Visiting the Pit
Michael McGrorty
I was A PC and had the habit of visiting friends around the ship. Once I went into the fire room and saw a pal standing watch. He was at a station keeping a log. The space must have been over 125 degrees. The station was beneath a vent that blasted AC down, but it only cooled to about a hundred degrees, if that.
I never saw anybody in the machinery spaces that wasn’t saturated with sweat. I used to tell the BTs and MMs not to carry postage in their shirt pockets because you couldn’t get a refund on ruined stamps.
Noisy? Not at all. There was just a continual background scream as if a very dull cutting tool was shaving hard steel on a lathe.
When the door to the main spaces opened into the main deck passageway, a blast of heat shot out like the lid came off a blast furnace.
They had an ice machine down there in hell, whose purpose was to provide a bit of cold for satan’s assistants. They would guzzle ice water from three-pound coffee cans.
Despite all this, the snipes would come up for chow looking like they’d been pulled through a keyhole. They got a very pale fish-belly appearance after a while. I did not envy them, no matter that their exam multiple was far below mine.
I wonder if most of them knew what the job would entail when they went in.
Tales of an Asia Sailor 
No I didn’t. It was like working with the devil himself, but by God I would do it again in a heartbeat. Its been almost 40 years since I left the ship. USS Shreveport LPD-12
LikeLike
As far as knowing what thrills being a BT was,
I was selected for that position, as I scored high on some test I was garentted an A school.
Filling out our dream sheets I selected photographers mate and such. Nothing to do with working below decks in the fireroom. The counselor said I needed 1 more selection, was I good with tools???
I didn’t know that snipes were being assigned that day!! In fact everyone in company 64-529, 528 and 530 with out an assigned rate were assigned to be snipes. Engine-man, monkey mate or BT.
1st time in the hole on dd780 they were cold-iron
They lit-off #1, we were changing sides of the piers, tp be next to the tender, DROPPED THE LOAD 4 TIMES,
That’s was when I found out what “don’t sweat the load” meant. D&S piers Norfolk. That was my 1st day on the ship and in the hole
LikeLike
Did not know I was headed there till I went aboard. Had High test scores, but no A school. Recruiter lied.
LikeLike
Told my chief that I wanted out of the engine room,after 6 months he got me out and I ended up in after fire room after 7 months struck out for shipfitter.who new over the 20 years in the navy that experience would be helpful down the road
LikeLike
I sold 27 years of my life for a cup of coffee. But I’m a rare survivor of hell. Collisions at sea, dredging San Diego harbor with a Carrier’s belly, from PC in bootcamp to weekend crewleader when base shutdown on 9/11. Loved it, and every face, name and command.
LikeLike
Wouldn’t have any other job on a ship than a hole snipe. I have been working in, on and around ships since I was 17. Retired 6 years ago and now volunteer as a tour guide and docent on Battleship Wisconsin a museum ship in Norfolk, VA.
LikeLike