SEA DUTY

Sea duty was a real shocker for me. I graduated from Radio School in Norfolk and was assigned sea duty on the USS North Hampton, CLC1. This transition in my life was a real ''shocker'' to say the least.
On sea duty and at sea you learn to really appreciate the little things that you would not even notice on shore duty.
Here is the ''short list'' of really important things when you are at sea.
One..... a really good mattress on your bunk. One that is thicker than a waffle and softer than plywood.
Two A pillow on your bunk. Not everone had a pillow and you sorta had to stand in line to get one when someone got transferred from the ship.
Three. A big locker that was within half a mile of your bunk...
Four. Not being close to some joker that shored like a saw mill and passed gass like a steam engine.
Some of the other little things were these...
Being able to go swimmin over the side of the ship. They would stop the Norton down in the Carib. And have swim call. They would drop a couple of Jackobs Latters over the side and swing out a ''boat boom''. They would launch a utility boat with Marines, granades and machine guns for a shark patrol and let us go swimming for an hour or so.
Sometimes on Sunday afternoon they would have ''Sunbathing on the fan tail'' this meant you could take your blanket and pillow and go topside and just ''Lay in the sun and do nothing''..... It was wonderful...
If you knew a cook or a baker so you could get a cheese sandwich or a dough nut or a slice of pie when the mess hall was closed you had a piece of heaven.
At sea there was no such thing as television and we had a very difficult time getting a decent radio signal from shore. With this in mind, you learned to appreciate Quiet Time. Usually after supper chow you could go top side and find a place on the fantail and sit and smoke and think and watch the ocean slide under the Norton as you went from nowhere to nowhere. You could sit there on a '''bolard'' and listen to the heartbeat of the Norton. You could hear the ''hummmmm'' of the engines and feel the thump thump of the props as they ate the ocean. (note.... the Norton was turbine steam powered as I remember)
Another great joy was to lay forward to the Foksell and peek over the bow of the Norton and watch the porpoises play. These guys would ride the bow wave and have a ball. They could run for hours on our pressure wave in front of the ship. They would laugh and play, dip and dive and leap from the water with a loud splash and play tag with each other for hours.
At sea, money didnt mean nothing. There was very little to ''buy''... Ciggies were a dollar a carton, ''pogie bait'' (candy and cookies) was in limited supply in choice and quantity at the ships store. There was no ''Geedunk'' (a place to buy sandwiches,etc)on the Norton. You could have a thousand dollars and not be able to get a ''Gyro'' or a slab of pizza.
It was nice to have a Marine buddy that owed you a favor because the Marines had their own ''steam pressing machine'' … Yep, they could press your blues for you if they want to or you could sip them a dollar and they would ''press your canvas for you''..
The transition from shore duty to sea duty was a real shocker for me. Some guys would fight it and never won. I learned to roll with the punches and to appreciate the little things. I learned that the Navy ran on ''favors''.... You do a shipmate a ''favor'' like standing a couple hours of his watch so he can get some rack time and he owes you a ''favor''. You did ''favors'' for shipmates like arranging for them to talk to their pregnant wife via the ''ratt circuit'' down in teletype on the mid watch. This was a ''big favor'' and you could ask that person to kill someone and they would probably have done it .(Im teasing about this of course). You kept a mental count of ''favors owed'' to you and ''favors owed'' by you to others and you could ''swop a favor'' if necessary.........''Hay man, I got a guy in supply that owes me a favor and I will swap you that favor if you will swap me a favor that is owed to you by one of the cooks or bakers so I can get some do-nuts''......
''Favors'' worked something like this as I remember. There was ''small favors'', ''regular favors'', ''big favors'' and ''really big favors''....... A regular favor was equal to about two ''small favors'' in value It would take two or three ''regular favors'' to repay a ''big favor'' and a ''really big favor'' was about equal to four ''small favors'', ''three regular favors'', at least two ''big favors'' and a ''cut in'' in the chow line when we were having fresh eggs at sea.
It would get very complicated but it seemed to work most of the time... The worst thing to happen was when a shipmate would not ''hold true'' to ''favors owed''. This was a real breach in protocol and could get you ''Black Balled'' double quick. No one would do you a ''favor'' of any kind and you were ''on your own sailor''.. You were real careful not to fall overboard during the ''Black Ball time'' because someone would whisper ''Man overboard, port side'' and you would never be seen again …..........
Letters from home was a real treat. We got our mail from the USS Forestall via helo. You would find your letters laying on your bunk after mail call. Sometimes you would read a letter over and over and smell the paper knowing that ''she'' had touched it while she wrote to you......
The longest we were ''at sea'' was a little over one month. I believe this was the longest month in my life. We worked two section watches and I lost count of the days and what ''day it was''. No matter, tomorrow will be the same as today and yesterday. Most of the fresh food went south after ten days and you ''zombied'' along due to lack of sleep.
This is getting long and I gotta go tinkle......
Seajay the sailor man