civilian workers on yorktown at midway.

snipped-for-privacy@some.domain wrote in news:2kR2m.433977$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-10.dc.easynews.com:

Didn't Prince of Wales have civilians on board in the Denmark Straight? Or was that just the movie version?

Frank

Modern time observation, but I know my cousin that was stationed on USS Constellation during the 80s mentioned that there were always civilians on the ship - factory reps, technical advisers, and such - while he was afloat.

hadn't thought of that one. and i don't know. but i'll google around next insomnia and share what i find.

i wonder what the war time policy is, or even if it's different.

on 7/1/2009 6:21 PM (ET) snipped-for-privacy@some.domain wrote the following:

While in port for the repairs, the workers probably just worked on getting the ship in shape to return to the sea, and be able to launch and retrieve planes and fixing those things essential for self protection (guns, radar, fire equipment, etc.). While at sea they probably continued to fix other things not necessary for battle.

Bill In Hamptonburgh, NY In the original Orange County. Est. 1683 To email, remove the double zeroes after @

yes, surely, but i was wondering if they were injured or otherwise had experiences of note. you know, something hollywood would show as some handsome dockyard worker shooting down 10 zeros with a ma duece or maybe a 1911a1. something really credible like that.

I heard it was 11 zekes and 3 Vals, with a rivet gun.

that the guy that looked like wayne-reagan?

Tom Selleck.....

he's more like wayne's world. i hate that friends show but somehow saw him on it. better he had quit after quigley. that lara babe had a real hot look.

I just watched "Sinking of the Bismarck" on dvd. A fine flick. And in this movie version, quite a few civilian workers were onboard the HMS Hood and the Hood blew up early on with very few surviors. Other parts of the internet seem to support this as the truth.

Close enough - he played one of the officers on Midway in the 1976 film of the same name. IIRC, his superior officer was the Clark Gable looking guy that played Dash Riprock on Beverly Hillbillies. Oh the the things you pick up on and remember as a child. Their scenes consisted mostly of jumping from fighting position to fighting position looking over the defenses and trying to thump the drama drums.

WmB

2 survivors, i think. i believe one died recently. he got to see the remains close up and personal.

IIRC, the dockyard workers were on the then-new Prince of Wales, finishing off some jobs - the main turrets were giving trouble, and eventually failed. The Captain of the PoW was played by an actor called Esmond Knight who really had been on the bridge of the PoW during the action, and lost his left eye when a 15" shell passed through (fortunately without detonating). He was totally blind for a couple of years before regaining some sight in his right eye and resuming his acting career. If you ever catch the movie "Robin and Marian", he's the old guy holding the castle at the start "with only half an eye" - that's not prosthetics, that's really an empty eye socket...

Regards,

Moramarth

I got another friend at work who says he's been on the boat during peacetime and during wartime (Gulf War 1) and there's no diff.

I know that post WWII the relationship between civilian industry and the USN grew much tighter - the advent of the nuc-Navy may have been somewhat responsible for that, I dunno - or what previuos operational policy may have been. But I have observed that Civvies working alongside uniformed Navy personnel is pretty common at most/all times. Other branches may vary.

Yes - I'm sure they did. Combat reporters get killed, right? Anybody in harm's way is likely to get harmed some, as a population.

I think I know one or two Civvies that hold Gulf War theater service ribbons because they spent some specified number of days in a combat area...while not considered "veterans", their in theater contributions are recognized...at least by the branch of service they assist and the USG if not by Hollyweird.

very cool, thanks.

i bet the sub safe program really got the two sides together and really made a difference in quality. too bad the reasons for it were very expensive in lives.

only seems right. you're just as dead in a bad action.