Rick Foulke's BSU-2 History Notes
Hey ! I
just found your site! Wow ! I've been searching for the last eight years for
something on the Boat Support Units and the write up from Glen Bertholf was
great ! I served with Glen and BSU 2 from March '66 till I was released from
active duty in June '68. My name is Richard Foulkes and I was an ETR 2 for most
of my active duty time.
Gezz,
it's been so long that I can hardly remember any of the others that were
assigned to it. I do remember Glen because we attended a Class "B" on the
AN/ARC-27 Transceiver. There was Joe Kitts BM-2, ? Probst, and a yeomen, called
J-ski, I think Jim Janacowski also a Jim Marshall ETR-2( our leading ET), and
one heck of a smart ET by the name of David Johnson. Dave went from ETR-2 to
Warrant Officer within a few weeks !! Yep! No time in rank required ! He only
had to wait for the exams and he made each in the first increment! Glen was
pretty smart too. He came up with some innovated ideas. Like making a "Dummy"
out of used fatigues and weighting it down so he could "see" what a swimmer
would look like on the sonar screen.
My only
regret in being a member of BSU 2 was I didn't take very many pictures while
there.. you know.. Navy regs.. No cameras allowed!
I would
be very interested in hearing more from BSU 2 vets but I understand why there
aren't nearly as many as BSU 1 .after viewing the History Tree. I would love to
be able to get a few photos in large scale of the boats.
I
believe Glenn was mistaken about the speed of the LCSR's however. I participated
in some of the "Timing Trails" held in the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yards and the
fastest boat we had was LCSR 5845 at 54.7 Kts. and then LCSR 1310 at 54.4 Kts.
Done on a 1,000 yard coarse between two buoys. The other discription of the
boats used to recover the swimmers were referred to as "pods" Picture if you
will a rowboat without any sides.. these were only about 6 to 8 inches high
bottom hulls with another 6 X 6 inch wide sides in which the short lines were
attached for the swimmers to use as arm grabs.. Yep!! Worked just as Glen said..
Like a slingshot!! With the poor swimmers being the ammo.. flying up to 75 feet
into the air ! The two pods with six men in each suffered one broken arm and
two with dislocated shoulders ! Did anyone pee in the pool?? Hearing the
retrieval line pop and slap against out hull at 50 Kts. When I looked back for
the pods they were airborn and so were three of the swimmers.
Again,
a real good site and I wish you all Fair Skies and calm seas.
Rick
Foulkes
rickster45mi@hotmail.com |
