Navy Fun

Navy Fun

When Ronald Reagan was in Charge, and Being in the Navy was a Blast

By

Vince Stead

E-BookTime, LLC Montgomery, Alabama

Navy Fun

Copyright © 2007 by Vince Stead

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1-59824-514-1

First Edition

Published April 2007

E-BookTime, LLC

6598 Pumpkin Road

Montgomery, AL 36108

www.e-booktime.com

Chapter 1

Joining the Navy

As a kid, growing up in a little town called Ortonville, Michigan, there wasn’t too many military installations around, or just about zero, that I can remember, while growing up. I did know that my dad was in the merchant marines for a short period, and one of my brothers did a stint in the Army, and Vietnam, and another brother joined the Marine Corps, and a 3rd brother went into the Air Force for awhile.

I was going to go into the Army, but my friend said, “Hey, I’m going into the Navy, why don’t you join up with me?” I said O.K., because to me, at that particular time, all the military services were just the same, I was 18 years old, and ready to get out of dodge, and get my life going in some direction, so the Navy sounded just as good as any of the services to me.

I knew as a kid growing up, that I would have to fend for myself. Most of my older brothers and sisters, which there were 7 of us in all, and one step brother, that would make 8 kids in all. My dad was not paying for anyone to attend college, that was not an option. The rule with my dad was, “When you turn 16, you were supposed to move out of the house,” he always said.

I was lucky enough to have a good job as a kid. When I was very little, my first job was using a butter brush, and putting butter on pans, so the loafs of bread would not stick to them, in one of the bakeries my dad owned at the time. When I was 13, I got a job in a restaurant washing dishes and being the bus boy. That was a good job, because some other kids from school also worked there. When I was 15, I got a job working in a grocery store, and they were a chain store, and I was in the union at 15, and got good money at that time.

My neighbor, who lived across the street from me, and was older than me, also worked at a grocery store, but just a different chain of them. I talked him into getting an apartment with me, when I was 16 years old.

When I was telling my dad how much money the grocery store was paying me, he said, “That was great, I would be able to afford my own place pretty soon”, and then I told him I had already gotten an apartment, and would be moving out on Saturday.

I was the only kid that did not get thrown out of the house. My older brothers and sisters usually got thrown out, with their clothes right behind them. Back then, I don’t think there were any child protection services, like they have today, or at least, my dad did not believe there was.

The pay was better than most kids my age were making, and my manager knew my situation, and let me shine the grocery store floor isles at night, so that I could still go to school in the day time. I did that as my schedule, and still had time to drink, and run around with my friends back then. The rule at the grocery store was, you could only work every other Sunday, because Sunday were always paid as double time pay, but my manager always let me work each Sunday, so that I would make more money to live off.

We had had, our apartment for awhile, and it was party central. We did not ever bother to lock the door, or someone would just be knocking. It was parties every weekend with the same 30 or so kids at each house party we would go to. We would all start out at our apartment, and then hit the house parties, or bomb fire field parties, and every weekend it was the same group of people, same parties, just different locations usually.

By now, I had already worked at the grocery store, for about 1 1/2 years already, and was getting bored with the grocery store also. It was a business, that you could only move up, if you spent most of your life working there. My dream I realized was not going to be spent working in a grocery store all my life, so I did some thinking.

I had some help deciding what I was going to do. I had a really nice hot rod muscle car in high school. It was a GTO, burgundy color, leather interior, crager rims all the way around, I had N50 size tires on the back, that look just like big slick tires. I had air shocks on the back, to keep the fender wells off of the tires that stuck out. Well, one day, a police officer pulled me over, and he brought out a tape measure, and said my rear bumper was to high off the ground. To lower my back bumper, I would have to take my tires off, since the fenders would sit on the wheels and ruin the car. I decided to just sell my baby, and use the money to try something different.

I decided to quit my job, and sell everything I owned, except for a new cheap car I bought, and drive to Texas. It was known thru out all the kids my age, that anyone could go to Houston, or Dallas, and get a good job, easy, and make good money. I was one of those kids that had to find out for myself how the boom town was.

I spent about 6 months in Houston, Texas. I had one guys phone number that was already living down there and supposedly doing good. When I did get down there, I drove a beat up old car my sisters husband had gotten ready for me to drive, and it made it. I slept in the back seat of that car for several days.

When I got to Houston, my friend, who I knew from the grocery store, and had quit his job, months earlier, to go to Texas also, was doing good for himself. He was staying with someone else, and there was really no room for me, as I did not even let them know I was coming. I stayed one night at their place, and then I stayed in the local motel 6, and looked for a job from the Texas Employment Commission.

They set me up with a job the next day, and it was the same job I kept the whole time, until I left Texas about 6 months later, to go back to Michigan. I had a job making concrete curbs. It was a hard job, but the people I worked with were really cool.

