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Seajay · 05-14-2010, 07:06 AM

We was down in the Caribbean sea somewhere between nothing and the edge of the world doing ''maneuvers'' and playing war games.It was supper chow and I walked out of the hatch and across the fan tale flight deck to the very stern of the Norton for a smoke and ''contemplation'' ….... It was just about sundown and the sea was a mirror. I truly mean this guys. The ocean was dead calm, no ripples, no waves, nothing, just the wake of the Norton doing maybe five knots. In my ''sea time'' I saw the ocean like this maybe three times at most. It is caused by a very high pressure system pushing the water flat and it only works if there is zero wind. This is what I was told by a ''weather bird'' friend of mine. Anyhow........
I lit me a coffin nail and leaned against a set of ''horns'' that are used to tie the ship when we are in port. Jim Price, a buddy of mine, ambled over and leaned on the other ''horn'' and asked for a light for his ''Lucky Strike'' ciggie. He took the Pall Mall from my lips and lit his Lucky and pitched my ciggie over the fan tail into the ocean. He laughed as I shook out another and he would not give me his ciggie to light mine. Back then ''sea stores'' ciggies were ninety cents a carton. Cheap as dirt......
We were making idol chat when I asked Jim if he ever seen the ocean this smooth. ''Nope, cant say as I have. Sure is pretty aint it''?
There is occasion when at sea during a sun set with the weather just right the Sun will turn into a ball of fire as big as a mountain. She will be gold and red and orange all at the same time and She will cast a streak of gold and orange across a still ocean as wide as a house. That is what happened that evening but it gets better. It is not generally accepted but when you look at a ''sunset'' you are not actually looking at the Sun. The actual Sun is behind the horizon and what you are seeing is the reflection of the suns rays thru the atmosphere being refracted (bent) as the sun goes down. This is why you can watch a beautiful sun set without going blind from looking directly at the sun. (I be snart dont I)....... Anyhow........ The sun was setting to our port side and there was a harvest moon rising on our starboard side. A harvest moon is a '''moon'' you can actually harvest crops by because of the bright light it cast on the ground. The moon was bigger than a barn and the same color as the setting sun. It created the same orange and red path across the dead calm sea that the sun was doing because the moon light is the reflection of the suns rays. (I'm showin off now because I know this and two other pieces of worthless information) I have seen ''harvest moons'' where you could actually set outside and read a book by the lite when we were running ''dark ship'' (no outside lights at all)...... Me and Jim stood there spell bound and watch the transition from daylight to dark and the complete process took maybe three minutes. Five at most.
The ocean ate the sun and gave birth to the moon and we stood there smokin ciggies and slowly killing ourselves and watch the complete process while the Norton steamed north at about five knots.
''I aint never seen nothin' like that in all my Navy days'' Jim said.
''Me neither, wish we would have had a camera to record it''
''You goin to the movie tonite''?
''Yep''...
''What is the name of the movie''
''Aint sure but it stars Jack Dempsey, Marilyn Monroe and Hoot Gibson''
''Oh yeah, I seen that in Norfolk. Its called ''FIGHT, MAKE LOVE ( I cleaned that up for the general public), or GO FOR YOUR GUN''....
So it went on the Norton a thousand miles from nothing between nothin and nothin heading north on a mirrored ocean ….

Seajay the sailor man
ps. a few days later we were in the Vacapes Opp area in waves 15 to 20 feet high in a blinding rain storm.....

sgtjoe · 05-14-2010, 06:35 PM

I figure my first story should explain how an Air Force Brat ended up in the Corps.

I had a close friend that had been in the Navy for a year and he made it sound like so much fun I figured why not. So, when I turned 17 I headed for the Navy Recruiter in Spoken WA. As I walked down the hall a tall Marine in blues said, "where you going son?" I responded, "I'm going to join the Navy". He said come on in and let me tell you about the Marines. I said OK . Well after we talked a while he asked me what I thought and I said it sounds good, I'll sign up for two years. He tells me, no the Marines don't have that, ok I said how about three, no he says you don't want that. Well, sez me what do you have. He tells me we have 4 years active and 2 years inactive and at the end of 4 you don't have to attend those Reserve meetings each month and that will satisfy your 6 year committment. Well I signed up and when I got to boot Camp several were in for two and a lot for three. Seems he told me a little story.

sgtjoe · 05-14-2010, 08:09 PM

I was a skinny kid, at 17 I weighed 103 and was 5'6" So before I took the Military physical I had to get to 105 to pass. i stayed up all night and stuffed myself with carmel corn, bananas and water. I was afraid to even take a leak in the morning. Got weighed in early morning at 106 so I made it. When I got to Boot Camp I became Head House Mouse and after a few weeks I was cleaning the DI's hut and over heard two of them discussing how small I was. One said I bet he'll fit into a foot locker, the other said how much, so the bet was on. My DI said Mouse empty out that foot locker and get in it, I responded like a good Marine, Aye Aye Sir and emptied the foot locker and got squranced up in it. The other DI said, yeah but it ain't closed. My DI hits the door and Yells Davis get your big a__ in here. When he arrives he tells him to stand on the locker and hooks the hasp. Davis weighed in over 250. My DI won the bet.

