Inspired by this thread, someone mentions the call “General Quarters.” Just what is General Quaters, and does everyone have to take part?
I’m a simple landlubber. When I’m overseas and get the call “Alarm Red, Alarm Red!” pretty much everyone awake and asleep has to bail out of bed, throw on their gear, and run to a bunker–an attack is either imminent or underway.
Is it the same thing with the Navy? Do all hands on duty and/or asleep have to man battle stations (which is IIRC another distinct call)?
So, yes, everyone does have to participate. Each person assigned to the vessel has a particular position/duty for General Quarters. They are also assigned particular duties for Watch, Station, and Quarter Bill (It’s been a few years, so I hope I recall that name correctly).
The full message (in my day) was “General quarters, general quarters - all hand man your battle stations.”
Day or night, this applied to 100% of the crew. Everyone had to go a quickly as possible to his assigned battle station. Designated watertight doors (that is, nearly all of them) were “secured” (i.e. closed tight). Battle dress (mostly, metal helmets) was required.
So, a couple questions now that the original one is answered:
If someone is on watch, is their watch station usually the same as their battle station? If not, do they immediately run to their battlestation, or wait for someoen to relieve them at their watch station?
Any idea where the expression “General Quarters” comes from? I know from reading the Horatio Hornblower books that it apparently used to be “Beat to Quarters”, presumably accompanied by a guy beating on a drum to get everyone’s attention so they know what’s going on.
And a final question: Do ships still “Clear for action” when expecting battle, or is that just part of General Quarters?
Just to elaborate a little more.
On Board Carriers, Flight crews prep every plane to deploy. DC (Damage Control) teams are stationed throughout the ship. All watertight doors are secured and hatches are bolted done. Muster is taken. Voids verified. Engineering, Radio, Fire Control, Steering, Bridge, DC Control, etc are switch to most qualified personnel.
The relieved watches then make their way to their stations. This is toughest on some of the Quartermasters that would have to go from a Bridge watch on the O10 level to Steering Gear Watch below decks, all the way aft.
DC lockers all had at least one electrician assigned, usually two.
We would run a lot of GQ drills and once stayed in GQ for 8 hours to simulate a real alert. In these cases they tested distribution of boxed lunches throughout the ship. This was a much more difficult task then it sounds like as watertight integrity was of extreme importance.
We also had GQs that involved NBC drilling. NBC is Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Attack preparation. Now we had to wear all of our fire fighting gear and turn off all ventilation. Rig up emergency showers. At go through Atropine drills in case of Nerve Gas attack. We also broke out chemical analyzers.
We practice repairing burst pipes, emergency repairs to small holes in the hull and fire fighting of course. We also actually ran emergency power via Causality power cables to prepare for the real thing. We randomly secured various vital parts of the ships. Boilers, generators, load centers, catapults, Hanger bay Jet Elevators to the flight deck. This was fairly amazing. These elevators worked off of huge hydraulic gear. In case of loss of power this gear could be raised or lowered once manually with a 4’-5’ diameter Crank wheel.
We simulated as many actual battle problems as possible, including the Screaming Alpha drill.
For fire Alpha is any material that leaves ash, Bravo is oil/fuel fire and Charlie is an electrical fire. A Screaming alpha literally meant that fellow crewman were on fire and running around screaming. This was an interesting drill as both the screaming alpha and as part of the fire team that had to put them out and get them to the corpsman.
Monty, I think I asked before, what was your rate or were you an officer? What ship were you on?
The watch station may or may not be the same as GQ station. If not, the sailor waits until relieved by the GQ watchstander.
I don’t know the etymology.
There isn’t a command to “Clear for action”. If a ship is expecting combat it will be ready. If attacked unexpectedly, it will be over too fast to prepare.
Commonly they would be trained for and in a damage control party. Could also be a phone talker, or lookout, or other position. A cook is never “only a cook”. People are trained before arriving to their first ship.
I should have previewed.
I answered some of your questions, I will try for the rest.