My boss was a riot. He would always let me take the company truck out, and even use it for the night sometimes, to sleep in, when I needed to, in the beginning.

I slept in my car for about the first 3 weeks I was in Houston, Texas. I would sleep one night in the motel, and then the next night, I would sleep in the motel, but out in my car in their parking lot. Finally, one of the guys I was working with at the concrete job, also had a brother, that was not working with us, but he also came from Michigan. The brothers were from way up state Michigan, and they also had gone to Texas, to find jobs. Back then, the saying on lots of cars bumper stickers were “Would the last one out of Michigan, please turn off the lights”, because there was lots of talk of booming jobs in Texas.

On one of my last night’s sleeping in my car, I was parked on the side of the road, with a little hill next to it. Well, it must of been about 3:00 am, I was in the back seat in a sleeping bag, and I woke up, to see a truck had backed up down the hill, and was trying to now tip my car over, with me inside. I started yelling, and I could hear someone yell, “Hey, there’s someone inside the car,” and it took off. I got outside the car, and the car had slid about 6 feet across the ground, and was dented all across the side now. I decided I could not live in a car any longer at that moment.

When I told one of the guys that I was working with, that was also from Michigan, he said I could stay with him and his brother, but that the place is empty, and there is no furniture, in the apartment they are renting. They were never planning on living in Texas for a long time either. They wanted to work, get some money up, and then head back to Michigan.

Well the three of us shared that apartment, and no one had any furniture. My section was in the living room corner. I had a lounge type lawn chair, and all my clothes, and whatever else, right there next to me, on the ground. The other guys pretty much lived the same way, no furniture what so ever, and no intention of ever getting any.

After thinking about it, I thought to myself, “What are you doing? Your family is in Michigan, are you going to live in Texas for ever? You just wanted to see what Texas was like”. So I decided that I would go back to Michigan, to see my family for a vacation, and then I would join the Army. Well I did get back to Michigan, and I stayed for about 2 months. Later, my friend talked me into joining the Navy with him, and I did just that, and the rest of the story is as follows:

Chapter 2

Boot Camp

Before I joined the Navy, in May of 1982, my friend Jerry, introduced me to his recruiter at a public park, where they were cooking out some hot dogs, and drinking some beer. I shook his hand, and ate a hot dog, and just kicked back.

We did not really even talk about the Navy. I told him I wanted to go in, because I knew I was ready, and that there were not that many doors open to me, at the moment. I was surprised when he said I would have to take some tests, and other things like that. I said, “Fine, just tell me what to do, and where to do it at.”

After going down to Detroit, to take a bunch of tests, physical exams, and tons of paperwork, there was just one more test. One of the recruiters, who was straight as an arrow, and had a rule book in his pocket, probably, asked me, “When was the last time I smoked marijuana?” I asked him, “Why?” He said that I had checked it off on one of my forms, that I had smoked marijuana before. He said, “If you have smoked it within the last 6 months, you cannot enter the Navy.”

I told him, “It was 6 months ago, since I had smoked marijuana.” This guy brought out a calendar, and went back six months, and asked me, “Was this the date that you smoked it?” Like I could really remember anyway. As a kid growing up in Michigan, most all the kids I hung around in junior high, and high school, had all did the same things together. Almost every weekend, there was a party, and plenty of smoking and drinking. I’m sure it was just a day or so, when I went in there.

This guy was too much, when I picked the date on the calendar, he told me I was one day shy of the 6 months. He told me that I would have to get a waiver to enter the Navy. I told him, “Fine, let me apply for the waiver.” He said, You will have to meet with a psychiatrist.” I met with the psychiatrist that same day. I was asked a lot of questions by the psychiatrist, and he gave me a clean bill of health, and I was able to join the Navy.

I was taking a trip from Detroit to Orlando, where I would be attending boot camp. I was kinda surprised, because the Navy had a boot camp base, at Great Lakes, IL, and it was all guys, no girls, at that boot camp base. Why they spent more money, sending me farther away, I don’t know, but I liked it. The nice thing about Orlando, was it was co-ed, at least there were girls going to be there. They tried to make sure, no one could get close to each other, but they could never keep the boys away from the girls, or even the girls away from the boys.

They put all of us that were going to Orlando, Florida, for boot camp, on one plane. I was seated next to a nice pretty girl close to my own age. She was on her way back home to visit her parents. The flight was terrible, it was only the 2nd time I had flown on an airplane, and this flight from Detroit to Orlando was turning into a carnival ride, and I hate carnival rides. Up and down it was going, it was jumping around fast, and making lots of shaking and bumping noises. It was terrible, just like you would see in a movie, everyone on board was in a panic state. The lights were blinking on and off, it would just drop out of the sky fast, and pull your stomach up into your throat.

