Search Me!

Think about it...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

HOM: Portland I

We took a detour on the way back to San Diego and stopped in Portland to act as showboat for a few days. We were tied up at Waterfront Park's Esplanade seawall so the public could view us and we were also open for tours. We had to spend a bit of unplanned time at Swan Island Naval Shipyard getting some repairs done after we hit a log in a river coming in to Portland. Since we had to come up the Columbia and then turn into the Willamette, I don't remember which river it was, but I think it was on the Columbia. The entrance to it is kind of tricky. Chief Labrecque was the senior enlisted man and the senior engineer. He was wired pretty tight. I think I mentioned that he and his wife and five kids were living in a travel trailer while they were in Tacoma, which may not have helped his nerves. Cochran, the cook, was laid-back & mischievous. It was not a match made in heaven. The Chief was on the Quarterdeck one morning by the Esplanade when Cochran walked out on deck, dressing as he came. The Chief got upset and told him to button his shirt, which was hanging open. Cochran obeyed, but the Chief hadn't noticed the Cook's pants were still unfastened. Cochran let his pants drop around his ankles and, clad in boxers, started buttoning the shirt, much to the delight of the civilian spectators. The Chief went ballistic and yelled at him to get his pants up. The Cook replied that he couldn't do that till he completed the Chief's first order. Chief told him to never mind the shirt, just fix his pants. Cochran left the shirt unbuttoned and pulled his pants back up, then started to walk off. Chief asked him why he wasn't buttoning his shirt, Cochran replied that the Chief had told him to do the pants instead. Labrecque told him to button his damn shirt or else. So the pants hit the deck again, Cochran started buttoning again, and the Chief started yelling. By the time Cochran was dressed, all the Chief could do was sputter. EN1 Teddy Gordon, the second in command in engineering, had a streak of mischievousness too, as well as a lot of experience & a load of independence... Chief LaBrecque used to leave pages and pages of notes and unneeded instructions in the engineroom control station for the EN1 to read, obey, and pass on to the rest of us. After the first few sets, the EN1 just crumpled them up, unread, and told the Chief he hadn't seen them. The Chief started going through the trash cans to find them, but the EN1 had hidden them pretty thoroughly down in the mess deck garbage cans. When LaBrecque handed them directly to the EN1, Gordon would always have something else to do before he could read them, and they would disappear again. I am pretty sure the Chief had high blood pressure when he left the boat, whether he had it or not when he first came aboard! TBC (Me) (Home)

1 comments:

Jean&Vic said...

I told Jean this story last night after I got back, and she just giggled. She also told me your stories don't upset her(as I thought to ask). She just rarely leaves comments on blogs. I on the other hand am not that bright (well, maybe on par with a burnt out 2 watt light bulb. . . but not much more)

 
...