Warbird Information Exchange

Got my chores done early today and decided to veg out in front of the current NCIS marathon on the USA channel. Episode 5 from November 2003 came on. It was called "High Seas" and the NCIS team goes on board the carrier "Enterprise" (at least that's what they said it was supposed to be) to investigate an apparent drug overdose by a member of the deck gang.

OK, so it was bad enough that the little details started jumping out at me - like when they say it's the Enterprise (CVN-65) but the film library stock footage they use shows two other carriers with big numbers 70 and 74 clearly visible - that'd be the USS Carl Vinson and the USS John C. Stennis - not the USS Enterprise. I mean, how hard is it to find stock film footage of the ship you named in the script...or conversely, just use the name of the ship in the stock footage you use. Would it have really mattered to the plot of the story if they had said they were going out to the "Chucky V"?

The thing that really jumped out and bashed me over the head though was the scene where Gibbs (Mark Harmon) is questioning the last member of the deck gang who hasn't collapsed as a result of the drug use. They guy is working out with some free weights on the hangar deck and in the background are two Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes and an F-14 Tomcat. On the side of the E-2C behind the crewman, on the rear fuselage where it says NAVY in big black letters, just above that, where it normally shows the unit assignment and/or carrier name (in the case of this NCIS episode, supposedly "USS Enterprise" - see sample illustration below which shows an aircraft from the USS Constellation), the E-2C in this particular scene says "NAMTRAGRUDET" in large, clear letters - whatever the frak that is! WTF???



There's another, bigger image of the area in question at: http://www.markstyling.com/E-2_JPEGs/02cu.jpg but I didn't want to overwhelm this post.

On the other hand, Sasha Alexander was so much better in NCIS than she is in Rizzoli & Isles (the same goes for the shows too for that matter.) IMHO.

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“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

That's call NAVSPEAK or more commonially called gibberish
Naval Air Maintenance Training Group Detachment
Jack the gibberator

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Don't touch my junk!!

Jack, are you being serious or just very clever in your humor? It certainly fits, but I didn't for a moment believe that it could be "real".

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

No I'm serious but can you ever really be sure.
I have 8 years experience in Navy gibberish

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Don't touch my junk!!

"Excuse me Stewardess, I speak Jive...."


Sorry..couldn't resist.

Its for real. Prior to Jack's post, I wouldn't have thought it necessary or even potentially fruitful to do a Google search for "NAMTRAGRUDET"

Considering the date of the NCIS episode (11/04/03) and the following info from:
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/Ventura/About/History/index.htm

NBVC* Point Mugu site welcomed Naval Air Maintenance Training Group Detachment Point Mugu (NAMTRAGRU DET) on Oct. 17, 2000. NAMTRAGRU DET was the final piece of the Hawkeye community to relocate from San Diego to Point Mugu. In 2001 the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department functions were transferred from *Naval Base Ventura County to Commander Airborne Command Control and Logistics Wing.

Does that mean that it is likely that the televison production crew went up to Pt. Mugu to film these sequences, presumably in a hangar converted to look like a carrier's hangar deck?

Until I found that Web site about Pt. Mugu, I would have assumed that San Diego was a more likely site - and it was, before 2000 that is.

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

" and I'm proud that the children could be here today to hear that fine example of Western gribberish that Gabby Johnson put so well..." Olsen Johnson, Blazing Saddles

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Figure this one out...............LTDB or PAPERCLIP

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

I cheated and looked them up here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_U.S._Navy_slang

They're both in there....

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Well that blows
I learned that cr*p the hard way

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

that was good

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Yep...that is 100% seriouly the Navy's way of referring to units.

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Yep, NAMTRAGRUDET is for real and you will find them at all your Naval Air Stations. They are responsible for the systems training on the different weapons systems and aircraft. I have more seat time in those classrooms then I care to remember. However, seat time was soooooo much better then underway time!!!!
Bob
ATCS(AW)
USN-Retired
1975-2001

The best was before WWII, Commander in Chief, US or CINCUS for short....changed it pretty quickly, guess they thought "sink us" sent the wrong message.

A few ship numbers and some NAVSPEAK is all the "glitches" you could come up with? I've lived in the DC area for 76 years and I know, for a fact, that you can't drive from the Navy Yard to Norfolk, spend a few hours and get back before dinner. I know that you can't get from the Navy Yard to Quantico in 15 minutes. You can't even get out of DC in 15 minutes. I know that the residents of West Virginia are not all mentally challenged.
You can pick some "glitch" out of every show, but I love it anyway. Cote De Pablo, IMHO, is the best looking woman on TV. (Now if she'd only get some implants )

As far as Sasha Alexander goes, I think she's trying to do a "Tony Di Nozzo" character. It ain't workin'!
Rizzoli & Isles has gotten pretty lame. We've stopped watching. "Buddy" shows, with guys, works. "Buddy" shows, with women, doesn't.

Mudge the critic

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Land of the free because of the brave