When we finally landed, we were all in our seats still, waiting to leave the plane. The pretty girl that had been sitting next to me, and waiting to meet her parents again, could not handle it, and threw up all over herself. I was behind her, when she left the plane, and it was heart breaking, to see her be greeted by her mother and father like that. They had to take her immediately to the rest room, to clean her up. I felt so bad for her.

We were met at the airport, by Navy personnel, and several white Navy buses. Other planes had come in from different parts of the country, with other people onboard, just like me, long hair, long side burns, just regular Joe’s off the street. The first thing they did, was have us line up, and stand in line, with no talking.

We were taken to a building, and given all kinds of directions to follow, until late into the evening. This continued until the early morning hours. “This treatment must be part of our conditioning,” I thought. We were all given our haircuts the next day. We got to see most of the guys, get all of their hair cut off. It was quick and to the point.

I learned early on, not to volunteer for anything, when one of the company commanders would ask for a volunteer. Whenever they would ask for 3 volunteers, for example, eventually all those 3 volunteers, would be doing push ups, or running in circles with a rifle, eventually. I also thought, to just keep my mouth shut, and not volunteer for anything, and just get thru boot camp as low under the radar as I can.

Back then, if someone was hiding from the law, I guess it was a good idea to ditch society, and join the military. One day, we were in the barracks, and the commander told us to line up, which all of us immediately did. He told us, to, “about face”, which means to turn around, and then some military police officers came in, and took one of the new guys out, in hand cuffs. He was a big black guy, that had 2 gold front teeth. Later, one of the company commanders said, he was wanted on murder charges, and tried to hide out in the Navy.

We had two company commanders in charge of our unit. One of them was a little guy, who was pretty mean to everyone. The other one was a more nicer, cooler guy. He did not go around yelling, like a lot of them did during boot camp days. On one of the days, we were all taken out to a building, and told to stand in line. The cooler company commander said that each of us is allowed a 15 minute phone call, to call our loved ones. We would have to stand in line to use the phone. He said when you are done making your phone call, you can go over to this section and relax.

I did not see any reason to stand in line for 2 hours to use the phone, since I did not need to make a phone call. I asked him if I had to stand in line, because there was nobody that I needed to call at this time. He kinda just looked at me and said I could go sit down and relax.

We went thru many inspections in boot camp. Only one time did I ever lose my temper. It was called hell week, and we were all going thru an inspection of the worst kind. About 12 other company commanders came into our barracks, and just start raising the most hell you can have... Yelling... Screaming... Cussing... Calling everyone in the room, any name you could think of, and worse. They were ripping apart bunks, throwing clothes everywhere, it looked just like a frat party gone wild.

It was crazy. Guys walking around with underwear on their heads. Other guys doing push ups, and then strange men, you never met before, just yelling right into your face. One of the guys that was getting yelled at, that was standing right next to me, could not take it anymore, and he fainted. That’s when I lost it, and started yelling at the commander, “You fucking asshole,” I yelled at him. “Look at what the fuck you did,” I yelled at him. He just looked at me, and kinda worried about the guy next to me, that passed out. I just stood there, and did nothing else. He came to, a minute later, and that company commander just seemed to disappear from the rest of the torture.

I knew it was all a game, at least to the company commanders. To us, it seemed like hell week, and it was hell week, but we were still human, and a guy can only take so much.

At the end of boot camp, a lot of the people, have their moms and dads fly in, from all over the country, to see them graduate from boot camp. Myself, I still thought I was only gone for 2 months, and my dad would never fly to see me just only after 2 months. But some of these guys, must of been really close to their moms and dads. I would of been embarrassed to ask my dad to come watch me graduate from boot camp, to me, I was still waiting to join the Navy, and boot camp was just a test.

During boot camp, there were lots of times, for just sitting around, and shooting the shit with other guys. Some of the guys, had already been in the service before. Maybe the Army, or Air Force, and they said the service is nothing like boot camp, but they had to go thru boot camp again, because they got out for a short time, and wanted to come back in. I thought, “Wow, who would go thru boot camp twice? They must of really liked the service,” I thought.

We did get to have one night, that we were all allowed to go out into town, with no one watching us, or going with us. It was pretty much all the guys from boot camp, that went out, and we had also just received our first pay checks, after spending two months in boot camp. Most all of the guys in the barracks, already knew which bars to go to. It was all strip bars, and nobody really wanted to go anywhere else.

Most of us went to this one bar, which had tons of sexy chicks dancing naked, and walking around in little sexy bikinis. We all got lots of lap dances, and it was a really rocking place. Me and three other guys, were able to go outside, and ask the cab driver, “Where do we get a chick that will do all of us?” He said he knew just the place we could go.

