snipe hunts

[Bill Palmer]

Engineers, regardless of rank/rate, are called snipes, and AFAIK, have been
for lo these many years.  The chief engineer is the "chief snipe".  This is
not disprespectful...just a nom de guerre of sorts.

The engine rooms and firerooms are routines called the "snipe locker".

I envy you your service on USS Rochester. The Oregon City class heavy
cruisers were beautiful ships.

Bill P
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul" <paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: snipe hunts


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> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul <paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM>
> Subject:      Re: snipe hunts
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Well, that's interesting, officer and or enlisted?  Never heard it
> during Korea on CA124. But I was a lofty fire control tech.
>
> On 9/21/2010 8:02 AM, Bill Palmer wrote:
>> In the ships of the US Navy, the engineers are called "snipes".
>>
>> Bill Palmer
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Barbara Need" <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 7:19 AM
>> Subject: Re: snipe hunts
>>
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>>> header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: snipe hunts
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>> I knew about snipe hunts before I knew about snipe--and actually
>>> thought that snipe were mythical beasts! I was quite surprised to find
>>> otherwise.
>>>
>>> Barbara
>>>
>>> Barbara Need
>>> Ithaca
>>>
>>> On 20 Sep 2010, at 11:49 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>
>>>> At 9/20/2010 11:05 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:
>>>>> In Straw Dogs (1971) the bad guys take Dustin Hoffman on a snipe
>>>>> hunt. Story
>>>>> takes place in England and Hoffman's character, being American, has
>>>>> never
>>>>> heard of a snipe hunt and doesn't know it is a setup. The bad guys
>>>>> want to
>>>>> get him out of the house so they can rape his wife. I frankly don't
>>>>> remember
>>>>> if I knew what a snipe hunt was before seeing the movie in 1971 or
>>>>> not, but
>>>>> the point is the writer and/or director (Sam Peckinpah) figured it
>>>>> was a
>>>>> term Americans would not know.
>>>>
>>>> But I knew about snipe hunts in my youth, circa 1948-1950.  My
>>>> recollection is that one was proposed by the older male (summer)
>>>> campers for the younger.  It was clear what a snipe hunt involved --
>>>> going out with flashlights late at night (after the counselors had
>>>> done their bed check, which of course was part of the allure), to
>>>> find the elusive snipe.  Flashlights not to be turned on until the
>>>> snipe had been located.  I don't remember what was supposed to be so
>>>> interesting about them.  Perhaps that universal appeal to pubescent
>>>> males: to surprise someone in the act of copulation.  Nor do I
>>>> remember if the hunt actually took place and any of the gullible
>>>> went, but in any case I didn't.  (In those days I was very skeptical
>>>> of almost any proposal I heard.)
>>>>
>>>> Joel
>>>
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> --
>
>
> It's one thing to be dead, it's another to be meat.
>
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