Mikey and the dance competition Department: Rx Author: Gary Era: 1984 Date: 06/02/05 We had lots of fun on Caribbean cruises. Once while we were drinking rum in Antigua one of the local cocktail waitresses grabbed Mikey by the hand and pulled him up on stage. After awhile with all the music and the alcohol kicking in, Mikey started to really get into the whole dance thing and allowed the woman to start disrobing him. He took center stage for what turned out to be a rather X-rated island extravaganza. He was always doing crazy things, like shooting a hole through the front door of our condo in Va. Beach accidentally, but that’s a different story.

Modern Singapore Department: Rx Author: Tim Palange Era: 2001 Date: 06/03/05 Hi Guys - Modern S'pore is a lot different from what it used to be...I spent about 5 months there in 2001-'02 while my present ship was being built and during the sea trials. Bugis St. is just a big shopping area now, gone are the hookers and transvestites, they just moved a few blocks west to Little India...Beer and drinks are even more expensive than they used to be. One of our suppliers kept us well stocked with Tiger beer. Every night at 7 pm the Captain would always preside over dispensing a couple of beers to everyone. The hawker stalls are still the best and cheapest places to eat.

Med Cruise -- Palma Department: Rx Author: Mike Era: 1993 Date: 06/03/05 I don't know how many of you had the pleasure of visiting Palma de Majorca on a Med cruise. This place was definitely our favorite port! For those of you not familiar with it, Majorca is a huge vacation place for europeans -- lots of English, Irish, Swedish, German, etc... A few of us got a hotel room and hit the town. We partied pretty hard and then went to eat somewhere after. We got back to the hotel about 6am. I couldn't sleep, so I went down by the pool, grabbed a lounge chair and nodded off. I woke up a few hours later surrounded by gorgeous Swedish women. I thought I was in heaven when this beautiful blonde goddess grabbed the lounge chair next to mine, and promptly removed her bathing suit top. Unbelievable. We left a lot of money and a lot of brain cells on that island.

Capt. Macke Department: Rx Author: Tim Palange Era: 1984 Date: 06/03/05 I didn't know Capt./Adm. Macke was the source of that "rental car" comment!! 3 of us from RE Div. - me, Dave Blow, and another Dave (can't remember his last name) all got our ESWS pins from him. The Japanese, especially on Okinawa, are oh-so-sensitive about any untoward actions or comments by the "gaijin" (foreigners). Rich Ralston - How ya doing? Never thought you'd show up here! I remember you from your days of working in Rx Berthing!

Palma...ah, the memories... Department: Rx Author: Tim Palange Era: 1985 Date: 06/03/05 One fine night during a port call in Palma on the '85 Med, me and my old pals Tim Putnam, Mike Seidler, and Joe Scullion went on a ship-sponsored tour to the big barbecue dinner place that was way out in the pucky-brush somewhere on Mallorca. The dinner and show were good, but the wine was even better...I was serving in my usual role as event photographer, while Tim, Mike, and Joe were serving as the evening's (drunken) entertainment. We wound up breaking a couple of bottles and throwing rocks at each other outside the place, then went out on the town for a few hours afterward. The night got kind of hazy, even though I was as usual stone-cold sober; I remember chatting up some whores in a bar downtown and the guys pissing on a garden wall about 5 minutes' walk from fleet landing. A real night to remember, and I still have the pictures!

More water fights Department: Rx Author: Tim Era: 1985 Date: 06/03/05 Brother Charlie - Your story of the water fight reminded me of another one... Mike Seidler was RE01 WCS or AWCS for a while before he got out in August '85, just a few days before me. One fine day he was standing his last watch or working, when some of the guys doused him on the 4th deck of #1 RAR. He retaliated, sprinkled some drops of water on load center 42, some khaki lackey with no sense of humor saw him, and soon after he was busted to EM2 - about a week or two before he got out. Not that it affected his subsequent career - he's a senior Rx operator at D.C. Cook now.

Department: Rx Author: Tim Era: 2005 Date: 06/03/05 Damn Pete, you're quick!!!:)

CSI on IKE Department: Rx Author: peter Era: 1982 Date: 06/03/05 During ORSE preps we were puting yet another coat of paint over everything that didn't move. And I believe it was our very own Tim P. who decided to take a nap on 4th deck during all of this work. Tim was in a flexed fetal position, still grasping his paint roller when he dozed off. Instead of waking him, his fellow workers painted an outline around him and his roller (the type of outline cops paint around a body on the sidewalk in front of a tall building). Sorry if I have teh wrong victim, Tim.

Where are the watchstanders? Department: Rx Author: Mike Era: 1988 Date: 06/03/05 Some of you may remember a guy named Glenn Jackson. He was an A-1 squared away first class who did everything by the book -- no deviation. I always admired Glenn for that as you always knew where he stood on things. Anyhow, Glenn had qualified PPWS and was on watch in 2 plant. All of the mechanical watch standers had decided to play a trick on Glenn; they were all hiding on their watchstation so Glenn couldn't see them. So, here come Glenn making his tour of the plant. He starts at CGUL -- no watchstander. He heads through FCW and RAW, down to Charging Station, no watchstanders. The guy standing Feed Pumps told me that when Glenn went through there, he was livid! From what I heard, after the watchstanders revealed themselves, Glenn gave them quite an ass chewing.

sightseeing on the docks Department: Rx Author: peter Era: 1982 Date: 06/03/05 I don't know if things have changed - but in the various ports we visited, once you made it to fleet landing, you were free to prowl all over the docks - AND ANY OF THE SHIPS TIED UP. Several times, we would just walk up a ship's unguarded gangplank, and roam all over the ship. Since I was a mechanic, I always gravitated to the engineroom. When I was a reservist at Summer camp in Seattle, the Nimitz pulled in to port. - I wanted to tour the ship so two of us just grabbed some ropes lying on the pier and trotted up the gangplank - No ship's ID or anything. We stashed the ropes on a sponson and just went sight seeing. We then retrieved the ropes and walked back off the ship. When I was sober enough, I also used to wander down to the engineroom on the liberty ferries - but usually got kicked back topside very quickly when I got caught.