He drove us somewhere we did not know, and we ended up picking up this tall sexy girl with blonde hair. She ended up doing each one of us, orally, right there in the cab we hired. We had only about 4 hours to be able to be away from the base, and we were able to get it all done. Most all the other guys, at the club, and around town, seemed to get lucky like that also, picking up chicks that were used to the guys getting out of boot camp after two months of no sex.

Some of the guys, were actually able, to hook up with some of the girls, from the girls side of the base. They did it by passing notes, and using sign language when we were out on the cement exercise fields they called grinders. They were able to hook up, during those 4 hours we were allowed out for our first liberty. For the rest of us, it was out to the bars, and try your luck at finding a girl for the night. I believe those girls were used to the base, and the guys getting their night off, because there were lots of girls, ready for action, in the town.

One thing for sure about the Navy, there were always girls, everywhere, it seemed. By that, I mean in other countries, there are just beautiful girls everywhere. It seems in some of these countries, they already know you are coming to town, and they have small towns set up, for when several hundred, to several thousand, guys show up on all kinds of ships, and head into town. Those are the funniest times for sure. Back when sex was practically safe, and it was in abundance, and all you wanted.

These days, a person would take their life in their hand with aids, and any other diseases out there. In the early 80’s, it was a free for all, and the Navy seemed to be a big sponsor of some of the places. I was young, dumb, and horny as hell, and I thought it was a great idea, and I still do.

The Navy gave me more adventure, then I could ever get by myself, unless I was independently wealthy. In 1986, I was actually able to verify the world is round, since I was able to go around it by air, land, and sea.

It was so amazing to me, when I showed up at JFK international airport, and thought to myself, “Wow, the world really is round.” I left the United States, from California, and I went all the way around it, and now I’m coming back thru the East Coast, and it’s just amazing, when I thought about it at the airport when I was standing there.

At the end of boot camp, they tell you, “You will be leaving for school.” That is where they train you to do your job for the Navy. Some people, were going to be welders, others would be gunners, or supply clerks. My job, was to be an office worker, who takes care of officer’s paperwork. Personnel men take care of the enlisted paperwork of the enlisted people, and yeomen take care of the officers paper works for officers.

At first, when I joined the Navy, the person asked me what I wanted to do for my job in the Navy. I told him, “I never really thought about it.” I thought for a moment, what might be an easy job in the Navy? I said, “Maybe I could cut hair.” He said I would not want to do that, that it was mostly black guys that cut hair in the Navy, and I wouldn’t fit in. I did not know what a Yeoman was, at the time, but he was a Yeoman, and he put me down for Yeoman Training. So off to Yeoman school I would go for my next duty station.

Chapter 3

Yeoman School Training

I arrived at Meridian, Mississippi, for Yeoman “A” School Training, they called it. It was supposed to be a couple of months long school, where they teach you all the proper ways, to type up Navy correspondence, and other paper work.

I arrived in the middle of the night to my new duty station. The way the dorm rooms were set up, there were 3 guys to a room, and 4 rooms per common area, with sitting tables, TV, and stuff like that, that was like our living room. I remember a really big fat guy, yelling at the top of his lungs, “fresh meat”, he was yelling. Luckily for me, that jerk was just on his way out, and I did not have to put up for him very long at all.

I remember, going the first day, down to school. First, you had to fall in line with everyone else. The whole school marched from the barracks, down to the school, in a military order. Down at the school, they were going to teach us how to type, to start off with. I had had, a typing class in high school, but I never actually learned to type one word on the typewriter. The teacher was nice to me, and gave me a D-, just so I could pass the class. But this was the Navy, and I’m sure they expected me to learn how to type. There was no way around learning to type, it had to be done. I learned to type the right way, and at a certain speed, in about 2 weeks.

The way the Navy teaches you to type, is they show you a movie in the dark, and hide your key board from your eyes. They turn the lights off, and they show you these Navy movies, that are about two weeks long. Each couple of hour movie shows you how to type different words, and before you know it, the movie is done, and you know how to type in your sleep. You do so much repetitive typing, that you end up doing it in your sleep, it seems, and you have to be able to type a certain amount of words, per minute, in order to graduate from the class, and move on to your next duty station.

Besides the day to day learning at school, about doing paper work the right way, and stuff like that. Yeoman school was pretty much just like any other school, you would learn stuff at. Except here, you wore a uniform, and had to get into formation each morning, and listen to things being told to you.

You could pretty much do what you wanted, after school each day. You were allowed to do what you wanted pretty much, but you were not allowed to leave the base, and go into town. I was in Meridian for about two months, but I did not have much chance, to see a lot of different parts of the town, only a few times, when they let us out on liberty call.

