Thursday, June 25, 2009

Been Gone

 

Judy, J-Man, Bug and I have been in the mountains of Massanutten, VA, and surrounding areas such as Washington, DC and Mt. Vernon, VA and this water park - The Massanutten Water Park - since last Friday. We will be heading home tomorrow, Friday. That's the good news for us. The bad news is that I will be leaving Sunday night for NY on another dog transport.

The point is, I won't be around much untill next Tuesday. What do you mean you didn't even know I was gone? I have been checking in as time would permit, but, honestly, I have been going to bed way much earlier than I am use too. Saying we were tired from all the activities would be an understatement. My legs may never be the same again. But it is a good hurt and the sore body is worth every minute we spent with the kiddies.

I'll have pics and a few stories when I get back.

'Nite, all!
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Females In My Life

The females in my life have all had an effect on me and how I am today.

This is my first wife. She cured me from drinking. Imagine, if you can, waking up one morning with a head-splitting, sick as a dog hangover and rolling over and seeing her laying next to you.

You try to remember who and how…when you left the bar you were with this beautiful chick who looked like Dana Delaney.

Now…How?

So you try to ease out of the bed and notice on your left hand a new wedding band. I haven’t been drunk since.

This is one of our more happy moments…before I gave up on drugs.
 


This is me and Judy. She changed my life in that she calmed me down. She taught me patience and how to look at things in a different light. She is brilliant, too. (She married me, didn’t she?) She had a full scholarship to Princeton in math. Later changed her major to Chemistry so she could be with her husband who was a Chemistry major, too. But she can also do dumb stuff (she married me, didn’t she.) We make each other laugh and we have accomplished a lot by giving total support to each other. She’s my best friend.
 


This is my mistress. She can be anyone I want her to be. Dana Delaney, Catherine Bell, Olive Oil, anyone! And she isn't jealous. Sometimes she even allows other femals to join in our fun and games.
 


I’ve been a blessed man because of these females. Who are the ones who helped you through life? Any stories or photoes?
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Monday, June 15, 2009

King & Country

 

A photo like this doesn't come along every day!
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My New Magazine Subscription

 

She said I could subscribe. She's sweet to me like that.
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Gone Again

 

On the road again hauling a load of these in one of those to New York.

I'll wave at you peeps as I go by in SC, NC, VA, PA, WVA, ME (is that Maryland's initials?,) PA and NJ. But you may have to stay up all night to wave back as that is when I do most of the driving.

See y'all on Saturday night or Sunday.
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Know Your Place

Women seem to have forgotten their place. It's because they don't teach Home Ec 101 anymore in high school. Therefore it's time for a refresher course. So all you gals read carefully and take notes. If you have to quit work and stay home to make life better for your man, then so be it. You will be much happier knowing you are contributing to the wellbeing of the family. Also, wearing a dress with high heels and a pearl necklace and no panties will be a nice touch, too.
(You can click on it to bigger size)
 

Got It?
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Monday, June 08, 2009

Children and the Ocean

 

You know, I don’t know if these are actual quotes from real school kids or made up by someone with nothing else to do, but they are cute.

Children Writing About the Ocean

1) - This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly, age 6)

2) - Oysters' balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6)

3) - If you are surrounded by ocean, you are an island. If you don't have ocean all round you, you are incontinent. (Vicky, age 7)

4) - Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson. She's not my friend any more. (Kylie, age 6)

5) - A dolphin breaths through an asshole on the top of its head. (Billy, age 8)

6) - My uncle goes out in his boat with 2 other men and a woman and pots and comes back with crabs. (Millie, age 6)

7) - When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes when the wind didn't blow the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans. (William, age 7)

8) - Mermaids live in the ocean. I like mermaids. They are beautiful and I like their shiny tails, but how on earth do mermaids get pregnant? Like, really? (Helen, age 6)

9) - I'm not going to write about the ocean. My baby brother is always crying, my Dad keeps yelling at my Mom, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think what to write. (Amy, age 6)

10) - Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves in to chargers. (Christopher, age 7)

11) - When you go swimming in the ocean, it is very cold, and it makes my willy small. (Kevin, age 6)

12) - Divers have to be safe when they go under the water. Divers can't go down alone, so they have to go down on each other. (Becky, age 8)

