> It was made by a shipmate long before FB was a gleam in Zuchkerberg's
> eye.
>> What, one of the past crewmen made the site for y'all & whoever cares to,
> donates to keep it going?
> I don't think its been updated in many years.

Just nice to know it's there, eh? A reminder of times, & cohorts, past?

>> You weren't in the middle of a big war, were you, or were you?
> Just a little thing called Vietnam.

Never officially a war, as that would mean you lost one & that's not good  propaganda, I believe. I think y'all won Korea, but it's not a "war" either.

Kinda lost the Bay of Ham, though. . . well, that's coin toss, maybe. . . :) 

> I was stateside the whole time.  I wasn't overseas, something about
> giving aid and comfort to the enemy and wanting for us to win.  :)

You were dating a North Viet girl?

> There's a small island down there that was used for target practice.
> Most of the Second Fleet would go there on a regular basis as a group.
> I started out in a 5" gun, wrestling around big shells and helping load
> the gun.
> Then I got a promotion the the aft 8" gun, again in the shell room,
>moving shells from the elevator into the breech.  From there I moved up to the
> powder room.  Those were packed with gun powder and relatively light.
> Then I was moved up to be a telephone talker.
> That was a rough job.
> I sat on the deck with a mic and headphones relating orders from the
> control room.  So many degrees to this and that position, etc.
> No more dancing with shells and powder cases.
> I asked how I got there and told the other liked my smooth Southern
> accent,  :)
> The training* cruises just happened to during winter up north and we were
> in the 70s and 80s in January-February.  What are the odds?
> One year we were sent to New Orleans when there had been reports a VC
> gunboat was seen on the Mississippi.  And just so happened to be during Mardi
> Gras.  What are the odds of that as well?  :)

Jeeze, no wonder the army & marine boys resent yas! *G*

They're crawling around in sub-zero mud, & you're enjoying sunshine & bikinis!

> One story you might like.
> We went to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a few days, after visiting Gitmo in
> "Cuber".
> Pot was popular among some crew members.
> Walking along a street one day I saw some fellow shipmates across the
> street buy some off a sidewalk dealer.
> They walked away and the "salesman" pointed them out to a cop who was
> catty-corner away.
> The cop stopped the guys, had a short conversation and took back the pot
> along with a full dollars.  He walked back to the dealer, handed over the
> pot and went back across the street.
> Shortly a couple more came walking along and the same thing happened.
> Turnout they were cohorts, of course.
> The dealer sold the pot, the cop busted them, took a bribe and it
> continued, several times over.

Did you tell your shipmates about the scam? That's scammy as heck -- not unsurprising, though. . .

> *The only time we faced anyone firing back at us was on one of these
> cruises.
> A popular past time was watching other ships fire, with a few friendly
> wagers on how close they came to the target.
> A group of us were on deck when suddenly the ship made a very sharp turn
> to starboard (that's "right" to landlubbers).  Now my ship was large and
> this sudden turn threw us to the deck.  We were getting up and wondering what
> in the world was going on when we
> Someone had made a mistake in aiming and instead of the island they were
> targeting us!
> The shell landed just to our aft and made a big splash.
> If the helmsman hadn't steered as quickly as he did, and the ship turned
> when it should, that shell would have gone down a smoke stack, which would
> have put a dent in our otherwise enjoyable day.

Oh, I ken starboard & port; I use them exclusively when on the water.

I know, to many people port is the heavy wine that you drink after dinner wi8th cigars, while the ladies enjoy their tea, & it makes many a genteel man run  audio tests on his waste disposal system.

I prefer sherry as my dessertif.

So not always a simple & fun tropical cruise, eh? Lucky you had a solid & alert guy on the job there, eh?

Would it have sunk yas, or blown you up, or just make a huge mess to fix &  clean up?

/George

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6