At school, most people are coming and going, getting ready to ship out, to new duty stations. People were getting assigned orders to all kinds of exotic sounding in places. They have a thing in the Navy, that they call the “dream sheet”, where you pick three places you would like your next new duty station to be. The Navy says they will try to get you one of your dream duty stations, or as close to one of them, as they can.

I picked Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii. The Navy ended up giving me orders to a ship that was stationed in Guam. I had never heard of Guam before. I had to go look it up on the map. It was about right in the middle of all three of my duty station selections, but just not one of them. But going to my new ship, would still come later. I still had to finish yeoman school, and graduate from it first. Some people could never get the hang of typing, at a certain speed. They ended up having to drop the school, and pick another job to train for.

School was still a fresh place for most people. We had just finished boot camp, and was learning to have more freedom given to us, and a lot less yelling going on, like boot camp had. Some of the characters, in the units we were berthed in, were just plain crazy.

The building Unit we were all living in, was three stories tall, and had various people living in it. Some of the people that were living in our unit, were waiting to be discharged from the Navy, for various reasons. In one of rooms that was directly below us, was some flamboyant gays living. They were so outrageously gay, and flamboyant about it, like Liberace. A black and a white guy.

The Navy was discharging them both, for being openly gay. They were about the gayest guys I had ever seen, and I think they might of been the first ones I’ve ever seen, in real life, besides on TV. I was from a small town, they could of actually been doing the best darn act, to get out of the Navy, but I don’t think so, no guy would go thru that.

On one of the days, that I was assigned my first watch, it was to be with a partner. We would be a roving patrol for the school grounds for four hours. When I showed up for my watch, I was partnered up with a girl, that was going to be a yeoman also.

As we walked around for our 4 hours on watch time, we did the usual stuff. Just walking around, and making sure nothing was wrong. My new partner I had just met, was asking me, what kinds of drugs I liked to do. I told her my experiences that I had with drugs, and it was limited, and then she told me hers. I had never heard of some of the drugs she was talking about, back then anyway. Now a days, the stuff she said is everywhere, but she was from the city, and said she loved it, and did it all the time, and I did not even know what she was talking about. That was really the first girl I had ever talked to, who wore a uniform just like mine, and I wondered what kind of girls join the Navy?

While I was still stationed at yeoman training school, we got another paycheck. All of a sudden, I had a lot of extra money, and I did not owe anybody any of it. I was looking at a bulletin board somewhere, and I noticed this motorcycle for sale, for $500. It was one of the staff members who was stationed on the base, and also lived on the base, but just worked somewhere else.

Students were not allowed to leave the base, unless they were on liberty. I bought and paid for the motorcycle, with almost all the money, from the paycheck I had just received. The guy I bought the bike from, also gave me a lot of extra parts, like an extra gas tank, gas can, oil, those sorts of things, you get with a bike when you buy it sometimes. I parked the motorcycle in the parking lot of the barracks. I was going to keep the motorcycle, just for me to ride around with, on base, just while I was at school, and then get rid of it. I put all the extra parts, gasoline, oil, etc... in my storage locker that stands up like a small stand up closet, that you are supposed to keep your dress uniforms in.

One day, the staff said, they were going to have a surprise inspection, to see how things were going. We never had any inspections before at the school, so this was new to me again.

When they come in to inspect, they call “attention on deck”, and you are supposed to stop what you are doing, and stand at attention, until someone yells, “carry on”. They had us all line up in front of our lockers, at attention, and they were opening up each locker, and seeing how the guys clothes were put away, and then they came to mine.

When they got to my clothes locker to inspect, and I opened it up for them, they first saw all these gas cans, oil cans, motorcycle parts and more, they did not know what to think. They had to call in special people, to see about the fire hazard. I was told to get everything out of my locker, and I was told I was not allowed to own a motorcycle on base. I ended up getting rid of it to another staff member for $50, that knew I was in a bind.

I did get to ride it around the base, and it was missing the muffler, and it was loud, it wasn’t a Harley, but you could hear me coming. When other guys were in the common area, just sitting around, watching TV, I had been out after school, riding around on my motorcycle, checking out the base, on my motorcycle I was not supposed to have.

At the end of the school graduation, they let the students go out into town. Before you are allowed to go out into town, on liberty call, you are told what to expect, and what to do, and not to do, to stay out of trouble. They said that the town people, do not really like the Navy people, so be careful while you are in town, to avoid any fights.

We all went to one of the most common name brand bars in town, where it was pretty much all guys and girls from the base, not to many locals hanging out. It was going to turn into a giant meat market. Everyone could finally shack up with anyone they wanted to from school, that you could not do in school, or at the barracks. Any male, or female, caught in each other’s rooms at school, was called fraternization, and was very serious, and could get you kicked out of the Navy. Out in town, everybody ended up with someone, and everyone rented rooms for the night.