13) - On vacation my Mom went water skiing. She fell off when she was going very fast. She says she won't do it again because water fired right up her big fat ass. (Julie, age 7)

14) - The ocean is made up of water and fish. Why the fish don't drown I don't know. (Bobby, age 6)

15) - My dad was a sailor on the ocean. He knows all about the ocean. What he doesn't know is why he quit being a sailor and married my mom. (James, age 7)

We are all part and partial of our experiences as children. The Bee Gees sang:

"Gone, gone childhood days...
Gone in so many ways.
In all my children you can see
What old acquaintance means to me.
Dream is mine and here it stays
All wrapped up in my childhood days.
And it echoes down the mountainside
People live and people die.
Though I love you for always
I lost you in my childhood days..."

"Childhood days"
Bee Gees
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Friday, June 05, 2009

Friday Funny

 

How about a weekend joke for you golfers out there.

One day John (no kin) thought he would get in a few rounds of golf alone. After a few holes he saw, just up ahead, a man playing alone, too. He thought he would ask the man if he would mind joining up and playing through together. When John ask the man, the man said in a very raspy low volume voice, “Sure! I would love the company.”

John knew his curiosity would hinder his play so he asked the man about his voice.

The man rasped out, “It happened a couple of days ago. I was playing by myself that day, too. I sliced a ball into the trees and went in there looking for the ball. Just inside the tree line was a fence with a few cows in a field and a woman waving her club back and forth in the grass looking for her ball, too. I thought with both of us looking one of us was sure to fine one or both balls much faster.”

“Makes since.” John said. “Did you find your ball?”

“Well,” the man rasped, “I did see a ball on the ground next to a cow. Just as I was walking over to check to see who’s ball it was, the cow laid down with her rump covering the ball. I didn’t know what to do. I’ve never been around cows before, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I grabbed the cow’s tail and lifted up the rump as high as I could and looked at the ball. It wasn’t mine, so I called over to the woman and asked, ‘Say lady, does this look like yours?’”

“That’s when she hit me in the throat with her nine iron.”
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

USS FRANK E EVANS - 40 Years Ago

Forty years ago today, 3 June, 1969, at a little past three in the morning seventy four lives were lost and thousands of lives were changed forever.

I first wrote about my experiences and the sinking of my ship back on October 13, 2007. I have updated a few things and corrected others. The comments from the first post were very good in that a couple of the Australian sailors involved that night commented. One said that the Capt. McLemore had a son go down. That is not true. Only Chief Riley lost his son.

This picture was made in 1963 while I was on board. You can see me. I'm the one smiling. See the white hat on top of the bridge, well that's not me. I'm standing next to him. This was just before I was transferred to Radar.
 

This is a drawing of the fighting lady and her logo (a fighting cock.) I know, I know.
 

This was just after dawn before the USS Everett F Larson, coming over on the right, lashed her to her side. There is a lot of ship missing.
 

The USS Frank E. Evans DD754 (DD is the designation for a Destroyer – the Greyhounds’ of the fleet and call a Tin Can) was launched and commissioned in 1944, and, after a shakedown cruse, set sail for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC in Navy terminology.) She arrived on station in time for the Okinawa invasion and earned her combat stars battling kamikazes, dueling with Japanese ships and doing shore bombardment in support of the ground troops. She was in combat until the end of the war. From there she did a stint in China and eventually ended up in mothballs.

When Korea broke out she was re-commissioned and sent back to WESTPAC to fight in that war. She was engaged in many shore bombardments and even received small arms and mortar fire because she was so close to the shore. Her nickname was “The Fighter,” and she earned the moniker. However, after Korea she was sent back to the mothball fleet in San Diego.

In the early 60’s she was brought back again and refitted in what was called FRAM II. Her WWII and Korea configuration was removed and she had a helicopter deck added to the same place her #3 gun mount was located. This was used, unsuccessfully, for an unmanned torpedo carrying drone. The Navy just couldn’t get it to work more than ONCE in a row. This is when I came on board, in 1962.

