HOM: TempSuck

TAD: Temporary Assigned Duty. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad, sometimes it was horrid. Sometimes it was absolutely irritating. While I was waiting for the Grand Rapids there was a minor revolt on one of the Gunboats in San Diego. It was going through REFTRA, and a big part of the Engineering Dept. went AWOL or got off the ship in other ways. The EM1 "accidentally" shot himself in the foot with the .45 while on watch on the quarterdeck. Officially, he slapped the holstered pistol and it fired. There was no official explanation for why there was a round in the chamber as it was kept unloaded as a safety measure. I put the quotes on "accidentally" because there were two bullet gouges in the deck about six inches apart. I guess he flinched the first time. Several other engineers went ashore and didn't come back. Morale of the rest of the crew wasn't great. Two of us at COSRON3, myself and an EN1 that wasn't on a boat yet, got dumped on the PG to fill in with the remaining two regular members of the engineering department. We had to stand "port & starboard" watches -- four hours on, four off, 24/7. I was the only electrician aboard. It was the worst time of my whole four year enlistment. The CO, XO, & EO were all . . . I don't know the right word. Maybe I got spoiled by the quality of the Crockett's officers, but this bunch sure didn't measure up. I think there was some conflict between the CO & the EO, and definite conflict between the EO and his department. Two of them seemed to be a lot more interested in their careers than in the welfare of the crew. The third was the same way, but at the same time seemed to be trying to overcompensate for a massive inferiority complex and a basic lack of intelligence. I believe one of them retired as a Rear Admiral. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The REFTRA dock they used was over at the ASW base and not with the rest of the Gunboats at the COSRON3 pier, so it was isolated from the COSRON3 command. We would get back to the dock at the end of a long day of training tired and eager to go ashore, but the CO would withhold liberty call for several hours so we could all be "briefed" on the day's lessons. The XO gave the briefings on the messdeck, and they tended to be all threats and criticism and no constructive comments. Morale was low. The food wasn't very good either. After REFTRA ended, the two of us had the "luck" to ride the Tacoma to Monterrey for the 4th of July where it was the Showboat, open to the public for the weekend. In port they put engineering on "12 on - 12 off "so I never really got ashore, sleeping during the day and up at night. When we tied up, the Khaki Men wanted the phones hooked up ASAP. It was an off-beat connection box powered with enough juice to jolt me every time I touched it, and there was no room to work with rubber gloves. The EO was a skinny guy with red hair & thick glasses who kept standing over me and pushing at me to hurry up or get punished. The XO & CO were there too, pacing and adding their penny's worth. I came pretty close to rebelling then. Monterrey itself was beautiful. The bay was full of life, seals and sea lions and otters playing all around the pier. I'd like to go back there again. I wanted to visit Robert Louis Stevenson's house, but didn't get a chance to. The only humorous episode of that whole TAD sojourn was the adventure of the EN1 I was TAD with, and I saw more humor in it than he did. He wobbled aboard the second morning in port and said he wasn't going ashore there again. He woke up that morning in the middle of a big bed, with a massive hangover, a naked and comatose woman on either side of him, a little dog curled up on his chest and a little boy standing at the foot of the bed asking him if he was their new daddy. He answered by stumbling out of bed, into his clothes, and out the door. Quickly. He told me he had absolutely no memory of the night before, and was glad he didn't. The flinching EM1, on crutches, came back aboard shortly after we got back to SD and I was relieved from the TAD. Actually, I was just plain relieved! I guess I was only TAD for a couple of weeks but it seemed a lot longer. I think I was lucky to have served under the Khaki Men of the 88. They were excellent officers. TBC (Me) (Home)