School was over, and it was time to join the “regular navy” as they called it, and the regular Navy, meant ships and sea, and going to other countries.

I took my first leave of absence from the Navy, before going to, and reporting for duty, to my first ship. I wore my dress uniform, as I was required to do, and I rode a greyhound bus, from Meridian, Mississippi, to Detroit, Michigan. It was one of the longest rides, I had ever taken on a bus. It must of stopped at every chicken farm ranch, along the way. When I finally got back to Michigan, I was dead beat tired from the bus. I stayed home at my sister’s house for about 10 days.

It was time to go to my first “real” duty station. My first real duty station, was a submarine tender, named the USS PROTEUS (AS-19) that had a little more than 1,300 people on it. 6 of the crew member were ladies, all officer ladies. Half of them would be working in my department.

Chapter 4

Sea duty aboard the USS PROTEUS (AS-19) Submarine Tender

The first thing I learned about being in the Navy, is that if your duty station is a ship, and it’s moving across the ocean, sometimes it takes you, a long time, to catch up to it, to get on it. That was the deal with this ship, and the destroyer I was on also. It took me almost a month to catch up to the destroyer I was stationed on. It did not take me as long, to catch up the USS PROTEUS. The ship was on its way to Subic Bay, in the Philippines. And I was going to meet it at the pier, when I got there finally.

After arriving in Manila, me and some other guys that were headed to the ship, stayed the night in Manila, for the first night. That was the first night I had spent in another country, ever, in my life. There were several of us, that flew into Manila that same day, and we needed to take a taxi about 2 hours south, to meet the ship.

We got a nice hotel room in Manila, it was overlooking the streets below, where all kinds of vendors, and jeep like taxies were everywhere, honking their horns non stop. We did not know what to do, so we stayed in the lounge of the hotel. That first night, we all drank right there in the lounge, and just stayed there. We had been traveling for awhile, and we were told not to go out and party, but we did party a little bit, but just in the hotel lounge.

The next morning, a white little van, with air conditioning, came and picked us all up. It drove us to the town where the ship was waiting. Along the way, you could see many different types of taxis, and tons of fields, that we all guessed, were rice fields.

The taxi drivers seemed to drive more crazy than in the United States. They swerved at stuff, hardly slowed down to let anyone cross the street, had tons of decorations glued all over the hoods, and it was all of them, that decorated their taxis heavily. They would honk their horns constantly, and sometimes if you are watching the driver, he is just honking the horn, to honk the horn. There were 3 wheeled motorcycle taxis that they called trikes, all over the place. They were the cheapest way to get around.

I consider myself to be a good motorcycle rider, since I grew up with dirt bikes and motorcycles all the time. One day, I asked one of the trike drivers, if I could drive his 3 wheeled taxi motorcycle. He said I would have a hard time, since I never did it before. I told him I rode motorcycles all my life, I can ride his thing. He bet me 50 pesos, which is about $1, that I could not ride it from one spot, to another. Boy, I drove it just a little bit, and I could not get it to turn around for me, so he was right, you have to practice riding on of those things, to figure it out.

I was the “fresh meat” guy, again, on the ship. This was finally going to be, the real Navy. A ship with over 1,300 people on it. Our office was almost at the very top of the ship. All the admin offices, legal, public affairs, recreation, the CO, XO, and Command Master Chief offices were connected together. The offices are connected together, so we can all use some of the same spaces. You had to do the standard duties anyone aboard a ship would have to do. Fire fighter training, drills, man overboard, abandon ship, nuclear spill, and other type of drills.

Everyone does special training, and you learn other things about the ship. One of my first duties besides being a yeoman, was you had to stand a watch, or serve on a flight crew, or salvage crew, or something like that. Even thou you are working in an office, at any moment, and even at 3:00 am, they might decide to do a drill, or the real thing.

One of my jobs as a seaman in the Navy, and working in the admin department, was during special sea procedures. We might be getting supplies from another ship, that is traveling thru the water, at say for example, 20 knots, and we are traveling thru the water, at the same speed also. We can transfer, fuel, supplies, food, mail, people, you name it.

They might use a helicopter to bring supplies over, from one ship to another, and during all this time, the Captain is up on the bridge, standing out on the wings, directing the ship at what speed it should be at, what course it should be on, and during all this time, he always has a young naval officer, at his side, since he is always training officers, at any given time.

The captain, who I must of saw train 50 different officers with the same thing, over and over again. Here we are, traveling at high speeds, two ships not more than 100 feet from each other. There will be a young ensign, or lieutenant junior grade, standing out on the bridge wings, trying to give the speed, and course, to the quartermaster and helmsman. Also, at the same time, he has the captain right behind him, putting a little pressure on him, telling him what to do, and asking him lots of test questions, and always testing them, and training them.

