& some crew names & comments
From: J.D.K. Chipps jdkc@woptura.com
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 12:04 PM
To: James R. Santos, M.Sc.
Subject: Re: Diodon Shipmates
Happy New Year Jim and family!
Got another name for the photos.
The IC with Leroy Brown in COC and Paul Kirchbaum in the AB is Harold Allister. Couple of corrections, the lookout on the bridge is Jacobson not Jacobs, and Dubuque, coming up the AB hatch is an EN, not a TM.
It would proably be OK to put the IC rates in with the EM's, on the left, because we were all the Electrical Gang. There was Main Power, Aux Power, and IC, but there were IC in Main Power, and Aux Power, and there were EM's in the IC Gang. All very mixed up, but all a big happy family, under EMC(SS) Courtney and Kropp. Robert Maxwell was the Engineering Officer.
Also have another story, since I'm pretty sure the statutes of limitations have already run out.
After an all night battery charge in the nest in San Diego, alongside the USS Nereus. Myself, the aux electrician, and Dubuque the EN were all topside getting some fresh air.
It was almost sunrise, and starting to get light out.
Outboard of us was the USS Remora. I don't know who got the bright idea, (it might even have been me), but we decided to steal the buddha from the Remora.
Our topside watch, lured their topside watch back aft with the pretense of tightening up #4 line, while Frenchy (Dubuque) and I went over to the Remora, armed only with a 6" crescent wrench, and proceeded to unscrew the buddha and leapt back onboard with our prize.
Well, everything hit the fan the next day when they noticed their buddha missing and after two or three days, we had to give it back.
The Remora retaliated with a couple of light bulb hand grenades, (lightbulbs drilled, and filled with paint) upside our sail, and thousands of insults hurled back and forth about each others parentage, and so forth.
The final blow, that brought it all to an end, with threats of severe punishment if it didn't stop was when me and two of my accomplices posed as sheet metal workers from the tender with a work order to replace the CO's bunk with one of the new coffin type bunks that were coming out.
We presented the forged paperwork to the OOD on the Remora, then proceeded to remove the skippers bunk, with the pretense of replacing it with the new bunk.
The CO didn't return until Monday, just before the Remora was getting underway, minus his bunk, which I understand, he slept in the OOD's bunk, and the OOD slept in his stateroom, where his bunk used to be.
Anyway, when the Remora came back into port, both crews were topside after quarters and were told to stand fast, while the two CO's took turns chewing us all out, and promised bodily harm if there were any more "escapades".
So that was the end of our buddha adventure.