USS BELKNAP Association Newsletter

Winter 2003

“The Saga of the SPA-72”: A BELKNAP Sea Story

My first trip to CIC underway was awe inspiring. I was a third class ET, and knew enough about radar to be dangerous, but seeing everything working together as a system was really cool. I was just kind of wandering around when ETR2 Bill Wimmer pulled me aside. “You know where the switchboard room is?” he asked. “Uhhh, yeah, I think so” I replied. “Good”. “Here’s what I want you to do: go down to the switchboard room, go to the board on the right. Count down four switch covers. Take the cover off, count down three pots on the second board on the right, and turn that sucker ten turns counter-clockwise.” “You getting this?” “Uhhh… sure”, I replied, wondering what in the hell he was having me do. “Good. You turn that pot ten turns counter-clockwise, then you count to 100 real slow, and turn it back ten turns clockwise.” “Can you do that?” “Uhhh… sure”, I said. “But, uhhh… why am I doing all this?” “Never mind”, Bill replied. “Just go and do it.”

So, I did. “Right hand board, four switch coves down, second board on the right, three post down…” it wasn’t too hard. And it got easier. Every day, at about the same time, Bill would pull me aside. “You know what to do?” “Uhh…sure”, I’d say. “Go for it.” And, I would. I turned that pot 10 turns counter-clockwise and counted to 100 so many times that I started to worry about wearing out the damn pot. And still, Bill wouldn’t tell me what it was all about. Finally, I got insistent.

“OK”, Bill said one afternoon. “I’ll show you.” “Stand over there and watch, but don’t make a sound!” He called over one of the other guys from the division (I think it was ETR3 Mike Lambers), who apparently also knew real well which pot to turn 10 times counter-clockwise, and he sent him down to do the dirty deed. I watched from the far corner of CIC.

About a minute went by, and the Radarman on the SPA-72 surface repeater (the great big radar screen that they used to track surface targets) hollers out, “I’ve lost the video on the SPA-72!!” Quick as a wink, Bill was over to the repeater. He looks at it intently for a moment and then very dramatically reaches down to the side of the union with his hand balled up in a fist. Slowly, like a surgeon making a difficult adjustment, he banged on the side of the SPA-72 and started to whisper to it. “C’mon baby… c’mon baby”. Sure enough… after a moment or so… the video came back! Amazing! And watching all this very intently was the young Ensign (who will go unnamed) in charge of “overseeing” the surface radar section of CIC.

This daily little drama was all part of a scam that Bill had started way back when the Ensign we won’t name had arrived aboard and had somehow gotten under Bill’s skin. I don’t know that part of the story. But Bill’s scam started the first day he put an unnamed co-conspirator on that pot in the switchboard room and responded to the Ensign’s cry of alarm when the video surface picture faded away on that big repeater. “Well, sir” Bill told him that day, you see, every piece of electronic equipment that develops an intermittent problem like this one has a particular spot on it, and if you tap on that spot just right, then the problem will disappear.” “That’s what I’m doing when I bang on the side of the repeater, sir.” “You see… I’ve found the spot!” “And look… I marked it right down here with this electrical tape in the shape of an ‘x’, sir.” “And just as soon as we reach port, I’m going to go to that spot with my soldering iron and fix the problem permanently, sir.”

After days of this little piece of theatre, the Ensign was a believer. Bill even had him leaning over the side of the repeater and trying his hand at it… banging on the side and saying “C’mon baby… c’mon baby.” I was beginning to wonder how long Bill would string this poor Ensign along; the radar guys were having a terrible time keeping a straight face.

Finally, a few weeks later, the big day came. We were in the midst of a surface training exercise, with ships all around and turning this way and that. Captain Walters was in CIC, watching everything from his big chair in the center, when Bill pulled me aside. “You know that pot down in the switchboard…?”

“Yeah, Bill, trust me. I know the pot” I replied. “Good”, Bill said. “I want you to go down there and turn it all the way down… and leave it down.” I’m not stupid: I was pretty sure what was going to happen. “Uhhh… OK… But, can I come back up and watch?” I asked. “OK” Bill said. “But I’d keep a path open to the door, if you know what I mean.”

So I did it. I turned that pot all the way down and then hustled up to CIC and came in the back way, off the signal bridge. Sure enough, there came a familiar cry: “We’ve lost the video on the SPA-72 repeater!” And, wouldn’t you know that “overseeing” the surface watch that fine morning was no other than our Ensign! “It’s OK!” he shouted to everyone. “I can fix it!” This drew the attention of the Captain, who no doubt wondered what a fresh Ensign knew about the inner workings of a SPA-72 repeater. But there he was, bent over the side of that big screen, his fist balled up and banging on the side of it… right on the ‘x’, just like he’d been taught! “C’mon baby… c’mon baby…”

The Captain hollered across CIC, “Ensign, what in HELL are you doing!!?” “Well, Captain”, came the reply. “You see, on every piece of electronic gear that has an intermittent problem like this one, there is a particular spot…”

The entire surface section of CIC could stand it no longer. They burst into uncontrollable laughter, while the poor young Ensign stood there in confusion. “Ensign” the Captain said, “I want you to go to your stateroom until I call for you.”

I’m not exactly sure what happened when Captain Walters finally did call the poor guy up for his ass chewing, but suffice it to say that there wasn’t an enlisted guy on the ship that could tell that Ensign the time of day for the rest of the cruise! And Bill? Will Bill just smiled his quiet smile and went about “fixing” the SPA-72 when we got into port and we never had another problem with it after that. Go figure!

- Rick White (Glascock) ETR2 1971-75