Rich Draves

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 3/4/05
I remember, as a relatively new crew member of the Estes, we were crossing the Pacific in 1966. I was working on the mess deck, when my "good" friend, Rich Cherry, came down all excited, and said "Hey Draves, we are about to cross the International Date Line. You should go up and see it!"
Being the newbie, I was halfway up the ladder, before I realized my "friend" was sitting there laughing. He still reminds me of this incident.

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 3/4/05

One of my favorite photos:

This was taken at Alava Pier in Subic Bay of the Philipine Islands near sunset in 1966.

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 11/14/05
When Estes was undergoing an overhaul at Bremerton, WA in 1967, most of the electronic equipment had been removed from the ship. Taken for its own overhaul at the local Electronics Shop. This left the ETs with little to do. In true Navy fashion, "When there is nothing to do - go chip paint!"
I can remember still, being on the after kingpost with pneumatic hammers chipping paint (and then repainting) early on crisp mornings, especially at high tide. From the top of the kingpost, Mt. Ranier would majestically appear from behind the local hills.
It was beautiful!

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 1/27/06
Make the Coffee!
Being the newbie in the department, I was requested to make the coffee. OK! I didn't drink coffee, but I could make it. I knew the procedure: Wash the pot, fill with water, put the grounds in the basket, and plug it in.
It only took one pot to realize that my coffee wasn't satisfactory to the department. It was declared to be "dishwater", or otherwise too weak. I then negotiated a plan. I knew I had to be involved - just because! Since the problem was with the strength of the brew, I offered to do everything except add the grounds. This let those who drank the coffee make it to their taste.
The plan worked until someone else came along to be the newbie.

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 1/27/06
Really Bad Coffee!
Our ET Shop was located forward, between the two passageways. There was a head just forward of our space on either passageway. When making the coffee, we always used the faucet in the head on the starboard passageway. Don't know why, it was always done that way, so no need to change.
That is until a new person came onboard. He used the faucet in the head of the port passageway to fill the pot.
The pot was set and plugged in, we went to morning muster.
Upon returning from muster, I still remember the face of the first person to take a drink of that coffee pot.

Now, we know the reason for always using the head on the starboard side.

The port side head faucet, was SALT water!

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 9/5/07
Dependent Cruise '67

I was aboard the Estes, when we took dependents from San Diego to Bremerton in 1967.

We had just returned from WestPac and were to then undergo an overhaul. Rather than leave dependents in San Diego, we used our spaces to load Autos and Family and took them along.

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 5/22/09
Photos from Westpac 1966

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 5/27/09
Avoiding an Accident

In '67 we were in the shipyard in Bremerton. My job was to chip the paint from the top of the after kingpost. At quitting time when I went back down the kingpost, I noticed the signal arm had been cut from the post and was hanging in a sling on the inbound side and  from the stabilizing cable on the outbound side. So far so good, but the turn-buckle on the stabilizing cable was just about rusted through.

I went down to find my division officer and explain what I had found. He took it from there and got a yard crane to come that night and take it down. When they got the arm fastened to the crane, they lightly tapped the turn-buckle and it fell apart.

I was heartily thanked for being observant, and avoiding a serious accident.

Rich Draves, ETR3 - CE Div - 66-67 - Submitted 8/6/12
A shell game

I remember somewhere in the South China Sea we scooped up gobs of tiny shells in the heat exchanger for the 43 radar. Back in port, several of us were at the bottom of the forward kingpost, with the heat exchanger opened up, scoping these shells out by hand and carrying the buckets up through the kingpost to be emptied. Mr Irvine was right there with us, helping to scoop the shells from the heat exchanger. Did I mention he was wearing his dress whites.

I was always impressed with his management style.

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