Seajay · 05-17-2010, 06:32 AM

Sea duty was a real shocker for me. I graduated from Radio School in Norfolk and was assigned sea duty on the USS North Hampton, CLC1. This transition in my life was a real ''shocker'' to say the least.
On sea duty and at sea you learn to really appreciate the little things that you would not even notice on shore duty.
Here is the ''short list'' of really important things when you are at sea.
One..... a really good mattress on your bunk. One that is thicker than a waffle and softer than plywood.
Two A pillow on your bunk. Not everone had a pillow and you sorta had to stand in line to get one when someone got transferred from the ship.
Three. A big locker that was within half a mile of your bunk...
Four. Not being close to some joker that shored like a saw mill and passed gass like a steam engine.
Some of the other little things were these...
Being able to go swimmin over the side of the ship. They would stop the Norton down in the Carib. And have swim call. They would drop a couple of Jackobs Latters over the side and swing out a ''boat boom''. They would launch a utility boat with Marines, granades and machine guns for a shark patrol and let us go swimming for an hour or so.
Sometimes on Sunday afternoon they would have ''Sunbathing on the fan tail'' this meant you could take your blanket and pillow and go topside and just ''Lay in the sun and do nothing''..... It was wonderful...
If you knew a cook or a baker so you could get a cheese sandwich or a dough nut or a slice of pie when the mess hall was closed you had a piece of heaven.
At sea there was no such thing as television and we had a very difficult time getting a decent radio signal from shore. With this in mind, you learned to appreciate Quiet Time. Usually after supper chow you could go top side and find a place on the fantail and sit and smoke and think and watch the ocean slide under the Norton as you went from nowhere to nowhere. You could sit there on a '''bolard'' and listen to the heartbeat of the Norton. You could hear the ''hummmmm'' of the engines and feel the thump thump of the props as they ate the ocean. (note.... the Norton was turbine steam powered as I remember)
Another great joy was to lay forward to the Foksell and peek over the bow of the Norton and watch the porpoises play. These guys would ride the bow wave and have a ball. They could run for hours on our pressure wave in front of the ship. They would laugh and play, dip and dive and leap from the water with a loud splash and play tag with each other for hours.
At sea, money didnt mean nothing. There was very little to ''buy''... Ciggies were a dollar a carton, ''pogie bait'' (candy and cookies) was in limited supply in choice and quantity at the ships store. There was no ''Geedunk'' (a place to buy sandwiches,etc)on the Norton. You could have a thousand dollars and not be able to get a ''Gyro'' or a slab of pizza.
It was nice to have a Marine buddy that owed you a favor because the Marines had their own ''steam pressing machine'' … Yep, they could press your blues for you if they want to or you could sip them a dollar and they would ''press your canvas for you''..
The transition from shore duty to sea duty was a real shocker for me. Some guys would fight it and never won. I learned to roll with the punches and to appreciate the little things. I learned that the Navy ran on ''favors''.... You do a shipmate a ''favor'' like standing a couple hours of his watch so he can get some rack time and he owes you a ''favor''. You did ''favors'' for shipmates like arranging for them to talk to their pregnant wife via the ''ratt circuit'' down in teletype on the mid watch. This was a ''big favor'' and you could ask that person to kill someone and they would probably have done it .(Im teasing about this of course). You kept a mental count of ''favors owed'' to you and ''favors owed'' by you to others and you could ''swop a favor'' if necessary.........''Hay man, I got a guy in supply that owes me a favor and I will swap you that favor if you will swap me a favor that is owed to you by one of the cooks or bakers so I can get some do-nuts''......
''Favors'' worked something like this as I remember. There was ''small favors'', ''regular favors'', ''big favors'' and ''really big favors''....... A regular favor was equal to about two ''small favors'' in value It would take two or three ''regular favors'' to repay a ''big favor'' and a ''really big favor'' was about equal to four ''small favors'', ''three regular favors'', at least two ''big favors'' and a ''cut in'' in the chow line when we were having fresh eggs at sea.
It would get very complicated but it seemed to work most of the time... The worst thing to happen was when a shipmate would not ''hold true'' to ''favors owed''. This was a real breach in protocol and could get you ''Black Balled'' double quick. No one would do you a ''favor'' of any kind and you were ''on your own sailor''.. You were real careful not to fall overboard during the ''Black Ball time'' because someone would whisper ''Man overboard, port side'' and you would never be seen again …..........
Letters from home was a real treat. We got our mail from the USS Forestall via helo. You would find your letters laying on your bunk after mail call. Sometimes you would read a letter over and over and smell the paper knowing that ''she'' had touched it while she wrote to you......
The longest we were ''at sea'' was a little over one month. I believe this was the longest month in my life. We worked two section watches and I lost count of the days and what ''day it was''. No matter, tomorrow will be the same as today and yesterday. Most of the fresh food went south after ten days and you ''zombied'' along due to lack of sleep.
This is getting long and I gotta go tinkle......
Seajay the sailor man

