Throwback Thursday: Going on Navy Active Duty - Opps!

FDR Presidential Yacht

I went on active duty in the Navy July 10, 1963.  I joined up because of the Cuban Missile scare.  I and 4 or 5 other E-2 reservists flew by private carrier to Charleston, South Carolina.

Charleston Naval Yard (I think what they called it) is a Transient station.  It appeared to me that the Transient system could handle several hundred men at one time.

Definition of a Transient:  One just out of training waiting for his orders  By talking to other transients the average waiting time is about 30 days.
Notice I said "his", meaning the male gender.  I saw no females also in transient status.

In a big parking lot between two barrack buildings on the pavement were numbers evenly spaced from each other.  The organizers issued little tags with numbers that matched the numbers on the pavement.  In the morning at 8:00am, if I remember correctly, you are expected to be standing on your number.  Then the group leaders come in and look over the transients to pick out who will be in their particular detail for the day.  I felt like I was in a slave auction.  I almost expected a NCO pry my mouth opened to see my teeth.

Each day I went with different bunches of men to do various jobs.  The ones I remember:  Washing dishes in the mess hall’ cleaning the NCO Club; cleaning the Marines NCO Club; and the worse was to paint a deck on FDR presidential yacht (it was docked on the Cooper River in the historical part of the docks.  I was wearing my blues, non-dress, and a wave gave the yacht a good rock which knocked me into the freshly painted deck that I just painted.  I had gray paint all over my arms and legs sleeves.  I don’t remember how I got it off.

The picture in this article I found on Google, under FD Presidential Yacht -about four were shown, the one here is the one I remember looking like it.

The group leaders watched you work and if they liked the effort you made they could request for you to work with them every day. Then you did not have to stand on your dumb number in the parking lot every morning.  It was sort of a prestige appointment.

After about ten days I was chosen to work in the movie theater.  Another guy who was from something like Newnan, Georgia, and I was chosen to work in the theater to do grunt work.  I don't know how or why my mother did it, but she became telephone friends with the mother if my work-mate.  That was before the Internet and Facebook.

I was happy. And even happier when I found what my duties were.  I emptied the “shit cans” (that is what the female yeoman called them) in her outer office and the division officer’s inner office “shit cans”  And give both “heads” the once-over.  Then after lunch we met the group leader, the chief in the theater and watched a movie.  We sat in a little cluster so we could make comments on what we were watching.  We got to be friends.

I heard a lot in the barracks  about the wild bars just outside the gate and also the private homes near the area with signs in their yards that said “DOGS AND SAILORS KEEP OFF THE GRASS”. My theater -worker-buddy and I decided to check it out.  The Charleston Navy base is/was a few miles long.  Our barracks was on one end and the gate was on the other end.  They had bus service that ran up and down the main road.

Outside the gate were bars and “clubs” , all well lit, lining both sides of the street all with loud music and "door" men trying to lure you inside the joint they represented.

Remember most of the sailors you see on this street have just got off a ship and haven’t had a drink or even seen a woman for months.

We chose a bar that seemed to have heavy traffic going in and out.
  Something inside must be good.

Inside there was a long line of sailors to the bar where behind the bar mixing drinks was a cute girl with a big smile on her face and a big jar that said “TIPS” filled with green money of $10s and $20s.  We got closer to see why she was so special.  She would asked her current customer would they like the special “stir”?  Of course they did.  She watched to make sure they “fed the kitty”.   She reached down in her short shorts and stir her hand around her crouch then brought  out her hand with one finger erect and stirred the drink.  She was mixing drinks with a masturbating finger.  She was making loads from horny sailors that haven’t been near a woman in months.  I wonder what kind of grade the county health inspector gave them?

We were too cheap.  We walked back through the gate to take a bus back to the barracks.

On the way back the bus driver was hateful to all on the bus and a couple of times told people to quiet down or he was going to pull over and make everybody get off.  One man challenged him and they got into a name calling fight.  Come to find out, the guy that challenged him was a Lt. Commander… guess who instantly became quiet and  humble?

One afternoon while watching a movie with my theater friends the female yeoman came in and told me to report to Window # 9 at the Transient office, which I did.

At Window #9 a young man gave me my new orders to the USS J.K. TAUSSIG at Lakehurst, NJ.  He also gave me an airplane ticket to Philadelphia and a bus ticket from Philadelphia to Lakehurst, New Jersey .  He added that to get from the airport to the bus station would have to come out of my pocket.  The flight was only a couple hours away.  I had to hustle to the barracks, pack, and be on that plane in a short time – and I only had $10 in my pocket.

More to follow on the next Throwback Thursday, hopefully.