TBT-Forty Years Ago! 10/10-16/74 Not much happening onboard as we continue running silent with no radio transmissions as we make our transition to the PI. Most of my time is spent playing endless card games, staring out at a seemingly endless expanse of ocean, napping, and perusing the exchange catalog for an eventual replacement camera. I am somewhat heartened to hear that the MAs do a pretty good check of cameras going off and on the ship. Seems like it’s the only valuable thing that my shipmates and I have. Of course the other thing you check out in the exchange catalog is stereos. EVERYBODY wants a decent stereo for when they get back to the States. On October 13 the mess cooked up at 700# cake for the Navy’s birthday and it was enjoyed by all. Pretty sure I had never seen a cake that large. The last few days of our time out at sea, Oct 14-16, were spent running in squall lines in advance of a typhoon, in the hopes of keeping our location a mystery. Again we were successful, but we sure felt sorry for our escorts. Those tin cans took quite a beating compared to the Big E, but we still kept clear of the sponsons and weatherdecks as the ship was still rocking and rolling considerably. We were hoping to get mail on October 16th, but the weather was considered too rough and no attempt was made according to the shipboard rumors. Ahhhh, rumors. They constantly circulated the ship and you really could not tell if your shipmates had the straight skinny or not. You could at least ALWAYS be sure the more senior ranks were pulling your (gullible) leg and having a good laugh afterwards depending on how much of their story you bought into. Tomorrow, most of us hit the PI for the first time. Again, our senior ranks fill us with wild stories from their past Westpacs. This time we hope they aren’t kidding us…
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 17:01:46 +0000
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