CorsairIIAT · 05-18-2010, 01:56 AM

I work at a place with a lot of retired Navy. We were in the smoking area today discussing what we got away with during our careers. I would say mine took the top. We were on our way home from desert storm. We had a week at Okinawa at Kadena AFB. I was a 1st class petty officer at the time. The whole crew was letting off steam from combat flights. We had logged over 40 combat missions. So we decide to have a party. Ok so I had alittle too much to drink. I mooned the OOD of NAF Kadena from the top of the Squadrons school bus. I just thank the lord I got the pictures and negetives of the pictures taken that night.

Seajay · 05-18-2010, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CorsairIIAT

I work at a place with a lot of retired Navy. We were in the smoking area today discussing what we got away with during our careers. I would say mine took the top. We were on our way home from desert storm. We had a week at Okinawa at Kadena AFB. I was a 1st class petty officer at the time. The whole crew was letting off steam from combat flights. We had logged over 40 combat missions. So we decide to have a party. Ok so I had alittle too much to drink. I mooned the OOD of NAF Kadena from the top of the Squadrons school bus. I just thank the lord I got the pictures and negetives of the pictures taken that night.

A tip of the ''Dixie cup'' to you my friend. I dont believe I have ever been that drunk or brave to moon '( ! )' any OOD anywhere. I would think if you had logged 40 plus combat missions, that would give you some ''slack'' as to your deportment. Several of us did moon a bunch of Air Force Guys after they jerred us and called us ''Stinkin Squids''. Of course we had called them ''Mommas Boys, Pantie Waste, Bus Drivers'' and they given us the Hawaiian hand signal for ''good luck''......
Seajay the sailor man
God bless our troops and bring them home safe and soon
God bless our vets ......all gave some ... some gave all ......

CorsairIIAT · 05-21-2010, 02:00 AM

Thanks Seajay!! LOL!! I had 2 Senior Cheifs on my crew. They did tell the OOD I would be diciplined when we got home. The next morning they both shook my hand and said boy you got some balls. I don't have enough fingers to count how many Air Force people I've mooned. We took one of our planes to the A. F. Navigator training school in Sacramento. I can't remember the name of the base. I think that all A.F. enlisted think that anyone in a Flightsuit is an Officer. Even with my crow on my hat it seemed every enlisted guy I passed would pop to and salute me. Although I did keep a kahkie piss cutter with LCDR cluster on it one of my pilots gave me for road trips to different bases. It got me into alot Officers Clubs with my pilots. That piss cutter is still in my retirement shadow box. One day I should post a picture of my box. There is a story about my shadow box I need to post also. But that will come on another day

mick · 05-23-2010, 03:04 PM

Having read all these wunderfool swabbie stories, it has become readily apparent why the following statement remains to this day, to be a very good reason why.

"U.S.M.C. first to fight"

Seajay · 05-25-2010, 12:45 PM

GOD BLESS OUR MARINES ....... And..... DONT MESS WITH OUR MARINES.. Because they belong to My Navy and if you mess with our Marines and My Navy finds out about it........ ''YOU ARE IN SOME SERIOUS ''DOO DOO'' CONCERNING THE NAVY BECAUSE NO ONE BUT NO ONE MESSES WITH MY NAVY .......
Seajay the sailor man ...
(''ping'' ..... gotcha Wayne.....lol....)

