Navy DD-711 Part III

Eating was a major event, it was that 'change of pace' that broke up the day and we ate like kings. The food in the Navy was always top-notch. There were steaks and crab cakes and the first time I ever had lobster tails was on board the Greene. But the enlisted mess deck only held maybe 40 or 50 men so there was no dawdling over brandy and cigars. You got in, you got out and sometimes you had to take your food elsewhere. Once in while they would have a cookout on the fantail and on Sundays they would serve brunch all morning in case someone could sleep.

This photo above is an actual photo in the galley of the Greene and this man from the Philippines is about five feet tall. Now picture me at six foot four hunched over like a vulture. I always dreaded mess duty, it took me another week to recover my ability to stand.

The morning opened with reveille and these orders: "Sweepers, Sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a good clean sweep down both fore and aft! Sweep down all decks, ladders and passageways! Dump all garbage clear of the fantail! Sweepers." The ocean is still clogged with all the brooms thrown overboard because as soon as we could, they were tossed and we went down for breakfast. 

You may notice that the normal daily uniform was just jeans and a blue work shirt. You only wore your dress uniform on board for arriving and departing port. And these were 'working' dress uniforms, we would never wear them for liberty... heavens!

And, yes, all our uniform pants had bell bottoms. No, not for style or tradition but because large bell bottomed pant legs could be quickly and easily folded up when the deck was awash.

Fun on board the ship took two forms: leaving the ship as soon and often as we could and fighting. There was no TV and the ship's library was a single shelf of books maybe three feet long. The nightly diversion was a movie shown in the crew's mess. Since it's more difficult than you might think to fit 250 men into a space that accommodates no more than 50, disagreements arose and were rarely settled via negotiation and compromise. 

Since we all carried large knives which were required for our jobs, it is amazing we had the discipline not to carve one another up like Thanksgiving turkeys. But the fist fights and food fights would put any fraternity to shame. It's interesting to note that when you see people punching one another in movies, they may show teeth getting knocked out, but they never explain that teeth are hard and sharp and can take chunks out of your knuckles. and when those chunks are right on the bendy parts of your fingers, it can take weeks to finally heal. {The more you know!}

Our first actual cruise took us from Norfolk to Portsmouth, Virginia. That sounds cool, but it was only a couple of miles around the harbor. Because the Greene was going into drydock and the level of paint chipping and scraping and sanding and painting was about to reach monumental proportions.

But, be that as it may, I had now been on an actual warship underway under it's own steam. It was really very interesting to feel the rumble of the big engines. Because who knows what might happen next!