MM2 in August of '58

THIS ONE SCARED THE HELL OUTTA ME!

May, 1959. We were anchored out near the entrance to the bay with our relief carrier, USS HORNET tied up at the pier with the senior admiral. It was just after taps and I was down in aft O2 writing a letter when over the 1MC comes "general quarters, man your battle stations" with absolutely no emphasis. I didn't move.

 A couple minutes later it repeated. I still didn't move. Then the chief who had that spot as a GQ station came thru the scuttle and while he was giving me the business, a genuine 100% full force G.Q. was sounded. I bailed out for ice machines thinking it was another PEARL HARBOR!! Later with the phones on I found out that there was an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands and a tidal wave was expected to be heading in our direction. All we were going to do was take "THE LADY" out to sea with the duty section. I wasn't the only one who thought he'd have to be changing his skivvies that night.


One other hairy one was when we were returning to Long Beach from either 'Frisco or Seattle and just as we were about to go through the break-water in Long Beach sonar picked up a Russian sub. Everyone was at Quarters for entering port.  

We could see everyone on the pier waiting when suddenly "THE LADY" turned seaward and all 125,000 shaft horsepower were brought to bear. 

We chased that sub all the way to Hawaii's waters and lost it.

FIRST TIME EVER
DISOBEYING ORDERS
After completing refresher training at GITMO, in early 1969, The YORKTOWN made liberty calls in the Virgin Islands. One of the great benefits there was tax free liquor. Everyone who had a secure place to stash booze snuck a few bottles aboard to take home. In St. Thomas,
I decided, "what harm is there in it, everyone else was doing it." So I bought a couple of bottles of my favorite booze, "Seagram Seven".
I then an early lunch at the foot of a famous elevator that rose to the top of a mountain. The bartender looked familiar and turned out to a movie extra from

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TV series Rawhide and John Wayne movies. He told me he lived with four gorgeous ladies up in the mountains. He was going off work at noon and invited me to join him for what he called "games and 3pm dinner". Being single, it sounded like good fun to me.
At the time there was racial unrest on the island and we had been ordered to return to the ship by sundown, around 8 pm. We drank up one of my bottles and I lost track of time. All of a sudden, I realized the sun was gone and I was an hour away from the landing point for shore parties. We raced down the mountain in the dark in his jeep because there were no street lights. In town, the USO was located adjacent to the liberty launch spot. To avoid getting caught bringing it aboard, I donated all my liquor to the USO as a good will gesture from our ship.


Then I joined about 40 others on the liberty launch. As we boarded The YORKTOWN, the enlisted were sent to Master-at-Arms. The officers were told to report to the XO's cabin. All the other officers were drunk and staggered in a line to the XO's cabin. I fell in behind, in last place. My stateroom was down a passageway adjacent to the XO's cabin and as we approached, I slipped down to my room and went to bed.
The next morning, there was a message over the I-MC, "LTjg Potts, report to the XO's cabin" I figured I was going to be in hack forever (restricted to either my cabin or the ship) and made my way to his cabin. This was our last day at St. Thomas.


To my surprise, he told me he was busy and had promised his wife to buy perfume. Since I was in the duty section and had to be aboard all day, he figured I would appreciate another chance to go ashore and buy the perfume for him. He had no idea how happy I was to follow those orders.


MISSING ORDERS
EUROPEAN CRUISE
Shortly before The YORKTOWN was to depart on our 1969 Northern European cruise from Norfolk, orders were received in the communications center for early outs due to downsizing of the Viet Nam campaign.  One particular officer's name was on the list for early out when the message was "received" in the comm center.


Strangely enough, after we returned from the cruise, the name of one of our communications watch officers who made the cruise was on the original list. No one ever figured out why his name was not on the list that went to the Personnel Office, especially since it was rumored that he was the watch officer when the message came in.


TWO LOW/HIGHLIGHTS OF 1969 CRUISE

Junior Officers (who were not career Navy men) wanted to get out of the Navy as much as us enlisted guys.  So I actually got an "early out" as the Yorktown was in Boston for de commissioning.  The big day finally came.  Even though I had a raging temperature, a ruby red face and had mononucleosis, the Navy doctor gave me a physical and said I was fit to leave.

  When the big day came I was given my discharge orders and they were given to me in the tell-tale white envelope that all sailors know contain discharge papers. 

A Lt. jg that I chummed with saw me with the big white envelope and came over to whine.  "You really getting out today..."  "What makes you think you deserve an early out..."  He was so jealous he grabbed my big white envelope with my discharge orders and took out his pen and wrote  "very good" underlined it, initialed it, then said, "Oh yeah, one more thing" and then he drew a star on my envelope.   In his jealous fit, he said "good luck", tossed my discharge back to me over his shoulder and stomped off in a huff. 

 

Hey, I'm a civilian today and you're still a Lt. jg. 

 I outrank you.

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