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Tom and the MDF Spindles

The morning of 25 June 1979, Tom and I were waiting at the front lobby of GEOS Headquarters in Pittsfield, MA.  Being our first day, we were both excited and nervous almost like the first day of College except we got paid to be there.  The following two weeks were fun sitting next to Tom while taking wire warp and soldering classes.  Tom was friendly, fun and talkative (a.k.a. couldn't shut him up) and loved to sing his "Paratrooper" song.  Shortly after our training ended, we were assigned to separate field sites.  Fast forward a couple years.  Tom and I met again in GDEB Shipyard in Groton, CT.  The SSBN 726 USS Ohio was under construction.  I was a member of the Magnetic Disk File Subsystem (MDFSS) Tiger Team assigned to groom the MDFSS in the MCC onboard the submarine in preparation for testing.  The alignment of the MDF #1 spindle was found to be out of tolerance.  Despite my many attempts, I was not able to move the heavy spindle to pass.  By this time, Tom had enough fun laughing at my expenses watching me struggle and offered to help.  What do you know?   Tom couldn't move the spindle enough to pass either.  Next thing I know with a determine look on his face, Tom took off his belt and wrapped it around the spindle.  With both hands grabbing on to the belt, Tom leaned his entire body back pulling the spindle and yelled "Check it now Sonny!" "Hold it right there Tom!" as I checked the alignment.  "A little bit more....a little bit more .....PERFECT!" I cheered as I quickly tightened the bolts. Tom now being an experienced spindle mover, MDF #2 spindle was checked and aligned quickly without any complications.   I never officially incorporated the steps we performed in the MDFSS procedures since his weight may be classified as PII.

We all have fond memories of Tom.  But let us chalk this in the history book:  Our nation's first Ohio Class Nuclear Submarine was able to load FC software accurately without delay because of Tom!

Posted by Sonny Lai
Wednesday December 27, 2017 at 1:29 pm
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