The women were middle aged, near retirement, but they couldn’t help themselves. When they came upon a Navy recruiting office, they went in and immediately began crying. They tried to get a few words out to indicate why they were there. The upright military bearing of the young recruits in the office suddenly turned to sideways glances and heavy sighs.
“We’re sorry to be reacting like this,” Mrs. Lu was finally able to say through her tears. “My son is in the Navy on the Westpac tour, and I miss him so much”, she continued, “Those uniforms really set me off… I just love the Navy.”
Her friend, Mariannna, wasn’t much better, but at least she was able to hold her tongue, “My father was in the Navy too,” she sniffed and wiped away a tear with a lace handkerchief she pulled from the bodice of her blouse. “He worked on a submarine as a chef for the captain.” It was well known that submarines had the best food, so he must have been a really great cook.
By this time all the young recruits were clamouring around trying to assuage the women’s angst. “Can I offer you a chair?” one young blond said. “A drink of water?”
“Oh no, thank you, we’re just here to pick up a few fliers for our classrooms and a couple of bumper stickers. We’ll be out of your hair in no time.” The recruits scurried around putting together a large stack of paper handouts and bumper stickers, which said, “I am a proud Navy parent!” and another “Go Navy!” and another “My son is a Sailor!”
The women took a trip into San Francisco to tour one of the ships that had docked there for Fleet Week. Lots of sailors out of uniform and dressed in their civvies were out and about looking for fun. Baghdad by the Bay was hopping! Five thousand desperate men out on the hunt. It was like a small town had landed and invaded all the bars, night clubs, and massage parlors.
The chaplain of the ship caught up with the ladies early on and gave them a first hand tour of areas where they might not have had access otherwise. They saw a barracks section where the men slept stacked three bunks high. Each man had but a small locker and foot locker in which to keep all of their uniforms, civvies, and keepsakes from home. The women also got a tour of an officer’s room which was like a janitor’s closet. Nothing fancy about it, but it was better than what the scrubs got.
A full sized ship has multiple stories. Going up and down the ladders was challenging, but most impressive was a large escalator in the middle of the ship that carried the people up and down just like a department store.
They saw the bowels of the ship where the planes were kept like in a garage. The planes were lifted up onto the deck for take off by elevators. This area was immaculate with polished floors… not even one speck of dust on the “Chippy Ho” which was the name of one of the fighter planes. They also toured the tarmac on deck where an assortment of jets and helicopters were on display.
The most impressive or least impressive thing, depending on how you looked at it, was the war room which had a huge table on which the captain’s team could play a game of real life “Risk” or “Battleship” by assembling actual model ships like a board game. It looked like something carried over from the 1600’s or maybe even Ptolemy’s Egypt, but certainly NOT the modern age of computers and skyping.
The sailors with duty looked like they had had a rough night. Most probably they had gone out the night before and partied a little too hard on shore.
“Rough night, huh? It’s alright, you’re young, and you can take it,” Mrs. Lu smiled remembering her own youthful antics as she gently teased one particularly sour young man. He managed a smile as they exchanged pleasantries. There was no doubt in her mind that his hangover would be going out again that night.
“Go Navy!” Mrs. Lu thought to herself. If she had been a younger woman with no attachments….
(First published 8/27/12)