The person on watch is more often then not, not at his battle station. He must wait until relieve to leave his station, as no station should be un-manned in times of GQ. Sometimes when you have cascading reliefs, it can be very hard to get to your station if you are on the tail end of it. As the E-Div training PO, I was giving the chance to reworks our watch schedule, I ensured that no one had to wait on more than two people to be relieved for GQ. It was fun little logistic problem solving like this that kept me on the good side of the Sr. Chief, despite not being Grade A military material.
The Etymology of “General Quarters” is obscure. Hopefully someone can shed some light.
“Clear for action” is long gone from the US Navy Lexicon. It meant exactly what it sounds like. Clear all obstruction that can trip people, roll around, fly around, block Cannons from firing and recoiling, etc.
On Preview: treis, Mess Specialist were part of DC lockers in most cases. Another pair of hands on a hose or assisting a hull tech in Bulkhead repairs.
In order to be promoted very far you will have to become an Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist, which includes becoming Damage Control and Advanced Damage Control qualified. The ADC qualification means you have the training and experience to man any non-specialty battle station, so this will vary from ship to ship depending on the type of ship. Some battle stations are closer to the mess decks than others - you could find them at one of those.
I believe that “clear for action”, or “clear the deck”, goes back to the days of muzzle loading cannon. The cannon were wheel mounted and secured w/ rope. When fired the recoil would roll them back to be stopped by the ropes. They would then be in position for reloading. Clear the deck was an order to remove any obstructions and a warning for men to keep clear of the cannons as they recoiled.
Cooks, storekeepers, stewards and others of the secretatriat section are most commonly used on battle stations as medics, for which they have to be trained, they might be deployed as runners in some circumstances.
In addition, secretatriat specialists may well be used for other duties, such as boarding parties etc, they can also choose to take on other roles open to all Navy personnel such as ships dive crew, marksman, reserve helo crew.
Damage control crews are almost exclusively made up of the engineering trades, such as electrical tecs, mechanical engineers, shipwrights, and these also make up most of the sharp end of the fire fighting team - these folk know the layout of the ship better than anyone else, their normal work role means they have to get into parts of the ship that others may hardly ever see - not many flight crew will be able to even locate much of the main machinery spaces let alone a particular piece of equipments contained therein.
This more intimate knowledge of ship layout also means that the engineering trades are also used for fire rescue parties, in a fire you usually cannot see anything at all if it is between decks, so you have to literally know your way around completely blindfod - and this routine is practiced very very often, rescuing resuscitation dummies from awkward locations.
Also clearing away any non-structural bulkheads, crates, livestock etc. and stowing them below. Decks with guns and/or men would be cleared of anything non-essential that could possibly be an obstruction, fire hazard or source of splinters. According to Patrick O’Brien, anyhow.
Thanks for the input from the Royal Navy. Interesting shift in terminology between the RN & the USN. We never did the blindfold test. We did do live fire training at the Naval Base. Heavy Smoke conditions had to be dealt with. Gave me a very deep appreciation of the job fireman do daily.
As I mentioned above, mess specialist, supply guys and yeoman are put on hoses or just made gofers in the USN.
I think they say the same thing in the Hornblower novels by CS Forester. According to a documentary included with the Hornblower DVDs, sometimes ships’ Captains would put their expensive furniture into a boat that was towed behind the ship, and it was considered rude to sink another captain’s furniture.
For a good illustration of the self sufficiency required of Navy sailors in general read about the fire on the USS Forrestal
The front line firefighters who do the job day in and day out were killed in the initial explosions. If the other sailors wanted to survive, they had to put the fire out.
The video is shown on Discovery every now and again. Just terrifying to see the blasts and hear the PA “Fire on the flight deck - all hands lend assistance”
Please keep in mind as you read about the Forrestal, that this was the fire that changed the way the Navy fought and prepared to fight fires. It was after this horrific fire that cost many lives that the NAVY overhauled the entire system of training and made it a major part of training.
If cooks and other mess personnel were put on other duties during general quarters, who fed the crew? As in after the battle and the cooks were injured or killed? I think we’re talking about thousands of men to feed and no cooks!