HOM: Toe (The End of Boot!)

Backspace for a moment - I forgot a bit of info that should have been in the last post. Enlisted men in the Navy, E6 & below, usually have three sets of uniforms: Dungarees for work, lightweight Whites for summer duty & woolen Blues for winter. There were two sets of shoes - Boondockers for work and then a set of dress shoes for the Blues & Whites. E7 & above, and officers, wore khaki for their daily duties. Combat zones were an exception. Some of us found ourselves wearing olive drab and helmets or berets. Rather than waste time and material on kids when they started Basic, all we received were Dungarees & Boondockers. Whites & Blues were issued just before graduation. Doing it that way meant stuff wouldn't be wasted on those that washed out in training and would fit properly on the upgraded physiques we were supposed to have. The last week of Basic carried a whole different atmosphere. We'd made it! Instead of classes and tests, there were exciting things like getting pictures taken, receiving our orders, finding out what our immediate futures held, getting more shots to go with the orders, being issued the aforementioned uniforms and insignia and the paperwork we need to head home for our first leave. We also got our very first ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, usually called the Gedunk ribbon, that meant we were full-fledged wartime sailors. Well, at least it meant we'd gotten through basic training. Insignia, by the way, were self-applied, using stencils on the dungarees and previously-issued sewing kits (sexistly called "Housewives") for applying the cloth patches to the Whites & Blues. Did I mention we had to stencil our names on every item of our clothes except our socks? (Flashback - sometimes the company "problem children" found their socks or sleeves or pant legs sewn shut. Shortsheeting bunks was a joke, the sewing was a message to improve. It was also common for buttons to be ripped off our clothes when we were being "inspected" so the kits got a lot of use.) One of the first things most of us did when we got our freedom was replace the Navy-issued boxer shorts with briefs. (Boxer shorts and calisthenics were a wicked - and sometimes hilarious - combination. Yes, doing jumping jacks in our skivvies was another frequent punishment. Yes, it hurt.) The issue button-up dungarees were dumped for more expedient commercial zippered bell bottoms, and thenceforth we usually hired someone to do our sewing for us. Some of the more affluent had their dress uniforms custom tailored. In San Diego, we usually headed for the old Seven Seas store on Broadway. TBC (Me) (Home)