Life aboard ship was divided into three basic experiences, In home port, in a foreign port, and at sea.
I was stationed aboard the USS Norfolk D-L1. It was designated as a destroyer leader. She was 540' Long with a 54' beam and displaced 56,000 tons and drew 26' of water. We had a crew of 530 men.
The ship was home ported at the Destroyer and Submarine piers in the huge Naval complex in Norfolk Virginia.
Life in home port was interesting in that the city of Norfolk notoriously hated the US Navy in general and sailors in particular. There were signs around town saying, "Sailors and Dogs Keep off the Grass," It was into this "loving" environment I was unceremoniously flung after boot camp.
The only saving grace was a nearby town on the Atlantic Ocean named Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach though an east coast burg still had a lot of the accouterments of Southern California towns where I grew up. There were waves, small crappy waves and a beach. I spent most of my in home port time there.
Foreign ports were, of course exciting, exotic, and awesome. During my time aboard the USS Norfolk we landed in many far away places with strange sounding names. Truly an education for an eighteen year old California surfer boy.
Then there was at sea. I, to this day, have ambiguous feelings about the at sea experience. At first it was pretty exciting. Underway on a very fast war ship able to turn on a dime while at the top speed of 35 knots per hour. Actually the longest we were at sea was two weeks but that was a rare occurrence, mostly five to seven days was the usual passage between ports. After a while the novelty wore off and it became kind of boring. Sometimes challenging working in rough seas but that didn't happen often.
It seams that after WWII the US Navy had a lot of surplus war ships, destroyers and such that we either gave or sold to the Navies of most of the South American Countries. Something to do with the Monroe Doctrine, I believe.
Our ship was an ASW (Anti Submarine Warfare) ship. We trained and trained to detect, hunt down, and sink enemy submarines. We had the most state of the art sonar and ASW weapons in the world. We even had an ASROCK a very early guided missle. Ostensibly we were tasked with training and holding training maneuvers with these navies so they could use their ships to the best of their ability.
However there was another motive at play here. Since before we left for South America we first sailed up to Newport News, Virginia. Where we picked up The Admiral COMSOLANT (Commander South Atlantic Force), Arthur R. Gralla, his "Flag(staff) and the United States Naval Band led by Chief Frank Forgione. SoThis was an ass kissing tour to all the South American countries. A lot of oil and stuff in South America.
We pulled into our first port of call Salvador Brazil and before we went on liberty the medical corpsman came to me and asked if I could stop at a pharmacy and buy a bunch of Bayer aspirins for the sick bay as they were running low. I said no problem. He gave me some money and my friend Willie and I went into town. We found a reputable looking pharmacy and went in. I forget how many bottles of aspirins we got but it was a lot. At that time the US Dollar went a long way in Brazil. Luckily the pharmacist spoke English as my Portuguese was non existent. So I paid the man and he put the aspirins in a bag for me.
Willie was a guy from the Bronx NY. He was about six foot two and a young black man, and a good guy. As I was dealing with the pharmacist Willie was wandering around looking at stuff on the shelves. He pointed to some bottles of pills and asked the pharmacist, "Can I just buy these without a prescription or anything?"
The pharmacist said "Oh yes".
Willie took a deep breath, smiled and started picking bottles off the shelves. He put them on the counter and the pharmacist smiled a big smile and rang him up, put the bottles in a bag for him. This was probably the biggest sale he had had all week.
We get outside and I ask Willie, "What did you get?"
he opened the bag and I saw the bottles. There were Seconal, Nembutal, Tuinal, Amobarbital all barbiturates (all sleeping pills) and a few bottles of Benzedrine (an amphetamine). I'll admit I was pretty naive at the time but I got the picture.
So we went back to the ship and the officer of the deck knew we had been on an errand for sick bay he didn't bother to check what was in the bags. Sick bay got their aspirins and we got our happy pills.
Things changed significantly after that. Long nights at sea were no longer boring. It seemed that you could buy these drugs, over the counter, all over South America, no prescription? No problem. In the US they were strictly controlled, and rightfully as it turned out.
Previously we had to smuggle booze on board to get high. Big chance of getting caught smuggling or your breath would smell of booze. Not any more.
Needless to saythings got a bit crazy after we injected (no pun inteded) pills into the mix
A few of us sailors on board loosely formed an ad hock group. Mostly guys we hung out with. We all had a lot in common. We were bright, some what educated, we all hated the US Navy, and we were bat-shit crazy.
