loose ends cont' Department: Rx Author: shroom Era: 1983 Date: 12/22/05 Nelson Acevedo (Ace) was at RTC pushing boots when an unfortunate event took a stripe and took his NEC. He was not even on site when it happened, he should have requested a court marshal and he would have cleared his name. Anyway he had a great marriage, was living large on a gator freighter being the electrical stud he never was for us… then something happened and now he is back in PR hiding from his Ex. I figure Reactor Rod (Rodriguez) is the only authority on this. I think Jack Piercy died a few years back. I ran into KIWI a few years ago, he was denuked for some reason, but he was a reformed man living the straight and narrow. Remember when he was attacked and stabbed in Naples?

loose ends cont' Department: Rx Author: shroom Era: 1983 Date: 12/22/05 I also remember the day that Battling Bob Amonte and Rick Elder (he never had a nickname did he) shaved off their beards. Ace and I thought we would make it a special day for them and take the opportunity to be nurturing and empathetic. So we kicked open the RE Division door pointed and laughed as hard as we could at Elders newly revealed face. I believe some off color comments were made involving a comparison between his freshly shaven face and a diaper rash covered butt. Anyway, we felt recharged and invigorated and knew it was time to counsel MMCM Amonte on this topic. Evidently we were not the first that day to give a sympathetic word or two... Anyway we kicked the RM door open pointed our fingers and laughed… until Bob simultaneously picked us both up by our throats. I was amazed how fast a day can go from pretty damn good to complete crap. I will remember that day, and that lesson, forever (always have an escape planned when you poke the gorilla)

THIS SITE Department: Air Author: ABH1 Era: 2001 Date: 12/23/05 I enjoy this site. I have often wondered why more IKE people haven't contributed to it. Then thought if they had would it lose its flavor of time past and meant for the Noodle Gang. I enjoy how we all have the same pictures, in front of the collisum, a drunken shipmate, the steel beach parties, all a common bond and part a of a special time. I can't say I didn't have a great time on the IKE because I did. I remember sitting at the 1829 Hotel in St. Thomas watching a water spout head toward the IKE. The cattle ferry in Corfu where they crammed 2000 of us for liberty call, which was fine if your sober but sure sucked comming back, people throwing up. Wathing in horror as a buddy cusses the Div O out because of alcohol and then laughing so hard about it later. Yes we all can say been there,done that, and the Noodles Gang just refreshes it all and makes us smile. Happy Holidays.

Let's hear from ALL of you guys Department: Rx Author: Flounder Era: 2005 Date: 12/23/05 ABH1, I can't speak for Pete, but I'm sure he would agree with me when I say we'd really like to hear other departments' sea stories too. Dr. John, "Bull" Dupler, and a whole host of others from departments other than Rx, including yourself, were telling us some great stories in the earlier pages. Please keep it up! Ex-Rx. Dept. guys tend to monopolize this board probably because Pete has kept in contact with most of the Noodles over the years. We all know the Noodles', and all of Rx Dept.'s, sea stories because most of us were there when they happened. It's good to know that there were other guys who were friggin' nuts all over that ship too. (And it's not too different in the merchant fleet...)

Adrian"s Attack Department: Rx Author: Brian T Era: 1984 Date: 12/23/05 I remember very well the Day Adrian got attacked in Naples. A bunch of us were in the Number One Piano bar and as usual we were pretty smashed to say the least. It got near liberty expiration and we started to get up to leave. Adrian was adamant about staying, even to the point of being ready to go to blows. We reminded him about the buddy policy and every other logical reason he should come with us to no avail. Finally it was either leave him or get into liberty trouble ourselves so we left. I personnally regretted that decision for a long time. Adrian probably still has the scars to show for it. Anyway good to see you're still kicking around John, Still have those Magnaplanar speakers?

Hawaiian shirts Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 2005 Date: 12/24/05 Johnny V Shroom, of course you need at least one Hawaiian shirt. At the VC Summer Nuke Plant, Saturday is Hawaiian shirt day for us operators. We were forced into uniforms (sound familiar?) about 10 years ago. They let us dress down on Saturdays and holidays, so Hawaiian shirts become the uniform. Some traditions never die.

Inspection HB #2 Department: Rx Author: Schroom Era: 1983 Date: 12/24/05 Remember the time we were underway and Reactor Dept. as a department failed a personnel inspection. I cant believe a Dept with the gung-ho attitude shown here didnt excel at personal grooming and military creases. Anyway our reward for this achievement was a re-inspection in port after normal working hours. good deal! This pissed everyone off, as it was intended to do. So we are all in berthing preparing for the inspection and a plan to make the inspection special was hatched. We all put on incredible amounts of the stinkiest cologne we could find (and we had tons of it). I must say that did expedite the inspection, the entire hangar bay reeked from us. We somehow 'passed' and were allowed to go on liberty. For those still on IKE give it a try! Dave was a great friend and a great steamin buddie. Is anyone still in touch?

Holidays Department: Rx Author: Bisonhead Era: 1984 Date: 12/24/05 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Dead in the water, 1980 Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1980 Date: 12/24/05 In the IO we went dead in the water off the Iranian coast. For some reason, 2 plant scrammed and Jim Squibb didn't hear the order to cross-connect plants because he was painting in the bilge and 1 plant got dragged down, too. That was the start of all those drills to test our abilities not to drag the other plant down (I purposely won't go into detail since this stuff probably is still classified, but I'm sure the Nukes remember). It was really not a good spot to be in with all the stuff going on in Iran, but we quickly recovered and we went back to our moving around in circles again. By the way, 2 days ago was our 25th anniversary of our return from that hellish cruise.

The Gibberish Language Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1983 Date: 12/24/05 Brother Cal got in this habit of speaking gibberish in foreign ports. This was the time he also had that long goatee that he would roll up in his mouth sometimes when he spoke gibberish. It started in Naples, at Boston Blackies, I think. Cal was sitting at the bar and holding his cigarette like some damned Frenchman. I asked what was he doing, and he started waving his arms and speaking gibberish at me. Pete and Wags came over and Cal just kept on ranting in gibberish at us. We thought maybe Cal had eaten one too many morning glory seeds and was hallucinating. It turned out he was trying to "act European" so the locals wouldn't think he was "just another douchebag American sailor". Only Cal could come up with something that off the wall!