So, just a couple of quick memories that just got dredged up from my time in the Navy, having to do with berthing aboard the ship…
I was berthed in the RE berthing, complex 13. Specifically, my rack was over by the lounge area of berthing, which meant that if I was going to get any sleep, I had to learn to sleep with people watching television or playing cards or whatever else. And I did.
The two things I am writing about here are these:
1. One day I was very very tired after having been up for the past 24 or 36 hours or something insane like that because of watch, and I simply needed some sleep. I got permission from our chief to rack out for a couple of hours during the day, and it happened to coincide with a field day. I had already done my portion of field day, so I climbed up into my rack and tried to crash. Along came Randy Strader (Snoop for those that knew him) and he starts yelling at me to get out of my rack while they field day. I wasn’t having any of that, and unlike my normal demeanor I basically exploded at him and told him to fuck off, that I had the OK from chief, etc. I think the very fact that I exploded on him was enough for him to back off, because that was behavior very unlike my normal self, because he backed off immediately. Just an interesting memory, I guess.
2. Where you kept your rack was a matter of seniority…. not seniority by rank, but instead seniority by how long you had been there and qualifications. Now, I was a total slacker and took forever to qualify (a different story that I will write about sometime), but I did eventually qualify senior in rate. As such, when the bottom rack in my stack of racks emptied out, I decided to move down there. I had finished moving when another member of our division came along and told me to move out because he was moving in there from RT division. Now, despite him being two ranks above me (he was a 1st class, I a 3rd) I was still senior to him in terms of qualifications, and I stood my ground on that. Based on that, everyone else in the division (including my LPO) backed me on it (Terry Fly is a good guy!) and the interloper backed off. He went back to RT division where he could be king of the roost.