My job was to keep track of what speed and what course we were on at all times. The young officers would get confused, and could not remember what course, or what speed we were on. You usually just have to fine tune your course and speed, every so often, back and forth, just a little bit, but always back and forth, and the ships will be fine.

It looks really impressive, awesome, and powerful, to be out to sea, thousands of guys working, bright sunshine, crystal blue waters, and your cruising across the ocean, at pretty fast speeds, and you can see cargo, and other items being transferred from ship to ship, and you just think, wow, how cool looking is this.

One day, the captain was up on the bridge, and he was a pretty nice guy, he said, “Petty Officer Stead,” even though I was still only a seaman at the time, he always like to call people by a bigger rank. He said, “You must of heard me say these things over, and over again, a thousand times by now, I bet you could drive this ship better than these officers.”

I always knew when it was time to change course, I could of did what those officers were trying to learn, only because I was up there each time with the captain, when he was always training someone. It was never just the captain doing anything by himself, it was always either a drill, or an exercise, or a supply mission, he was always training junior officers, on everything he did.

One of my jobs was being the CO’s phone talker during emergencies and drills. During battle scenarios, and other things we do, each department would have one person that was a phone talker, like the repair department, the medical department, the damage department, and all the other people connected.

The captain would bark out orders, and I would bark out orders to the other departments, it was kinda like I was barking out the orders, and it was kinda fun, because everyone took it so seriously, and from wherever the captain was at, there was always a good view.

On this ship, the captain had his own kitchen and cook. The cook was part of our department, as the Supply Department, and Executive Department, shared the same berthing space together. So we always shared our berthing with the cooks, and the supply guys.

The cook to the CO, was selected as sailor of the year, for the ship, and he was a good guy. His dream was to work at the white house, and he applied, but was rejected for the job. The captain had his own regular house size stove, refrigerator, and all the things one would have at home, in a kitchen. The cook, would ask the CO, what he would like to eat for each meal, and then make it for him. The skipper might reply, I want a light salad, steak, and whatever else he desired.

Everyone that is brand new to the ship, and is just starting out in the Navy, must perform 90 days duty, somewhere in the cooking section. Either as a cook, helper, cleaner, or whatever. My job ended up being in charge of about 3 frozen food lockers. Now on the ship, there must of been, at least 12 storage lockers, for milk, food, bread, hamburgers, you name it.

We had an elevator at each entrance, and at the top of the ship, we had our own crane. Before we would go out to sea, some semi tractor trailer trucks would come, and we would load the ship up with fresh food, and lots of it. On the ship, you usually get to have 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one at midnight again, called mid rats, for people that are still hungry, or people going on watch, or getting off watch. When you have 1,300 people it takes a lot of food.

Working in the food storage department for 90 days was fun, the guy in charge of us was pretty cool. We were always allowed to have the day off, as soon as you got your work done. That meant all of our work, so if someone was done, we would help the next guy get his work done, until all the things were done, and a lot of days, we were done working by noon, and we would be off for the rest of the day. Not too bad a job really.

Chapter 5

Out to sea working in the admin office

Working in the admin office was not bad at all. It was made up of 3 rooms, or compartments as they are called on a ship. Our division officer had one space, there was another big compartment, with lots of computers for typing, and then there was the rear office, where some of the guys that had been in the Navy longer, worked. Since our department head was the Executive Officer of the ship, he did not need to be in our office, since he had a really nice office of his own.

Our Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, and some of the other department heads, had nice staterooms, and offices together. Some of the office doors, had wooden doors, with glass windows, with curtains hanging over them. They looked like little bank buildings from the olden days, and they looked very nice and clean, but you would not think you were on a Navy ship, it looked just like office space in any downtown building. The Captain’s office was nice, it had a nice brown leather couch in front of his desk, and he liked to keep his blinds closed all the time. The XO always kept his wide open, he was a very nice guy, and always was in a good mood.

The chief warrant officer that was in charge of us, used one of the offices, and had a senior chief who had a desk in there also with him. He was a very moody guy. Had already been in the Navy like 30 years almost already. One of my regular jobs in the office, was going down to the snack bar, and getting him, our chief warrant officer, a bag of popcorn. I never minded going and getting it.

The other office was the typing pool, that is where I spent most all of my time on the Submarine Tender. In this room, there was about 6 computers for typing. Our job was to type whatever came into the in box, for typing. Mostly it was long Navy instructions and booklets. Sometimes as thick as a dictionary. I liked those kinds of jobs, it was easy. You just type what is an old Navy instruction, completely over, until it is all on disk, as the Navy was just getting into being able to redo all their instructions and keep them on file, so it was easy to change.

