The following is submitted as another "Sea Story" for our website. This tale is based on our XO, Bob Hyde's memory of the event.

"The Great Playmate Caper"

Spinax was in San Francisco for a weekend to provide electric rabbit services for some reserve destroyers out of Alameda. Captain Davis, XO Bob Hyde and several others from Spinax attended a Friday night pre-exercise briefing. Spinax was to be underway on Saturday and back in port on Sunday. After the meeting, Captain Davis suggested to one of the destroyer skippers that it might be good for the morale of his reservists if they could meet and talk with the future Playmate of the month for March 1965. The Captain casually mentioned that she would be visiting Spinax across the bay on Sunday to do publicity for the Submarine Force. If he was interested, we would try to arrange a visit to his destroyer and would have her driver take her to where his ship was berthed. The offer was gladly accepted and the ship's berth location provided.

Captain Davis contacted a longtime friend who was in the area because her Navy husband was attending a school in Vallejo. She was a beautiful blond with a great sense of humor. After hearing about the caper, she was very willing to go along with the gag. (She later participated in another Spinax spoof, the subject of a future sea story.) Lt. Bob Bennett 'volunteered' to be her personal photographer and would be the one taking pictures of Miss March with the destroyer's reservists.

On Sunday after we returned to port, a limo containing the Captain, XO, a suitably dressed and dolled up Miss March and her 'photographer' showed up at the destroyer. There were many photos taken (with an empty camera, of course) with the reservists. The destroyer folks really enjoyed meeting a real live Playmate and having their pictures taken with her. It was sort of implied that some of these great shots might show up in the March issue as part of the centerfold photo layout and accompanying story. No doubt the sales of Playboy in the Bay area set a record that March,but I'm sure that the disappointment was pretty high when a different Miss March was featured. I don't think we ever ran into those destroyer guys again, but if we had our cover story for our Miss March not appearing in the magazine was that a schedule change at the magazine was to blame.

Jack Hunter (Lt) <hunter5982@earthlink.net>