I was fresh out of boot camp and a leave from home, and I was looking forward to boarding a true fighting ship. I got off the pier bus and looked down the pier. There were four small ships on the left (port) side of the pier and the beautiful, huge, gray ship on the right (starboard) side. I walked down to the gangway and ask the Marine (this should have been my first hint, since Marines don’t guard the gangways of destroyers) if this was the Evans. He said that this was the USS Helena (CL 50 – C = Curser & L = Light), a light cruiser of great renown. He pointed across the pier to the four little ships and said the Evans was the one next to the pier. Man! Only a little over 300 feet long and I would be going to sea in THAT? Oh, well! I reported aboard. I was sent immediately to the deck force (boson mates who took care of all things outside – painting, chipping pain, painting, sweeping, swabbing (mopping) and painting, not to mention chipping and painting. My bunk was in the forward part of the ship two decks down from the main deck.

I spent two months there until one day while at sea, I was stuck painting a 3’ by 3’ by 3’ locker below the anchor chain locker without any ventilation, and getting sicker by the minute from the paint fumes. Just before I was about to pass out, one of the guys stuck his head in and said some lieutenant wanted to see me. I reported to his stateroom and was told that I had scored high enough on my battery of test to be considered for radar training, and did I want to give it a try. I was trying soooo damn hard to keep from puking on his shoes that I almost wasn’t able to get out my, “Hell, yeah… uh, Sir.” That night I had the mid-watch (midnight to four in the morning) as the outside lookout atop the bridge. This normally meant I would get to sleep in until eight a.m., but I was awaken at six a.m. and told to report to CIC (Combat Information Center or Combat for short.) I was then made a radar striker.

The first person I met was a gravely voiced, thick glasses wearing, lisp speaking first class petty officer by the name of Gary Hodgson RD1 (RD for Radarman and the 1 for first class.) He never combed his hair and it stuck out all over the place like a mad scientist and his laugh was as raspy as his voice – and he laughed often.

This is where I spent my tenure as a sailor in the Navy. I was able to visit the WESPAC (three ports in Japan and one in Hong Kong,) Hawaii, Midway Island, San Francisco and San Diego. Although we did operate with the USS Oriskiny (CVA 34 – C=Aircraft Carrier, V=All Weather & A=Attack,) an attack aircraft carrier with jets on board, we mostly operated with the USS Hornet (CVS 12 – the S=Anti-Submarine,) an anti-submarine aircraft carrier with propeller driven sonar equipped planes on board. We did do some early bombardment on Viet Nam in support of the advisors there at the time. But no real combat experience for me. I left the ship in 1964 and returned home to a relatively normal life. But the Evans kept on doing her thing.

After I got off she made five more trips to the WESTPACK and received another combat star for her experiences. In 1969, before she left for her next cruse to the Pacific, all the personal had to have urine test for drugs. Imagine that in the late 60’s – who would have thunk it? She set sail and during the cruse she pulled into Subic Bay, Philippines. She was immediately boarded by several government type agents and arrested several of the crew for failing the drug test. DUH!!!

The captain was furious and demanded more men to bring his crew back up to compliment. So he received around thirty new recruits fresh from boot camp – some of whom had not even had the opportunity to go home after their training. Also on board were three brothers from Niobrara, Nebraska (Gary, Gregory and Kelly Sage); Chief Larry Reilly had extended a year before retiring to serve with his son Larry Jr.; and my old friend Gary Hodgson was back on his request serving out his last year before retiring.

Anyway, there were a goodly number of untrained men on board. And she was heading to Viet Nam, this time with the USS Kearsarge CVS 33, to be on “the gun line.” This meant she would be doing close in bombardments to aide the men in the jungles.

She was there for about a two weeks when she (and when I say she I mean all four destroyers in the squadron and the Kearsarge) were ordered to head South out to the edge of the South China Sea and join up with the HMAS Melbourne and her task group of Australian and New Zeeland ships to practice a joint maneuver called Operation Sea Spirit.

One of the maneuvers that are done dozens of times when operating with a carrier is moving to the rear of the carrier. When aircraft are launching or retrieving planes there has to be a tin can 1,000 yards off the stern of the carrier in case something goes wrong. On June 3rd, just after three a.m., the Evans was order to go to plain guard. She had performed this operation three or four times that day and night. All she had to do was turn to port and circle around to fall onto station as the carrier went by. But the OD (Officer of the Deck), who had failed the qualification exam to stand sea watch and the other OD had only been at sea less than a year, got confused between our base course and the zig zag course and he turned to starboard (right) and headed on a collision course with the Melbourne.