After working hours, 1600 usually we would hang out in different places on board ship at sea. Like the ships office, the weather deck, the mess decks, or wherever we could hang out with a modicum of privacy. We were made up of yeomen, a deck ape or two, a guy who worked in the ships laundry, an airographers mate (weatherman) and me a cook. Sometimes we would cruise around the ship to see what kind mischief or havoc we could wreak.
Ships don't have walls they have bulkheads. Upon these bulkheads there are attached sundry tools, equipment, and life rings. Etc. Also there are things sort of laying around for use, mops, brooms squeezes, mop buckets. Actually by regulation these things must be stowed away in their proper locker (locker is a naval term meaning closet) In reality a lot of times they are left out as they are used all the time.
The game started when a group of us were cruising around the outside deck at night stoned out of our gourds. There was a spanner wrench in its bracket on the bulkhead someone said, "Fletcher, you don't have a hair on your ass unless you throw that spanner wrench, on that bulkhead overboard,"
Now the worst accusation that could be flung at you was that you didn't have a hair on your ass. It was an assault on your very manhood. So mostly if you made that challenge, whatever it was, consider it done.
I walked up to the spanner pulled it off the bulkhead and pitched it over the side into the sea, and we continued on. This happened a few more time with other things, mops, brooms, and the like. This morphed into, "The Game."
The Game was basically anything that wasn't bolted down was chucked over the side.
More Naval ship information:
These are warships, their primary function is to wage violent war upon any enemy they are aimed at. So there are systems in place to facilitate that task. One of these is the, "Watch"
The watch serves two fundamental functions one of which is to keep the ship from running into things in the water. Like the famous iceberg of Titanic fame, this is a good thing. The other is to see an enemy approaching. The watch is manned by sailors, human beings twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Typically a man stands a watch for four hours then is relieved by another human being. These watches above decks are the primary duty of the deck force, first and second divisions.
The deck force, are lovingly refereed to as," deck apes." Deck apes handle all things nautical. They moor the ship, drop the anchor, swab the decks, chip off old paint and repaint every outside surface, pilot landing boats when needed and handle the lines when refueling at sea underway, AND they stand the watch. Everything from midships forward to the bow is handled by first division. Everything from midships aft to the fantail is the responsibility of second division. These guys work very hard, are good at what they do. They are pretty much the backbone of ships at sea. The watches they stand on a rotating schedule are above and beyond their daily duties.
At sea there are six watch stations, the focsle watch (on the bow), Port and Starboard watches. On the left and right side of the bridge (the steering and nerve center of the ship) and the fantail watch (on the after deck) these watches have been in use ever since there were ships. The men standing these watched are equipped with powerful binoculars, and a phone system that is connected with the bridge. If they see anything they report it immediately to the officer of the deck who is in command when the captain is not on the bridge.
So if you are chucking things over the side you need to be mindful of the watch they will report it in a heart beat. Unless they are part of the game, that is. The game went on for quite a while. Then one night...
Also on the bulkhead are things the Navy calls, "life rings." A life ring is a doughnut shaped life preserver that we are all familiar with. Except for one useful addition the Navy has added. Tied to the life ring is a metal cylinder, not unlike four foot long flash light with a lead weight in one end and a very bright light in the other. The cylinder is filled with batteries and an all important mercury switch and it is water tight. You see when the life ring is secured to the bulkhead the light bulb end of the cylinder is pointed down and the light is off. However when the ring is put in the water, like if you throw it to someone in the water, the cylinder inverts and the light goes on and flashes brightly.
One fine night, at about midnight one of our more brilliant game players decides to toss the life ring (amidships) over the starboard side. It worked perfectly. As the flashing light speeds by the kid on the fantail watch, he reports, "Man Overboard," to the bridge. Which is exactly what he has been trained to do.
Let me tell you the United States Navy takes, "Man Overboard," VERY seriously. All sorts of horns and bells were sounded the ship immediately turned into a starboard circle and a boat was launched while under weigh, a very tricky and dangerous thing to do.
Every man jack on board, officers and enlisted were mustered on the fantail and they methodically took attendance. The boat came back with the life ring and nobody was missing.
There was an overall feeling of relief and anger. How the fuck did that life ring get in the water? There was an onboard investigation. No one snitched nobody got into trouble but that was the end of that stupid game.
But the drugs continued.