KIWI Department: Rx Author: joe s. Era: 1982 Date: 12/30/05 flounder, we called adrian "KIWI" because, the way he walked, he looked like the bird on a can of Kiwi shoe polish...head forward, butt stickin' out. he also coined the name for scott newsome..."weybe" as in "wey be newsome??? wey he be?"

RE02 Department: Rx Author: Flounder Era: 1985 Date: 12/31/05 Hi Joe - I remember Wey-be and Kiwi very well...Scott slept in the rack under mine, way back in the aft stbd. corner of Rx Berthing...a nub with one of the best pits? He came from the same area of NY where my mother grew up - he was proud of his nickname, got a vanity license plate that said WEY BE. Last I heard Adrian was still in and stationed at Pearl Harbor; tried to find him when I went out there on the Carl Vinson in '86. (P.S. Any of you guys who are history nuts like me should put P.H. on your short list of places to visit. I got lucky and wound up working on ships in Hawai'i for 11 years.) He was the RE02 WCS when I first went to RE; he'd drag us out of our pits early in the morning for a fun round of field daying the 4th deck. Speaking of which Joe, do you remember "Gumbium" and "Pokium"? Have you heard from Chilly in the last few years? Think he and Ruth left the Great White Northwest for greener pastures.

Chilly Department: Rx Author: Brian Teifer Era: 2005 Date: 12/31/05 Childers was on the California in 93-94, I left the ship before he did. I haven't seen or heard about his whereabouts since then. Gabe Verespej lives here in Michigan and works at Fermi 2 as an electrician as does Dan Craine (Ex Ike ELT)

Happy New Year! Department: Rx Author: Charlie Era: 1984 Date: 01/01/06 About this time 22 years ago, I was puking my guts out behind the Shillelagh Inn after a night of too much wine, women, and song, or at least too much cheap champagne on top of lots of beer and food and Billy the DJ's reportoire of disco music. This year, I feel like puking my guts out after eating too much while feeding nuclear generated electricity to the grid. How times have changed! Happy New Year, everyone!

How times have changed... Department: Rx Author: Flounder Era: 1985 Date: 01/01/06 Brother Charlie, I just re-read your story from Page 7 about our adventures at the Shillelagh Inn with Nazi Bob...I distinctly remember that night, with all of you drunks telling him off...those were some fun times. Last night was a VERY drunken night for everyone here in Curaçao; even the DJs at our favorite radio station had too much to drink; I think my crew are some of the only people on the island who are awake and sober this morning. Brian, I haven't heard Gabe Verespej's name since he got out and married one of Rick Elder's relatives...good to hear he's doing well...about 11 years ago I worked with a guy in the SF Bay area who knew Chilly on board the California. He and Ruth were living in Bremerton for a while in the mid-90s; I lived in Kingston, about 30 kms north, saw them every now and then. They either moved on or got an unlisted number.

New Years on Ike Department: Engr Author: MM2 Sol the Bull Dupler Era: 1998 Date: 01/01/06 The only New Years I remember from my years on the IKE was the 1997-1998. When the bos'n rang the bell and said "1997 departing" and then "1998 arriving" I was in #2 MMR working on #40 water heater outside the decon laundry. What a way to spend New Years. Now that I think of it when we went from 1999-2000, I did not have duty, but stayed on the ship that night. With all the fear of what might happen with the whole Y2K thing I just went to sleep. I was pretty sure that nothing was going to happen, but I thought that all it would take is a blackout at midnight and all the drunk people would panic and who knew what would happen then. I thought that the confines of the ship might be one of the safest places to be.

chilly Department: Rx Author: joe s. Era: 2005 Date: 01/02/06 we get a card from chilly and ruth every year. they still live in the seattle area. ruth will be retiring from gov't. service this year, i think. he is a contractor and travels a lot for extended periods. he is currently in GA. their daughter graduated H.S. about 2 years ago.

Gumbium Department: Rx Author: Johnny V Era: 1983 Date: 01/02/06 Gumby-um was invented by Vladamir Syovatka (my nickname for him was 'first generation American'). The Navy was moving away from the zinc-chromate primer, and they told us to start using the green 2 part epoxy primer. RC div decided to repaint their 4th deck (AKA floor). They had Vlad put down the primer, which he did... but he was unaware he needed to add the catalyst to the paint so it would set. So about a week later RC div was on their hands and knees pulling up the sticky green goo all over the 4th deck with putty knives.

Gumbium pt 2 Department: Rx Author: Johnny V Era: 1983 Date: 01/02/06 Well, 4th deck still needed painting, and due to his efforts to date, Vlad was chosen as the lucky guy to repaint the 4th deck. This time he adds all the catalyst to the 5 gal bucket...and immediately goes to lunch. Well the paint dried in the bucket and everyone started cutting out fun shapes in the Gumby-um. I think a Gumby was in 2 EOS overseeing operations for almost a year.

whose bottle? Department: Engr Author: double chin Era: 1979 Date: 01/02/06 ike pulled into haifa israel may of 79. most of us who worked in the o2n2 shop went on liberty together. . anyway we decided to go tel aviv, we rented a taxi it cost 7 of us a total 100.00 dollars american money. it was a little over 100 miles to tel aviv from haifa. , we checked into the remada cont. hotel. the place was the ritz of hotels. . all 7 of us stayed in the same room, first thing we did was order room serivice, 7 cokes and a bottle of jack. they gave us a bowl of peanuts for free. we consume the goods and set out for 2 days of fun. the day we were to leave we started to check out we had to pay for are room service. it was 90 dollars, we about shit. the jack was 80 dollars a fifth the cokes were 10 bucks. we wernt goin to give 80 bucks for jack, so we went to the american embassy bought a fifth for 5 bucks and headed back to the hotel. we called for the manager told him we didnt drink the jack and gave him ours. he took it left came back with 2 bottles. thers and ours. he smiled his bottle was 2 inchs shorter than ours. we didnt have to pay for jack. we hauled ass and got out of there. do you remember that one greg p.?