Deep sea fishing, Noodle style Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1981 Date: 03/02/05 In May, 81 someone decided to get a deep sea fishing trip together. I think one of the married guys got the ball rolling, Don Vaughn, I think. Well, the Noodles and friends all bought tickets, too. We also bought tickets to the Grateful Dead concert the night before the trip. We spent all day celebrating the concert and were pretty well lit when the concert started. The Dead played one of their 4 hour shows, which was truly awesome! After getting back to Shady Acres, we had about an hour to sleep before the fishing trip. We managed to get ourselves and a huge tub of beer to the boat in time. There were gale warnings posted, so we didn't leave sight of land. It didn't matter. After passing around a bottle of Jack Daniel's and sampling a large portion of the beer, we were all puking and didn't give a crap about fishing anymore. Someone's wife tried to give me Dramamine, but all I could do was puke. A few fish were caught that day, but none by the Noodles. I slept 13 hours after the trip.

The Concert in the Woods Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1982 Date: 03/02/05 In the fall of 82, there was a huge outdoor concert in Surry, Va. Greg Allman was the main act, and a whole bunch of local bands were playing on these 2 flatbed trailers all day long. As might be expected, mass quantities of beer and Jack Daniel's were consumed, so we were pretty wasted when Greg Allman took the stage. Greg and the band were playing one of those long jams when some idiot hit Greg in the head with a baseball. End of concert. We went back to our campsite and finished off our booze and crashed. About dawn, the cops started driving around yelling over their bullhorns for everyone to pack up and leave. Sadly and hung over, we complied. We stopped at a McDonald's on the way back, but before we got inside, Wags puked all over the sidewalk in front of some old people. We decided the drive-thru was a better option and beat a hasty retreat back to Va Beach, where I spent the day lying on the beach with a pit scooped out from under my stomach so I wouldn't puke from the pressure.

Tom A to the rescue Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1982 Date: 03/03/05 On one of those 3 weekend pay periods we ran out of beer and money. We had a garage at our south Va Beach house that we used to toss empty beer cans in. We had a pretty good amount, so Cal and I filled up his El Camino with cans and headed to the Golden Goat to cash them in. We were steadily feeding the goat and didn't notice it had quit spitting out coins. After depositing a truckload of cans, we had less than $2 in change. We could only get a sixpack of Blue Ribbon, so we took it back and really caught hell from Wags and Pete. Suddenly, out of nowhere comes Tom A with a case of Budweiser! His timing was incredible.

Miscellaneous Department: Supply Author: Mike Mancuso Era: 1976 Date: 03/03/05 Wasn't Clexton Ike's first XO? I was PreCom, and I remember the CO was Capt. Ramsey, but I can never remember the XO's name even though I played tennis with him once. Yes, PreCom was rough duty as someone else noted. Navy leased apts and townhomes, transportation to and from 'work'. It was rough. I was in some Navy apts in Newport News, and during my year in that place I had a asshole Marine's wife, some Ft. Eustis Army puke's wife, and a shipyard worker's wife. Not saying right to do, but I sure didn't have to do any arm-twisting. Arnold Palmer came aboard one time. They even gave him a ride in a Tomcat. That was what prompted me to ask for a ride. (See my earlier story.) I just happened to be on the bridge for a Capts Mast for someone I put on report. (No, I was not generally an asshole, but this guy was all the time, and this was the first and only time I ever did that.) hey brought Arnie to the bridge during the mast. I thought that was most inappropriate!

More Miscellaneous Department: Supply Author: Mike Mancuso Era: 1977 Date: 03/03/05 Another time Jimmy Carter came on while we were at sea. Was sure different to hear "United States, arriving." Man did they put on a cool air show for the President! Lots of bombs and missles, fly-bys, etc. I got out before the first Med cruise, during it's first trip to Portsmouth shipyard. Prior to that we had been going out for 4-6 week training trips. Cuba for readiness training, and to bomb PR. I remember that St. Thomas was suffering from a pretty severe draught and we were going to hit there for liberty, so we went on water hours so that we could give them a hundred thousand gallons of fresh water, or something like that. When we finally hit port, they (St. Thomas) suddenly discovered that we were a nuclear ship, and they wouldn't take our water! Talk about pissed!

