Inside the Coffin Racks Where 300 Sailors Sleep on a US Navy Destroyer

Comments · 65

• NI

  @NickB-yq7ng · 10 days ago

  This is exactly why I would've never made it in the Navy.  I did 20 in the Air Force, the only service where I could've made it to 20.  God bless these guys!

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• JA

  @JAK-USNavyMedia · 1 hour ago

  Take care❤❤

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• HI

  @hinnantp · 4 days ago

  I’ve been retired from the USN for 22 years.. to go to sleep, I listen to “shipboard” noises… 🤷🏼‍♂️💤

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• RI

  @richardpiper6265 · 2 days ago

  In 1972 I got my draft notice. I went down to the recruiter. Navy on one side and army on the other. I had just heard that an Australian ship hit a U.S. Navy ship in the bow and two sailors died. Figured I could walk farther than I could swim so joined the army. Father and uncle were in the navy in WW II. Dad’s destroyer had refrigeration problem and all food spoiled except for powdered eggs which they had for every meal. In Korea we lived in a brick barracks built around 1900 by the Japanese army. There were nine of us in the room. The latrine was at the end of the building. Open showers and no doors on stalls. All toilet paper was on one locked pole. You tore off what paper you you thought you would use.

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• BO

  @bobbycv64 · 7 days ago (edited)

  Thank you for the reminder, yes, SLEEP and MILK (GONE within a week).  You are tired and just lay down anywhere and sleep.  I worked Jet Shop, TF30 with Afterburner for F14 - perfect HIDING SPOT.  Sometimes you would find guys with pillows inside.  Flight Deck, or the Safety Nets on the side, throw your blanket on the steel net, you would find Sailors crashed out.  Sometimes we would be in rough seas and almost come out of the rack, LOL - I was in (77-81) and wasn't as bad as you make it.  The experience was the greatest ever, they were not just Shipmates, they were and still are FAMILY.  We were closer to each other than Blood Relatives in some cases.

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• MI

  @michaelgonzalez9303 · 8 days ago

  My son is in navy boot camp right now i pray every day he makes it i couldnt do this no way respect to all navy men and women

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• GR

  @gregwarner3753 · 9 days ago

  Crossed the Pacific on &nbsp;Liberty ship in 1966. Slept on a steel pipe canvass rack with a 2&quot; thick matrass. My birth was just over the propellor. When the ship was pitching the screw would come out of the water and the uneven forces shook the space. Sort of like a giant vibro massage. I do not miss it but the Tutuila rode better than the DE we once spent some time off Nova Scotia Canada in a winter storm. sleep was a memory for a week or so. <br><br>This narration is a fairly good description.

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• JO

  @joelandrum9803 · 3 days ago

  Food: &nbsp;Served on a metal tray. &nbsp;During bad weather, the tray could be glued to the table by wetting a piece of bread and pressing the tray into it. &nbsp;If you didn&apos;t do that, you would end up chasing your tray around.<br>During replenishment, our tiny Minesweeper would be tossed around by the giant bow wave off the supply ship.<br>Our water-maker broke down. &nbsp;We had water to drink, but none for a shower. &nbsp;I went 29 days without a shower in Vietnam, 1968.<br>I stayed in 9 years. &nbsp;Truth is, I loved it. &nbsp;But it was time to leave. &nbsp;E-6.

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• WI

  @williamkeyes1617 · 11 days ago

  Wish we had racks like that on the FDR back in the 60&apos;s. Just a steel frame with a streched canvas to hold the mattress, and stacked 3 or 4 high.

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• D2

  @d2ndborn · 4 days ago

  The newer racks you can actually sit up in. I spent 20 years in the Navy 12 on DD, FF or CGs.

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• EL

  @ElBo-f8p · 5 days ago

  I spent four years in the Navy in the late sixties. Eighteen months on a Submarine tender and another eighteen months on a Destroyer escort. There was plenty of room on the Tender but it was a little tight on the DE. I never heard of any of my shipmates cry about it. &nbsp;I know for sure it beat a fox hole in Vietnam. Those were the guys that really had it bad.

• BU

  @bushwackcreek · 13 days ago

  Had to be careful sometimes back in the just-post Vietnam era... Sometimes took a short break just to wake your watch replacement... &nbsp;And They might be a Combat Vet with PTSD... &nbsp;Could get hairy.

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