Seabees

gator freighters

that's two strikes

second ship , my LPO came from Little Creek , every other phrase was :

that's not the way we did it at Little Creek

or

that's not the way we do it in the gator Navy

'nother first class finally hadda tell him

"Clark this aint Little Creek"

He was a card , ya ever been in a storm with a 120' seas , was nothing to him , he'd been in one that was 120' and one inch ..

Idiot made chief , and I vowed that when I made First and Chief , I knew who I wasn't going to be like ..

Port Hueneme ??

Cripes prolly worse than Little Creek ..

I don't know. They are pretty good at putting together a "kit" building every other month. Then tear it down and put it away for another two months.

I was stationed at Pt. Mugu and at that time Port Hueneme had an all female ship stationed there. Don't know what it was but rumors were rampant about how it was outfitted with doilies everywhere and potted plants in the urinals, stuff like that. Never met one of them, everytime I saw it, it looked abandoned. I loved that harbor on weekends, what a nice neighborhood. Got a surfboard rack stolen off my car and my stereo and prescription glasses. It was safer to put my car keys and money in my shoes on the beach while I was surfing. Cars are targets and surfers are territorial bstrds. ready to pounce on outsiders to protect their surf-turf. Lots of times I got to see some great hair pulling fights on the water. Never bothered me though except to act like they wanted to help me out. I'd yell some non-intelligible random fake word at them and they'd shy away. I'm pretty close to bein Mexican looking and there's lots of Mexicans there but when you come up with something they can't figure out, they don't know what to do. It's a kick. O you guys brought back memories...........I'll stop


Suz

Suzanne was a sailor? My my...

I wanna know how a urinal werks in a all female ship

then again , some a them buffs I seen , I might not wanna know

Yup-port hooneedsme,little crack-done em both-never said I liked them!Sometimes ya got no choice in the matter.Lookin back tho-i've done far worse!Sometime I wished that i'd stayed a lifer like bushy-and i'd probably be in bumphuct wyoming or montana-retired,but that was'nt in the cards.Just makin do nowadays with these web footed lowland pukes around portlandia-where all of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables have migrated to- from california!

caint awl be like bushy .

I did 21 and 6 and I still working

and keep all the fruit and mixed nuts over there

Don't forget the flakes too.

Thought I told you that Bush-ma-toot. I was a second class petty officer when I got out. Worked in Point Mugu my entire enlistment as a PR, otherwise known as aircrew survival equipmentman. You're always a man if you're an equipmentman, even if you're not a man. They had a great inventory of old prop planes and old 1950s jets and on up to F-14s maybe some F-18s I don't remember. My shop was right outside the flight line of S-2s and I loved to hear them fire those up, smoke pouring out of them, then they'd catch and throttle like a race car, it was always a nice wake up to hear that in the morning. Also worked in the civilian parachute loft, a very skate job where you don't work tooo hard or some civilian might lose his job.

Never went on a boat my entire time, but if I'd re-enlisted they would have put me aboard for the duration. I decided I'd had enough already and got outa there while I could. Pt. Mugu is gettin famous for it's surf now, they actually hold surfing competitions there. A submarine trench flows out from Mugu lagoon (the only remaining natural lagoon in Ca.) and when that rush of water hits the incoming swells it pops them up to the sky. I've been on 30ft. swells in that lagoon area, with seals popping their heads up and gettin in the way, it's a rush you don't forget. Only got on one wave but it was a lifetime ride and scary too.

The end of my surfing was getting hit in the head by my surfboard (on it's edge) and bleeding like crazy, dented my board and my head....I called it quits, I was lucky that time. I was by myself and that was a no-no too, you were supposed to have a radio from the OODs office, which also meant that it takes 2 people to go surfing. Nope not me. I didn't get in trouble but I paid the price for bein alone anyway. For having a bloody wound on my head they started calling me bloody mary, but I was more proud of that than ashamed. At least I earned it in a heroic way (to me). Once you get a tough exterior established, and you're a girl, you got it made. And I made a few too.


Suz

Oh yeah...That's right. You did.

And me too.

I wanted to be a PR , but I have a feeling ( didn't know it then , but looking back ) it was prolly like the Seabees , you cud do twenty and never make first class ..

Yeah it was a popular rate but the first class and chiefs seemed to be in their late 20s and 30s so it wasn't that long of a wait. I wasn't planning on staying. Vietnam war was done with when I went in so it was more popular to go shipboard and turn-around time was 4yrs, changed to 2yrs when I got out.

I was in at a weird time. Boot camp (San Diego) was like 16 weeks, they have since closed San Diego and boot camp is now 8 weeks (I think). The uniforms for the guys was the same as the officers, not the typical sailor suit bell bottoms and dixie cup, but now it's changed back again to traditional. Girls with bubble butts had the best dress uniform you could ever ask for, if you could still walk in those things. Don't think that's changed for a while. Why get rid of good thing. Anyway it just seems weird that there was this odd time when everything went sort of experimental and then changed back again.

Suz

aw h+++ ya aint that old , I know when you went in , cause I had the chief/officer soot in boot camp (73) .. I went to Orlando , long since closed ..