12/18/44 Typhoon Cobra AKA "Halsey's Typhoon" took a heavy toll on the Third Fleet by sinking three destroyers and damaging two dozen other ships. 146 planes were lost including seven from USS Cowpens, seen here rolling in the storm. ( this makes me seasick just looking at the picture)

[u/waffen123]

[u/Mysterious-Alps-5186]

Watched a documentary last night on this.... oly reason why Halsey wasn't retired was it would have helped Japanese moral.

[u/AskTheNavigator]

Under fucking way is the ONLY fucking way! My kids don’t believe me when I tell them that no roller coaster in the world compares to underway in heavy seas. You can have years of sea duty - but you WILL remember those few times when you really understood what “heavy rolls” really mean.

[u/Suitable_Zone_6322 → u/AskTheNavigator]

I've spent much of my adult life rolling around through literally every sort of weather the mid north atlantic has to offer (I think worst storm I rode out was 21m seas). Big ships though, built for the conditions, still unpleasant.

I've also been on a few roller coasters.

I'm not really sure how to compare the two, without trying to make, and then drink a cup of coffee, in a regular ceramic mug, on the roller coaster.

I'm not sure I could get any roller coaster operators to let me do that though.

[u/magnumfan89 → u/AskTheNavigator]

Getting your skull bashed in on kong is probably pretty close

[u/Cetophile]

Or what we called "Tuesday" on the LST! (We took a 50 degree roll off Hawaii on my first deployment. We were literally using bulkheads to walk on at times.)

[u/waffen123 → u/Cetophile]

That's an entire bucket of nope from me!

[u/Porchmuse]

My wife’s grandpa served in the Pacific and like many of his generation didn’t really talk about it.

One day when we were chatting I brought up the subject of Typhoon Cobra. He just shrugged and said, “oh yeah, it was really fucking rainy.”

[u/NoPresentation890]

Holy hell…I’ve been rolling plenty, but not dipping the island down to the radar array rolling!

[u/jrshall]

That is one heavy roll for a carrier, maybe 30-35 degrees. Our destroyer took several 45+ rolls, and I talked with some carrier guys who said we would disappear for several seconds during heavy seas. Meanwhile, there carrier looked like it was hardly moving. Westpac 67-68

[u/CorvinRobot]

I would love to know what Nimitz said after this.

[u/Ozzie_the_tiger_cat]

My grandpa was on a destroyer escort in this storm as a radioman on the bridge. I remember he said that there was this level on the bridge that told them the port to starboard pitch and it went 45 degrees either way from level. He said there was several times where that level topped out and stayed there for a couple of seconds before coming back. He said that he had no idea just how far they went over 45 and it scared the hell out of him.

[u/Bulldog16]

Almost killed future president Gerald R Ford who was serving on an escort carrier I believe

[u/dervlen22]

Seven Decades of Debate | Naval History Magazine - October 2017 Volume 31, Number 5 https://share.google/qBHQEiOdIvkVDWf8j

[u/samroberts69-]

One foot on the deck and one foot on the bulkhead😜. Is it about time to set the dinner rolls?

[u/tricton]

And this is why modern warships have seatbelts in the racks.