March 1983 Artic Circle, Operation Blue Nose. It was a cold and I mean cold day in the Artic Circle between the Alaskan Shore and the Soviet Union. However this day would be different, a young Navy Officer dressed in extreme foul weather gear,bincolulars, a gray helmet, life jacket and walkie talkie walked past me and took his position at the bow (front) of a mighty aircraft carrier. Suddenly across the 1MC (the ships intercom system) the Officer of the Deck announced that all hands man their MAIL BOUYE watch station. This young officer , a recent graduate of the Navy Academy was standing his first watch as a recent Naval Line officer. The Captain himself came across the 1 MC and "reminded" the crew of the importance of the Mail Bouye watch. A submarine could only send outgoing mail by stuffing letters into an air tight container and firing the capsule to the surface of the ocean only to be picked up by a surface ship and the mail would go to its destination. (Or this is what the new young officer was told) actually what this was was a "lets make a new guys look like an idiot with his stuff on" everyone on the flight deck knew what was up but to watch this young Lt was priceless, I wish we had digital cameras because I have never seen anyone look thru binoculars with so much intensity as this guy.... our laugh for the day
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 04:34:28 +0000
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