantic and the Baltic. Almost never got to ping, though. (I know, target. But with those 4 screws churning, it wasn't like we could exactly HIDE.)
Weedy little Div. Officer, Ensign, degree in Astronomy, yet. Good pick for a Sonar officer, huh? He got idea to get in good w/Ops boss by having OS replace the transducers in sonar dome in port, w/out drydock. Crawled down the voids, through the cutwater, pumped out dome w/firehoses, waded around in that stinking dome replacing EVERY ONE of those heavy things. I USED to be claustrophobic. I'm not anymore.
Aw damn, I could go on forever, but my fingers're tired.
Thank you for your service and your sea stories.