Seajay · 05-26-2010, 11:01 AM

On the Noton we would occasionally get straw berry short cake with what tasted like ''fresh strawberries'' and it was a real treat to be guarded with your life.
With that in mind here is my sea story.......
we were somewhere down in the Carib. Steaming in a circle. I was on ''mess cook'' duty and I was ''captain of the head''. Now, before you laugh, ''Captain of the Head'' was an honorable job during mess cook duty and much envied job. Simply put, I made friends with all the right people and was owed favors by most of them but that is another story for another time.
I went to ''early chow'' because they were having Strawberry Short Cake for desert and I wanted to be dang sure I got my ration.
The number one mess hall was almost full when they sounded ''MAN OVER BOARD, PORT SIDE. FALL IN FOR MUSTER''.... This emptied the mess hall and the mess line very quickly because we were obligated to fall in for muster so they could figuare out who was ''in the water''. I mustered in with my PPO. (police petty officer) and went topside to see what was going on.
On the fantail stood two or three prisoners and one very worried Marine. He was standing there with a haggered look on his face and was pacing about. About a mile back the utility boat was chugging toward a life ring with a smoke flair and a prisoner hanging on to it for dear life. I asked the Marine what the hay was going on. Here is his story.
He said he ordered the prisoners to drop their chipping irons and come to attention. His intent was to take them to supper chow and then back to the brig. He said they all stood up and one prisoner looked at him, looked at the ocean, looked back at him and did the DEEP SIX over the side of the Norton. Yep, he dove overboard............... The Marine yelled ''Man over board, Port side'' and the life ring guy dropped the life ring and set off the smoke flair. They turned the Norton to port to keep from eating the prisoner with the props and fortunately we were going dead slow and he didnt get ''Sucked thru the props'' and minced up into shark bait. They dropped the utility boat and were on the way to pick him up. The ''skivvie wavers'' (signalmen) had one of the ''big eyes'' (large signal lights) on him. When the ''U'' boat got to him he literally jumped into the boat.
I asked the Marine why he was so worried about this prisoner. Was this guy his brother or something? He said he was just a prisoner but if he should drown or get eaten by sharks or sink and never be found that , he, the Marine would have to serve the rest of his time in the brig. HOLLY CAT STUFF......
As I pondered the situation it occurred to me that my tray was still sitting in the mess hall with a good portion of Strawberry Short Cake on the tray. I immediately went back to the mess hall and reclaimed my prize. As I sat there enjoying my prize it occurred to me that there were trays on tables with no one in front of them and the Strawberry Short Cakes were getting soggy. I did my shipmates a large favor by eating too many of the Short Cakes off the abandoned trays. Sometime after supper chow I was one ''sick puppy'' ….. I swore to never again eat that many short cakes. For a while after that when we would have Strawberry Short Cake I would simply slide mine off on someone elses tray and say ''Enjoy''...........
So it went on the Norton, steaming in a circle somewhere in the Carib.....
Seajay the sailor man ...

Wayne M · 05-26-2010, 09:50 PM

Yes Seajay, the Marines are a Departmen Of The Navy. It's called "The Men's Department."

CorsairIIAT · 05-27-2010, 12:39 AM

Seajay,

Fresh strawberrys are in no.10 cans frozen. I know this be cause we were in Deigo Garcia in the Indian Ocean. We were going to re position an aircraft to Kadena AFB. It was the end of December. The crew in Kadena asked that we bring 2 cases of the cans of frozen strawberrys for the New Years Eve daqurie party. We flying over the south China Sea when we had a fire on the plane. I got the fire out quick. The pilot decided to divert to Cubi Point Philapines to get the plane fixed. The guys in Kadena were sweating we would not make it in time for new years eve party. I wanted to fix the plane that night. Pilot said no we are going to the Missori bar (Favorite Bar of P-3 Orion guys) in Olongapo. You can fix it in the morning. So I was at the hanger about 2 hours before any of the other crew. Had the plane fixed and was having a cup of coffee and smoke when the rest of the crew arrived. We took off and landed at Kadena at 1500 hours on Dec 31st. Just in time for the Party. The daqurries were good BTW.

sgtjoe · 05-28-2010, 07:55 PM

Stationed at MCSC Barstow I was working the old card files inputing Supply receipts. They had just hired an older lady and the LT. assigned her to me to train. Her name was Rose and I was teaching her what the abbreviations of the units of issue stood for such as EA=each, dz=dozen, sf=square foot, yd=yard. Well several times the second day she would keep asking what they meant when we had just gone over it. We were inputting lumber when she came across one she had not seen before, so she asked me what does BF stand for, with out any hesitation I replied Bag Full, she was quiet for a moment, then she asked how much is in a Bag Full. I lost it and started laughing my behind off, this was short lived when the LT. yelled, Shigouri, come here.

Ray,IN · 05-29-2010, 07:39 PM

Ya'll know what fire-ants are right? Right. Well, one time I was standing behind a PT formation watching and monitoring my DI's. We had an all-female company, and I remembered how many DI's I knew had been court-martialed for fraternization.
Anyway, unknown to anyone there were fire-ants on the PT field. This one woman sat on the ground for setups_right on a fire-ant hill! Well, she shucked her PT shorts and panties quicker than a wink. Ever try to cover up a naked woman in a crowd of women, on a 90* day? The only thing available was my BDU jacket(shirt). Next I had to explain to the CO why a female soldier (trainee) was wearing my 1SG BDU jacket for a skirt en-route to the barracks. I get reminded of that every time I meet someone from that Battalion at a reunion. BTW, I sent a female runner for that shirt; I'm too pretty to be in Leavenworth.