When you spent all day typing, nobody really bothered you. You could take a break any time you wanted, go outside and smoke a cigarette, go back to the fantail and watch the ocean go by, as long as you are not gone a reasonably long time, no one really cared, as long as the work got done.

Each office, had a TV set, in each room, because every morning, we would have some sort of training, where everyone would get their cups of coffee, and we would sit around for 15 minutes watching training movies. Those TV’s also came in handy, in the evenings, as they were also used to show movies for the everyone, and then all of ours had VCR’s attached to them, and most of the guys would sit and watch x-rated movies really late at night, when the chief warrant officer, was sure to be sound asleep. He always bragged he was the oldest guy aboard the ship.

The first x-rated movie I ever saw, was in the Navy, in my office. It was not on a TV thou, this one Yeoman, he had his own movie projector with him, and he did it the old fashioned way, he showed it right on the wall. But x-rated movies were all over the ship, after I saw that one. The chief warrant officer, had a big collection in his office, above his desk, but no one never dared touch his stuff, but he usually watched them in the day time, he did not care what someone said, he would just lock his door.

When a new commanding officer would take over, you would not believe how much paper work has to be re-done, just to have the new commanding officer’s name on everything.

Enlisted personnel usually got new duty station assignments every 4 years, or more often, if they were in more hostile, or deserted places, and high turnover type locations. Officers usually got new duty stations every 18 months on average. So officers would come and go much quicker than enlisted people.

The 3rd room, was were all the typing was proof read, and our little Hitler type boss, would pass out assignments and things of that nature. This guy would constantly pick his ass, and rub the front of his crotch, without even realizing he was doing it. His uniform was worn down in these spots, from touching himself all the time, and everyone knew it, but no one would ever tell him, but all the guys always joked about him, touching himself all the time. This guy was about as gay as they come, we all thought. He was not a good guy, he favored the guys that kissed up to him, and I always never seemed to want to please this guy, and he tried to give me a hard time, some of the time.

I had to tolerate him, he was my boss in a way, but I had some other bosses as well, and during my evaluation time, my boss, wrote up my evaluations, and gave me not the highest marks, so I was mad. I went to the senior chief, and I told him, I said, “Senior, you know how Bob is, he’s giving me these marks because I don’t really like the way he deals with us, and you know what I’m talking about. About his being maybe a gay guy.” He knew what I was talking about.

We had one guy, who could do no wrong, this guy hardly ever took a shower it seemed, and he was like a genius or something, just like a Bill Gates, only in a Navy uniform. You could never get this guy to have a clean uniform on, his clothes were always so wrinkled, and he had a body order to him, it was unbelievable that he could always be that way and no one would really make him clean up his act.

His uniform was always a mess, even one time the Master at Arms, which is the same as a security force, on a ship, stripped his sheets, right off the bed, because he never changed them, and they were yellow. In the real Navy, nobody really inspects you every day, maybe once or so every six months. But usually, you are just left alone to live and take care of what you need to take care of, as long as the work gets done.

This boss of mine, recommended our nerdy yeoman, for sailor of the month, but it did not go thru, the chief warrant officer knew that this yeoman was always looking terrible in uniform, and there was no way he was going to recommend him for anything. The gay boss gave him the highest marks you could get, but the chief warrant officer knocked them down some because he had some common sense.

The senior chief moved all my marks up to the highest, except military bearing, he lowered that one by one, he said I needed something to improve on. That really made the petty officer in charge of me mad, but there was nothing he could do about it, since it was already done and signed, and in my service record already.

One of the rooms that we were also in charge of, but it was not connected to us, was called the copy shop. We had a copy shop, about the size of a small copy shop in any mall, that we used to make all the copies for different things for the ship. It had various size copy machines, and it was the copy center, for most of the ship. This part of our department was far from our offices, and this was the place we all took turns going off to, when we needed a break, or just wanted to listen to music or something. My friend Dave, was the only person that worked in there, as his job, but we all hung out down there.

We would go down and help out, when sometimes he got behind, or there was a lot of extra work to do. It was part of our department, and he was in our division, but he worked alone down there. Down there, you could always lock the door, because it was supposed to be locked, and turn up the music load, and it had a nice air conditioner because of the heat of the copy machines, and no one could hear it outside.

That spot became a great place to get away from work, and a great place to even bring a girl when we were in port, because it was private, and the door locked, so we took turns bringing someone there, and we all used it, when we were in the Philippines a lot.

On the USS PROTEUS, we would cook out a lot on the ship. They would have hamburger cook outs, and it tasted good. They used to do that a lot. On the destroyer I was on, we used to cook out a lot on that ship as well. Even the air squadron I was stationed at for 4 years in San Diego, we had a lot of cook outs right in front of the building. In the Navy, you do really cook out a lot, and it’s a lot of fun.

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