U.S.S.
Wright
Number One “Deep Sink”
By Karl C. Priest
Part of Navy life for a lowly
unskilled
enlisted man on a ship involved duty of extremely long hours and hard work on the Deck Force
(the real sailors)
or the Mess Deck (the chow hall of a ship). As soon as I came aboard
the USS Wright
I was assigned to the latter. To multiply the misery, the ship was
involved in a Navy worldwide competition for the best mess (food service). Shortly after starting as a mess cook I got into a fight and was “sentenced” to the galley deep sink. Some would say that was worse than the brig.
Imagine, scrubbing pots and pans for a crew of over 1000 guys!
There I stayed for 76 days and qualified as the best “Deep Sink” in the U. S. Navy because we won the coveted Ney Award for the best large mess afloat category.
References:
USS Wright (history)
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=63
and
“Award Winning Ships and Stations”. All Hands. November 1968. 18-21
http://www.navy.mil/media/allhands/acrobat/ah196811.pdf
During that time, I wrote a letter to the captain asking him to get me a Postal Clerk A school. To the consternation of my petty officers, I got called to Officer County and was interviewed by the XO. I got to go to the school!
I did some other things while connected with the Navy. Someday I will write about the
adventures of a Mess Cook and other shipboard activities.
Some examples:
Seeking Shelter in a Hiding Place.
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After Mess Cook Duty I was assigned to the ship’s laundry. Although not nearly as bad as Mess Cook duty, it was hard work. I was on the night shift and was forced to work some days (after working all night) because of Stores on the Pier. Eventually, I figured out a way to avoid doing “stores on the pier” work. I had been sent to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital to have some dental work. When I returned to my ship, my appointment sheet was not taken back by the personnel office. I kept it in my locker. Whenever the announcement STORES ON THE PIER sounded, I quickly wrote in an appointment for that morning and used it to leave the ship. I hung out in a local Locker Club until it was safe to go back. Locker Clubs were businesses near the naval base that sold memberships. A membership allowed sailors to store civilian clothes in a clocker (Civvies were not allowed aboard ship.), use a sauna, swim in a pool and just hang out.
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One day I entered the laundry area and noticed that all of the liberty cards were on a shelf. I took and destroyed all of them except for mine and my friend’s. It did not hurt anyone except for a petty officer who had to get them replaced. In order to leave the ship, we had to wait on Liberty Call in the afternoon. My friend and I would leave early by putting our uniform shirts and white hats into a bag that looked like it was trash. We had t-shirts and wore mess cook paper hats which made us appear to be mess cooks. Behind the dumpster, we put on our white hats and uniform shirts and left the base using the liberty cards.
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One place for R & R was a locker club just outside one of the base gates. Sailors were not allowed to have civies aboard ship so, for a fee, we had a private locker and access to pool tables, a television, a pool and a sauna. One day I left the sauna and jumped into the pool. No one else was there. The sudden temperature change almost made me pass out. It was scary.
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While I was serving as a Mess Cook the hours were 0430 to 2200 (10:00 PM). Often, we rolled out at 0330 and worked until 2400 (midnight). An opportunity came up for me to take an advancement in rate (pay grade & becoming a “striker” (qualified for a classification-in my case, Postal Clerk). I needed to study the manual for Postal Clerk, so I would go to the empty mess decks, after taps, and walk around (in order to stay wake) reading the manual out loud. Praise God, I passed and was put on the list to make E-4 (Petty Officer 3 rd Class). That list was prioritized, I do not recall how and I was fairly far down the list. See above about my letter to the Captain!
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When I took the test, someone at my table stole one of the tests. I had used my “Stores on the Pier” trick (see above) to get of the ship a day early to go on a 72-hour pass. I was resting in my rack waiting on a time to leave. A MAA (Master at Arms (sort of a ship’s sheriff) came in and firmly told me that I had to come with him. He would not say why. I assumed my “Stores on the Pier” trick had been discovered. The MAA, and his assistant, marched me to a personnel compartment where I was told to sit at a table. After about 15 minutes I was called into an office and the door was closed. A Naval Investigative Service (NIS) guy introduced himself. He was friendly and explained about the test. He said that someone (who was at the table) had informed him who had stolen the test and he had to bring everyone in so no one would know who the informant was. WHEW and Praise the Lord.
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