Everything became confused then. Radar was telling them they were on a collision course. The Melbourne told him they were on a collision course, and finally, the OD ordered the rudder Hard Right. At the same time the Melbourne broke all the rules of the sea (the biggest ship has the right of way) and turned her rudder Hard Left and she rammed and cut the Evans in half at mid-ships – right between the two stacks. Everyone in the forward fire room was killed instantly by crushing metal or twelve hundred degree steam. Everyone in CIC was killed. All but five men below decks were drowned because the front half rolled over and sank in three minuets. Among the dead were all three Sage brothers, my friend Gary Hodgson and Chief Reilly watched his son go down (he was in the forward fire room – he had volunteered to help out that night because one of the regular guys was sick and, because of all the new men on duty, they need an experienced fireman blow.) In all, we lost 74 of Americas finest, and only one body was ever recovered and he was badly burnt.

There were many stories of heroics that night. Our guys were trying to keep the back half afloat while working with the wounded and burned while fighting shock. The Melbourne had helicopters in the air immediately and they saved many of your men. The group was actually hunting and chasing a real Russian sub at the time, and the Australian helicopters were ordered back to the carrier to aid in the rescue. There were men jumping OFF the Melbourne into the water to save some of our men and others were on the deck with rifles shooting at sharks. Many men on both ships earned commendations that night – especially those on the Melbourne. The other ships tried a search and rescue, but no more were found. The front half carried those inside and sucked a few in the water down to eternity. Seventy-four fine, brave young men were lost that night.

Afterward, the captain of the Melbourne’s (Capt. John Stevenson) 30+ years of service was ruined and he left the Australian Navy without his retirement. He was exonerated and was ‘Honorably Acquitted’ and offered a desk job, but it was, in effect, a demotion and he would never captain a ship again. The captain of the Evans (Commander Albert McLemore was found guilty and reprimanded for dereliction of duty and hazarding his ship – though he was asleep in his cabin at the time with orders to contact him of any changes in operation procedures.

As is the custom in the Navy, Cmdr. McLemore publicly claimed that the collision was his responsibility as he had left two inexperienced officers in command of his ship. The two Lt’s received letters of reprimand and dropped down on the promotion list assuring they would never command a naval vessel. Cmdr. McLemore retied with pretty much the same sentence. He never got over loosing his ship and so many men. He passed away a couple of years ago, but he wouldn’t attend any of our reunions. Not one survivor ever blamed him for anything, but Naval Command has is traditions, and he felt responsible.

In civilian life the two Lt’s would have been charged with 74 counts of manslaughter. But the Navy has her own rules and customs. The OD’s left the Navy and no one knows where either is – that I know of. I haven’t mentioned their names because it isn’t necessary. They have their crosses to bear and don’t need any help from others.

So now you know, or maybe you don’t because I can’t express the story in my limited vocabulary, why I feel so proud to be at the reunion with such distinguished and brave men. I don’t know how I would have reacted in their place, but being a radarman, I would have been bunking below the mess decks (three decks down) where only two radarmen made it out. In the bow, where I was first stationed, only three men made it out. So I might not have been here at all. As a radarman I have been involved in many plain guard situations and it could have happened at any time, especially at night. Not likely, but it could have.

The HMAS Melbourne had already sunk one Australian destroyer doing the same maneuver a couple of years before and had two close calls a few nights before the collision with a couple of our destroyers. I believe she was a jinxed ship, but that’s just me. If you want to read some first hand accounts Google USS FRAND E EVANS and look around. The association has a web site if you are interested. http://www.ussfrankeevansassociationdd754.org/index.html

I said that that night affected thousands. Close to a thousand men on the Melbourne were deeply affected, especially those who went into the sea to help our men. Also, and more importantly, the families of the 74 devastated. I have met many of them and they are still mourning. There are no headstones (except for the one body recovered and is buried in Missouri. We were able to get a bronze monument in Arlington but no names are on it – due to rules of internment.

I guess this is way too long for a blog, but I couldn’t stop typing. But she also deserves to have her story told. I just wish there was some wordsmith who could do her justice. I hope you remember the 74 amd their families in your prayers. I do!
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Monday, June 01, 2009

Illegal Immigrants

 

Have you ever noticed…

...that if you rearrange the letters in the words “illegal immigrants” and add a few more letters, it spells out:

“What the hell are you doing here? Go back to wherever you came from and don’t come back until you’re legal.”

How weird is that?
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