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Sea Stories
From Douglas D. Shurtleff
7/19/05
More middle of nowhere story
and events prior.
OK Paul, you started it. Here's my middle
of nowhere story and events
prior. Do you remember Gene Tessier ?? he got seasick stepping
off the
gangway onto the ship in Long Beach harbor. They took him off
at Hawaii
and flew him back to the states, he was seasick all the way and
it wasn't
even rough.
After getting in touch with Paul and
submitting my bio, Paul informs me
that we were on the same ship going to Taiwan. I didn't even
know he 
was with 7thComm. I worked with classified material at BnHq and
my job aboard ship as a young LCpl was to guard the Crypto vans
in the holds. I was never sure of what or whom I protecting them
from. Being a young and enterprising LCpl locked in the very
warm hold, at the bottom of the ship, it was very easy to doze
off. Would put a pop can on the wheel that opened the hatch so
if anyone tried to enter the pop can would fall on the deck and
wake me up. I think someone must have figured out that I was
getting way too much sleep and I was sent up to the top of the
bridge, where all the antenna's are located. Got to stand guard
in the passage way outside of the comm center. One day standing
guard the seas got rather rough and I remained on my post in
a at-ease position with a bucket locked tightly  between
my feet. There was a port hole directly across from my eyes,
and all I remember seeing was the grayish blue sky and then the
blue water with white caps, can't even recall seeing the horizen,
if it was even there. Only time I was ever seasick.
Now, on to Paul's bar in the middle
of nowhere. I remember the place
well. Our fireteam was doing perimeter security and had heard
about the
place. After being relieved and woofing down our C-rat dinner,
we
hoofed down to have a drink. A quaint place it was, with a ditch
running
down the street just outside the door. After downing some of
the worst
tasting stuff I had ever drank, we were ready to leave. As we
walked
out the door, one of the Marines I was with stepped into the
ditch and
proceeded to break his leg. I'm almost positive he wasn't drunk,
maybe
blind but not drunk, probably just want to get off the island.
We got
him back to the CP area, where he was evacuated to Taipei, on
to
Okinawa then back to the states.
Semper Fi, Doug Shurtleff
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