A Trashy Tale

Glenn L. Duncan

During one of my Spinax mess cooking tours, while traveling in the Mediterranean there was a stainless steel garbage can that had a leak. The other mess cook and I tried all methods to seal the can to no avail. Now this was a mess as each time we passed it to the conning tower and bridge you got covered with garbage juice and the mess deck was always a major clean up each night after the crew walked through the mess all day. One night we decided enough was enough. After the evening meal we went topside with the cans and found the boat was passing through the straights of Messina, between Sicily and Italy. You could see lights onshore on both sides. Jack elected to be the culprit and dropped down to the main deck. I handed the cans to jack and when the leaker was lowered I said be careful to Jack. As he dumped the can over the side, Jack intentionally, lost his grip on the can handle and over the side it went with the garbage. I was laughing when I looked up and the OOD, the Commissary Officer, was standing alongside me watching the evolution. The first thing that came to my mind was " Mr. Carr we accidentally lost one of the cans over the side". His response was " Looked more like an intentional accident to me".

Glenn L. Duncan

#2

I can remember. During the Pat. Henry first patrol the feed pump operator seeing a pair of Boomer Pajamas coming down the hatch thought it was SMMC Zeke Zeller and goosed him. It was the Captain making one of his many tours through the boat. Now, in the present Political Correct environment sailors must live in he would probably be in Portsmouth for a few years. Glenn