And More Miscellaneous Department: Supply Author: Mike Mancuso Era: 1977 Date: 03/03/05 I can't even imagine women serving on Ike at sea as they do now! As one said in another story, enlistment rates would have went sky-high provided assignment to Ike could have been gauranteed! It was a lot of fun when Adm Rickover came aboard. For those who don't know, he was God as far as all nuke ships are concerned. He was always in a pissed off mood because he wanted to retire and the Navy wouldn't let him, so he said OK, Fine. He would treat the ship's officers like shit, order things he didn't need but God help someone if they weren't ready when he came aboard. It was so funny to see a full commander try to push himself invisible into a bulkhead because Rickover was coming down the passgeway. And it seemed that the mere sight of him would just about make ensigns piss their kakis. Loved it!

IKE's Air Show Department: Rx Author: Peter Era: 1983 Date: 03/03/05 On one of our Med cruises (maybe '83) we took abunch of NATO muckety-mucks aboard for a demonstration. These were Generals, Admirals, etc. from various NATO countries. We had a bunch of chairs for them on the flight deck for them to watch an air show. The air show consisted of fly-by's of IKE's air wing, showing the variable geometry wing of the F-14's, and bombing runs. One cool bombing run was an A6 flying low and then starting an almost vertical climb before releasing his bomb. What this did was "loft" the bomb instead of merely dropping it. So while the bomb was continuing it's upwards trajectory, the pilot had plenty of time to get out of there in a hurry. This technique was to be used when dropping a "Special" type of bomb where it was imperative to put as much distance as possible between you and the explosion. It was quite impressive. We also had a fly-over of the Italian airforce - 4 fighter jets in etchelon formation. Their demonstration of synchronized aeronautics was for all 4 planes to simultaneously turn on their landing lights! ... whoopee! way to go Italy!!!!

IKE's Adult Book Store Department: Rx Author: Peter Era: 1982 Date: 03/03/05 When I first reported to IKE in '79, I was delighted to see the ship's store functioning primarily as an Adult Book store... loads of pornography catering to just about every perversion. - I would have loved to look at their audit to see what percent of revenue derived from pornography... Sadly, all that came to an end when Clexton became C.O. One of his first acts was to expunge these unwholsome books from the ships store. (Clexton being one of your basic born again types..) Still, after every port visit to Naples, our berthing lounge would be littered with Italian porno mags. When IKE returned from the MED, we always had to fill out customs forms of items we'd purchased that cruise. - The only items I ever declared were my Italian pornography magazines...

Contraband Department: Rx Author: Peter Era: 1982 Date: 03/03/05 Returning back from liberty was always an adventure - trying to keep the MAA from finding our contraband. The contraband was usually just porn, switchblades, or alcohol... However once in Italy, I saw a guy try to smuggle aboard a puppy. The MAA would search every 6th sailor. I remember one person (maybe Wags?) was trying to bring a switchblade on board. The MAA waved him over to the area to be searched - so he knew he was busted... Instead he rushed to the side of the ship, feigning nausea... while pretending to throw up over the side, he tossed his switchblade! I always thought that a foolproof way to preempt a search would be to crap all over oneself... no MAA would want to even pat you down.

Political Correct...Not Department: Rx Author: Mike Greaney Era: 1988 Date: 03/07/05 During the Med Cruise of 1988 we were heading towards Antalya, Turkey. The powers that be decided it would be good to show the movie "Midnight Express" so that the blue-shirt scumbags would be scared to death of the Turkish Prison System. However, someone forgot to tell the CO and XO who had brought onboard some Turkish dignitaries. So to make a long story short about 3/4's of the way through the movie the screen goes blank for about 10 minutes and a Carol Burnett rerun comes on. OOPS. Hey Mike, I reported to IKE in the blazing hot Summer of 1986 whilst the PIG was in the yards. I left just before the Feb. 90 trip to Fort Laurderdale.