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Lawrence
D. Albert HT2 USN
July1978-April 1984,
at SBU-XI known as Bert.
My Time at SBU-XI 78-81.
After graduating from Ht "A" school I received order
to Coastal River Division 11 Vallejo Calif. So after
a week home on leave, I flew into Oakland airport
then catching a shuttle to Vallejo to be dropped off
at the head of a pier at a guard tower. It was night
time
when I got there., so the people took my orders and
put me in the sleep shack. The next day I started
2 1/2 yrs at CRD-11 then in Oct 1978 it became
Special Boat Unit XI. There were some interesting
times.
Like the SBU-XI Parties and Reserve weekends. At one
command picnic we were playing a softball game and
a runner was heading for home plate and gets "beaned"
on the top of his head at home plate. The war games with the Marine Gate Guards, surprisingly we were
the only swabbies allowed in the Marine Bar "Chesty's".
I then left for the Fleet aboard the USS Ajax AR6
and USS Alamo LSD-33.
LONG LIVE THE BROWN WATER NAVY!!!!!
Well I have a couple of events
that I remember. The first one we are on our way
back from Suisun Slough at night so we could get
some night navigation in, and we blew out an oil
line on the port engine in the MATC I was in, so
we had to limp back to Mare Island then another
mini caught up to us and we tied the two together so we
could operate as one. We used our starboard
engine and the other mini used its port engine
and matched RPM and away we went.
The
next event, back in the slough area again ENFN
Albers was at the helm of one of the PBRs and he
was told to give it a goose to put the bow
on shore. Well he goosed it all right and ended up
beaching the whole PBR on shore and had to get
pulled it off the land and back into the water.Well, it's in November
and we are
on a war game with Marines on board and one of
the crew member recognized one of them as one of
the gate guards that gave him some shit, and the
boat Capt. said to the group leader this is as
far as we can get in. We then put down the boat
ramp in the Mini we were in, so the group leader
of the Marines said lets go thinking the shore
water is only knee deep. Off they went and ended
up
sinking in up to there groin and the water was
cold!!!!!
It's war game in the Slough again
and
it is about dusk and we are trying to camouflage our Mini
as a waterborne guard post. We were watching two PBRs
looking for us. We were holding tight to one of the
banks then a little closer to night fall and we
notice that the tide is going out, so we push off
into the water and not wanting to start our engine we
floated sideway port side out with two 50 cal pointing
towards the mouth of the inlet. We were in now
watching the PBR silouette going back and forth so
we waited for the bows of the silouette to
touch, then we open fire and the back PBR shot the
front PBR in a cross fire and the Ref
that was on board with us awarded us with two kills.
Later that night we had to insert a Seal Team
and then waited for them. Some hours later they came
running back on board yelling "get the hell out of here." I
was resting on the stern of the Mini at the engine
hatches grabbing for the grappling hook lines to get
them on board and then get back into the well of the
Mini to man the stern 50. |
| HTFN Albert doing
pre-engine check on MATC |
"Bert" Albert
relaxing in his luxurious barracks room |
HTFN Albert trying
to complete his PBR quals. |
MATC on pier for
overhaul |
CCB-18 and ASPB to
the right hand side
|
| The roach coach is
making his approach! showed up at the pier between
1000-1030hrs |
Barracks 621 sign as
CRD-11 home of Active and Reserve River Rats
|
Mare Is. causeway
which was one way of getting off of the island.
|
Barrack 621 sign
after we became Special boat Unit XI in Oct. 1978
|
HTFN Dennis Schuster
for the HT shop relaxing in his barracks room.
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Lawernce D. Albert HT2 USN
July1978-April 1984
at SBU-XI known as Bert
MY Time at SBU-XI 7-81
After graduating from Ht "A" school I recieved order
to Coastal River Division 11 Vallejo Calif. So after
a week home on leave, I flew into Oakland airport
then catching a shuttle to Vallejo to be dropped off
at the head of apier at a guard tower. it was night
when I gotthere., so the people took my orders and
put me in the sleep shack. The next day I started
21/2 yrs at CRD-11 then in Oct 1978 it became
Special Boat Unit XI. There were some interesting
times.
Like the SBU-XI Parties , Reserve weekends, at one
command picnic we were playing as softball game and
a runner was heading for homeplate and gets beaned
on the top of his head at homeplate., The war games
withe the Marine Gate Guards, surprizingly we were
the only swabbies allowed in the Marine Bar "Chesty's".
I then left for the Fleet aboard the USS Ajax AR6
and USS Alamo LSD-33
LONG LIVE THE BROWN WATER NAVY!!!!!
Well I have a couple of events
that I rember;The first one we are on our way
back from Suisun Slough at nite so we can get
some night navagation in, and we blew out an oil
line on the port engine in the MATC I was in so
we had to limp back to Mare Island then another
mini caught up to us and we tied togather so we
could operate as one,we used our starboard
engine and the other mini used its port engine
and matched RPM and away we went.
The
next event, back in the slough area again ENFN
Albers was at the helm of one of the PBRs and he
was told to give it a goose it so to put the bow
on shore,well he goosed it allright and ended up
beaching the whole PBR on shore and had to get
pulled off the land and back into the water.
Well, it's in November we are
on a war game with Marines on board and one of
the crew member recognized one of them as one of
the gate gaurds that gave him some shit, and the
boat Capt. said to the group leader this is as
far as we can get in, so we put down the boat
ramp in the Mini we were in, so the group leader
of the Marines said lets go thinking the shore
water is only knee deep, offthey went and ended
sinking in up to there groin and the water was
cold!!!!!
It's war game in the Slough again
it is about dusk we are tyring to camoufage our Mini
for waterborne gaurd post, we are watching two PBRs
looking for us, we are holding tight to one of the
banks then a little closer to nite fall and we
notice that the tide is going out, so we push off
into the water and not to start our engine we
floated sideway port side out two 50 cal pointing
towards the month ofthe inlet we were in now
watching the PBR silouette going back and forth so
we waited for the bows of the silouette going to
touch, then we open fire and the back PBR shot the
front PBR got caught in a cross fire and the Ref
that was on board with us awarded us with two kills,
then later that night we had to insert a Seal Team
and waited for them, then some hours later they came
running back on board "get the hell out of here" I
was resting on the stern of the Mini at the engine
hatches grabing for the grapling hook lines to get
them on board and then get back into the well of the
Mini to man the stern 50.
Bert
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