do you remember what it was like?

cross posted from a geezer's corner

i sit back and think of the first 24 hours i spent onboard my boat, and shake my head. talk about going through some changes. while climbing down the ladder into the boat for the first time, i saw a bunch of sailors in poopie suits. they were all playing with yoyos, and giving the LCDR ( i could tell he was on officer because he was wearing a brown belt, brown shoes, gold dolphins, and had gold oakleafs on his collar) twirling a duncan butterfly yoyo) crap. "hey eng...when the hell are you getting off of your fat butt and signing my qual card, you lazy bastid." "hey eng, you really pissed me off during the last drill set. kiss my ass, you fat pig" and more along those lines.
this is not the navy i was expecting. having spent the last two years of my life working through the nuke pipeline, i'd never seen anything like this. i WAS NOT PREPARED for the culture change.
of course, it was all a show put on for the two new guys, with the role of Engineer played by one of my new division mates. took a couple of days to figure it out though, because the eng and greg both went on leave as soon as liberty was set.
so here are a couple of posts by a submariner OLDER than me. he was both a DBFer and a nuke.
check out WELCOME TO SUBMARINES, and then read the second installment HOT BUNKING.
i may have been on the 575, which was a nuke boat, but his stories about life on a diesel boat sure ring familiar.
oh, the blog is Musings of an Old Man. hiya Ted

posted by bothenook @ 2:58 PM