USS JK TAUSSIG On Dry Land

At Charleston Naval Transient  Center at Charleston Naval Yard when you  receive your orders you have been waiting for, sometimes you are expected to leave within the hour.  That happened to me.

From the base movie theater I was working (ahem) my leader, the CPO, told me to report to the Transient Office.  He shook my hand and told me he enjoy working (ahem!) with me.  I went to the transient window and a yeoman told  gave me my orders to report to the ship USS J..K. TAUSSIG at Lakehurst, New Jersey.  He gave me an airline ticket to Philadelphia and a bus chit from Philadelphia to the Naval base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.   He said the tickets were only good for town to town, as far as getting a cab from the Philadelphia  Airport to the bus station in downtown I would have to make do, the travel expenses did not cover that. 

I had no choice but to go,  I had to pack and  be at the Charleston Air Port in a very short time.   They had shuttles going back and forth to the Charleston Airport.  I made it in time. and off I flew.

The commercial airline plane, probably Delta or Eastern landed in Philadelphia.  I got off the plane, claimed my duffle bag and then I was on my own to get to the bus station in downtown Philadelphia.  

Here I begin to feel the crunch of just how poor I was.  The cheapest way  to the bus station was my a shuttle that cost, if I remember correctly  about $8 and I had about $9 and I don't think credit cards had been invented yet.  By the time I got to the Philadelphia Bus Station I only had change left.

I enjoyed looking at the New Jersey countryside on the way -  A lot of it reminded me of Norman Rockwell art.  Old Antique American!

We arrived at the base just after dark.  The bus left me standing looking at the gate with guards and the duty house next to the gate, where I was to report.

I walked in and to my left was a counter with three people: a  chief, an officer of the day, and a duty driver.  I handed the chief my orders.  He looked at them, raised his eyebrows, like he was amused and handed the papers to the duty officer.  He took a good look at me and looked at the orders.  He said, "USS J.K. TAUSSIG?"  We are fifteen miles from the ocean."

I forgot which one, but either the officer or Chief or both started trying to make phone calls to offices that would probably know how to correct the error.

Did I tell you this was Friday evening?    No one would in the know that would know what was going on and how to correct it would not be until Monday morning.

They told me to spend the night in the base main barracks and be the base's weekend guest and report to the personnel office Monday morning.  They gave me a chow pass.

The duty driver carried me and my duffle bag to the main base barracks.  By now, it was pass 10:00pm and the barracks bay was pitched black, with only a red exit sign above a door.

I found an empty unclaimed rack and stripped down to my skivvies and crawled into bed and immediately went to sleep, I had a tiring day.

About 1:00am I was dreaming I was sleeping in the Charleston Naval Transient Barracks and suddenly we were being bombed by the Russians!  They were bombing barracks and flying around in machine gunning down people running around.   I  started running for my life.  I was still dreaming but this time I was on my feet bent over to dodge the bombs and bullets.

I ran out the red exit door and into a hallway... or passage way, as they would say in the Navy.   

Two men in civilian clothes were coming in from the outside.  One was a tall dark headed man with a relaxed southern accent and the other one was a short blond headed guy with a Brooklyn accent.  I ran up to them and asked were they still bombing outside?  They looked at me like, "What the hell?"

I explained to them the Russians were attacking us.

Both of them picked up on what my state of mind was and patiently told me I had a bad dream and right now I was confused.  I woke up and felt very embarrassed and they were very understanding.

When I returned to the big room of racks (beds) I had no idea how to find where I was sleeping, in the dark..... but somehow I did.

The next morning  in the chow hall I saw the two men that caught me in a frantic state of mind just several hours earlier.  They spoke and were nice and wanted to know if I was OK. 

Yep, OK for a crazy man.

  I was a little embarrassed with the two men looking my way and talking.  I felt my ears should be burning as they analyzed me.   But, I would just have to live through my embarrassing moment, as I have many other times.

   The reason I remember one was tall and dark headed and one was short and blond and their accents - about  six or eight weeks later I would ride to North Carolina with them.