Hey! It's Jim Peden (FTG/3 and assistant webmaster
of the Gunnery Department section)
| Since these spaces were classified in the early '60's no one but Fire Control
Personnel could enter. Deep in the bowels of Old Thunder (I seem to recall about 4
decks down) were two plotting rooms (fore and aft) which held the electromechanical
computing systems which worked our fire control systems for the main battery. We
really liked these spaces, because you could pull up the rubber deck mats, take out a few
screws, lift the steel deck plates up, and there was a ton of good, secure, and dry
storage. Storage was always a problem... we only had our personal lockers for our
personal stuff, which limited what we could keep on board. I stored spare clothing in my sea bag, a set of weights, my diving gear, and assorted restricted liquid libation in my little section of the hidden sub-deck area. The Officers never had a clue! This photo shows me wearing a badge, so that dates it to when I was the PPO (Police Petty Officer) for Fox Division for a while. Thus, we were in the Med, approximately 1961, more or less.
This section is underdevelopment, but we
won't keep you waiting forever.
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