“The knuckleheads
secret mission”
Over the years I have
recounted this experience a number of times to family, friends
and others not intending to offend anybody, but merely to
share this experience that was not uncommon at the time, nor
particularly special, but to me, it was just rather comical
thinking back about it. Do I think this is still going on
today? Sure, why? Who knows or cares?
The following incident
occurred somewhere in the Atlantic along the east coast
between Charleston, South Carolina and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in
the 1950s. The main characters in this incident were three
still wet behind the ears, fresh from Boot Camp on their first
sea duty experience and a seasoned first-class Machinists-Mate
[The head enlisted man in the after Engine room] whose first
name was John.
The three young
recruits, as I recall, were “Ike”, “Pollock” and me. Well ---
we had been at sea only a couple of days when John [MM1]
called his three new knuckleheads to perform a much-needed
service. He instructed us “I want you 3 knuckleheads to take
this Emergency gasoline powered smoke removal machine (I know
it had a better name, but I can’t recall it) … back to my
point …. “I want you three knuckleheads to tote this machine
topside, back to the fan-tail and down the foremost hatch and
secure it in the storage room below, and if it should fall
overboard --- don’t sweat it.”
The three of us
strained and pulled the heavy machine up the seemingly
never-ending ladder to fresh air and then down the side of the
ship to the storage compartment as we were instructed, we
thought. When we returned to the after Engine room with a
feeling of “mission accomplished.” John greeted us with the
same endearing terms “knuckleheads did you do as I asked?”
When we assured him that it was now safely secured in the
after compartment, he wasn’t at all happy with our answer and
had us repeat his orders, with special emphasis on the part
that we didn’t comprehend …. and that was “if it should fall
overboard --- don’t sweat it.”
So … we immediately
went to the fan-tail and lugged the heavy piece of #@!&% to
the deck and threw it overboard. [Deep-Sixed it I believe was
the term]
