U.S. Navy photo gear over the years...

[hepcat]

The Kodak EH-38 b&w processing machine...

The Kodak EH-38 b&w processing machine...

So, in the days before one hour photo labs, the Navy shot 5", 7", 8", and 10" wide aerial film in their aircraft system cameras. Although it had probably been processed by hand once upon a time, it was long before my experience. In the Navy Photo Labs to which I was assigned, there were Kodak EH-38 machine processing units installed. These were big machines, with a dark room side and a light room side. In the dark room side, you'd open the film cassette in the dark, and splice on a thicker film leader with tape. Then you'd set the roll of film (usually 50' or 100') on some rollers in a dark box, feed the leader into the rollers leading into the first bath, and let it spool in until it was all processed. You'd go out the roller door to the light side, and in about ten or twelve minutes, the machine would spit the leader out processed and dry, and you'd feed it onto a takeup spool. I don't recall exactly how many feet it could process dry-to-dry any more, but it was pretty fast. I think it could do a 100' roll in about 45 minutes. It had automatic replenishment from mixed chemistry in tanks. Every day, and sometimes twice a day we'd run a gamma test sheet to make sure the chemistry was in tolerance. If I recall correctly, the machine was about 8' long, two feet in the dark room and about 6' on the light side, and was about 5' tall. It had several chemical tanks and many rollers through which the film would progress ending with a wash rack and drying roller rack. As a 19 year old kid, it was just another thing we had to run, but looking back 40 years now, it was pretty amazing technology for its time.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

The aircraft carriers use either similar or identical machines. I was never in the spooky part of the shoot crew, as I was still a weather guesser at the time. I DID manage to outshoot every photomate on board and got an LOC from PHC then a ton of images in our cruisebook for the 2000 deployment. I was also the only airdale sailor that the engineering department allowed to serve on the At Sea Fire Party as a regular member of repair 1B. By the time I was given orders to Whidbey Island in late 2000, I had qualified for every watch in the weather office and didn't want to go upstairs to Navigation so I worked one Eng quals. I was gas-free certified and almost Fire Marshall qual'd as well as working on my In-Port Engineering Officer of the Watch qual. I loved weather but folks said I always wanted to be anywhere but that office, which is mostly true. Photographer's Mate was a perfect fit since I got to have my fingers in all the pies that way.

As for Navy Photo School, it's gone yes. The building became HQ for NAS Pensacola and the organization of NPS was moved to Fort Meade, MD and incorporated into the Defense INFOrmation School (DINFOS.) I believe the move occurred in 1998. Now there aren't even any more photographer's mates. All the media ratings were merged a few years ago into Media Communications specialist, though they still have MC (photo,) MC (broadcast,) MC (draftsman/lithographer) and MC (journalist) so to me it just seemed like movement for the sake of movement. Just like those stupid blue camouflage uniforms that sailors wear now. I tell you, if I want to be camouflaged with a ship, I'm painting myself haze gray. If I'm in the water, I don't want to be camouflaged AT ALL. Utterly ridiculous. They changed from the denim dungarees and cotton working blouses to the awful "dickies" (which were made of friggin' poly-blend) in 2000 then made the move to that new blue camo just a couple years ago. Ridiculous. Spending money for the sake of spending if you ask me.

Phil Forrest

 

[tlwalker53]

In the late 80's our little FFG carried a canon kit for the snoopy team. Regs required us to deploy with way more tech pan than we ever had occasion to use so I got to "test" the kit using the expiring rolls when we got back. I miss the free film. Would have been nice to have access to a dark room.

 

[hepcat]

I remember this place.. I've heard it is now closed though..

As for Navy Photo School, it's gone yes. The building became HQ for NAS Pensacola and the organization of NPS was moved to Fort Meade, MD and incorporated into the Defense INFOrmation School (DINFOS.) I believe the move occurred in 1998. Now there aren't even any more photographer's mates. All the media ratings were merged a few years ago into Media Communications specialist, though they still have MC (photo,) MC (broadcast,) MC (draftsman/lithographer) and MC (journalist) so to me it just seemed like movement for the sake of movement.

Phil Forrest

I wonder how many Photo Mates were trained in that old building over the years? I wonder what the history of the building is? It was old when I went through there in '74.

It seemed like there was a lot of "movement for the sake of movement" in the Navy... somebody gets a good idea and implements it... and its not at all so somebody else has to fix it, but their idea isn't good either... and the beat goes on.

Just like those stupid blue camouflage uniforms that sailors wear now. I tell you, if I want to be camouflaged with a ship, I'm painting myself haze gray. If I'm in the water, I don't want to be camouflaged AT ALL. Utterly ridiculous. They changed from the denim dungarees and cotton working blouses to the awful "dickies" (which were made of friggin' poly-blend) in 2000 then made the move to that new blue camo just a couple years ago. Ridiculous. Spending money for the sake of spending if you ask me.

As you can tell by the uniforms we're wearing in the shots above, that was the first attempt to get away from dungarees. Those uniforms were awful. They were ill-fitting and uncomfortable... and melted with heat. NOT what you want to have on while fighting a fire. I stayed with dungarees as long as I could. I HATED the dress blue uniform, but I never bothered to buy anything else. There's something timeless about the jumper and 13 button bell bottom dress uniforms that just instills pride in those who wear it.