My first Mast was on the Cochrane just after we got back from the '72-'73 cruise. Me and an RM2 (can't remember his name) was out on the Ala Wai and I took him to Capt. Nemo's. Needless to say we (got drunk), as a result we got taken in by the HASP. (No need to elaborate what happened at the HASP HQ) At 06:30 the next day we were released to the SP and taken back to Pearl via a pick-up, in the bed. Since R.K.U. Kihune was the skipper and I was a "Houlie" mast was the only option. Ended up getting 2 wks restriction, 2 wks extra duty and 1/2 pay for 2 months. NO PROBLEM!

Hey George, welcome aboard shipmate!! Well, not to bragg (there is simply nothing about an NJP that one should go on about, except for maybe the fun that was involved which got one to that point in the first place), but notwithstanding, I bet a fellow by the name of Doty (from stories I've read on the forum), and myself have you beat, at least with regard to punishment issued by the Old Man at a Captain's NJP.

Hell, I was a graduate of the Navy's SRF Yokusuka, Japan Corrective Custody Unit while serving aboard our fine ship. Aside from a reintroduction to military discipline/bearing, some much needed physical conditioning, and some extra chow portions, upon completion of CCU, I took along with me all brand new pairs of BVD skivvies, which was required for all sailors who were sent to this abbreviated bootcamp X4. You may wonder what earned such a seemingly good guy like myself such an extreme fate such as aforementioned.

Well, I was already on sun-downers when we hit the P.I. for my third visit there back in '85 , which of course dictated that I wear my summer dress whites on any liberty during that visit and that I be back to the ship in said whites by sundown. This resulted in some unexpected ridicule from one other sailor type (FT2) who thought it was just halarious that I had to be dressed in this fashion. I put up with it at the first couple of bars that we happen to run into each other at, but this guy was very annoyingly persistent. To make a long story short he continued amuseing himself about how stupid I looked out on the beach in my whites, even to the point when he returned to the ship much later than I had to report. Anyway, this is when I lost control and I boxed his ears and his nose, we both lost rank, but since I was a subordinate I got to pack my sea-bag and head off to the College for the cool folks (CCU).

Maybe Doty would like to tell us the outcome of the big chase that went down when he was in Hawaii and which I heard about through this forum? GMG Sal

Dear George, First of all, welcome aboard, mate, and glad you could join us!For the benefit of both you and Sal, I will share a bit of a Cochrane memory, but I will delete name of the guilty party, just as Sal did. I arived on board on a friday night, so I didn't have to go to quarters till monday of course. I dont know if it stayed this way, or just a policy while "Smokey Joe" was sitting in the drivers seat of our beloved DDG, but I had to go up to quarters on the bridge with another division other than A/S for a couple of weeks.The first class I had to report to that morning is now a contributing member to this forum, and has been hailed as such a tremendous conquering hero in posts from a couple of other "Career Desigs" on here. He was playing with a length of rope when I got up to the bridge, and told him who I was and why I was there. His greeting for me was to take that piece of rope, and like a junior high school kid with a towel in the shower, cracked me right square in the nuts with it. He thought this was hysterical, and so did the couple of other "career desigs" that were standing there with him. I had been a shot puter and discus thrower in school, so I was fairly strong then, and this e-6 Im sure has no Idea how close he came to going flying out he bridge wing that morning, only by the fear of personal disgrace of being booted out of the Nav was I able to control myself, but to this day, I still remember like it just happened yesterday, the whole incident,total disdain and loathing boiling in my guts when I think of this welcome aboard to USS Cochrane- shuddering while this fellow recieves the acolades of laud he has recieved on here, and Sal, I very much understand why you poped that overbearing "shipmate" you did! Like you, I have the class not to mention his name, but I hope life has delt him several truckloads of lemmons for his fine, professional actions. The same goes for the aforementioned "Career Desigs" that also got such a laugh out of this! Sal, what kinda idiot would harass a former Golden Gloves champ that you are like that FT did?! Personally I toast you with a frosty San Miguel for this breech of military discipline! That yahoo soundly earned every punch he recieved! May all you good Cochronians have a great day!

Marc Tuton STG3,Uss Cochrane jan 74-sept 76- "The pearl of the Pacific" STG2 USS Glover, nov 76-nov79,"The Cow Killer"

I never got in too much trouble. Miracles really do happen. I had a close call though. I was on medication after heat exhaustion while doing some insulation repair in #1 boiler room. I wasn't supposed to be on watch while on medication. I was put on the roster anyway. The guy I was supposed to relieve couldn't wake me up so he pulled me out of my rack. The fight was on! We had damn near everyone in the engineering compartment awake. We were supposed to report to Mr. Keagle's stateroom that afternoon. Mr. Keagle never showed and we never heard about it again. The guy I fought with and I were still friends. He had been on medication for an absessed tooth or something and was in a bad mood too.
I had another incident that really pissed me off. I had been on mid watch and we were allowed to sleep in a half hour or something like that if we posted a mid watch sign on our rack. A certain first class shipfitter, and also a first class prick, was the duty compartment P.O. or whatever it was called. He was in charge of making sure everyone got up. He told me to get the f**k out of my rack. I pointed to the sign and told him I had mid watch. He informed me he didn't give a f**k. I got up and asked him who the f**k he though he was? King Shit? He backhanded me. I said "Mother****** I could have your ass for that". There were plenty of witnesses. I didn't dare do anything about it because I knew he had the rank and nothing would be done. I didn't dare punch him or I'd be the one in trouble. Several people wanted me to report him. He was hated by many. If he should show up at a reunion, I will invite him to try me now that he can't hide behind his rank. I may be an old fart but old farts carry a grudge too. I've carried this one for around 35 years.
He and a few like him are what makes poeple decide the navy isn't what they want for a career. They get a little rank and they get power hungery. They know they would go back to being a nobody if they were civilians, so they make a career out of the navy. This jerk and a couple others were always lazy when they were on duty. They had to make sure the compartment got swept. It didn't matter that you weren't on duty. If you were around, they made you do it anyway. I had words with a couple of them over it. I told one it was assholes like him that made the navy a chickenshit place to be and I was getting out so I didn't end up like him.
Okay, I still get riled up over jerks. I don't care what their title is. No disrespect to those of you that made a life in the navy. You have to admit though that a few made it bad for a lot of people. Most of you were some pretty good people. If you weren't, I would have no interest in this site. The jerk I despise is not a member of this site. YET!

Wes

Hi Wes, I agree with all of your observations about some guys in the Navy, but also know some of the greatest guys too (you and some others included.) The only problem I see though is 35 years of getting angry by whatever they did to us. This really does sound like the thing you see on Jerry Springer. (you made me miserable then, but look at me now) although I could see how easily that could happen.
If he ever does join the site, just let go because he might have changed too. I am not at all the same person I was then. He might even be worse, but give him a chance to do this. The had only gotten into trouble twice. The first time, I missed the last train back from Tokyo to Yakuska. I was with a couple of guys so let me know if either any of you were ones or if you were on duty when we came aboard. The jarhead MP's were waiting for us as we were getting off the train since I think they knew this happened every day. They threw us in the back of a pick=up truck built to house King Kong. It had bars on the back. As we were driving through Yakuska to the base, all of the Japanese taxi drivers were beeping their horns and giving us a hard time. When we got the the ship, all of the guys on duty laughed at us in that truck. They thought it was strange to see "Doc" Cooper coming back by the MP's. They should have been used to it by some of my predecessors.(no names, please) The other time is a time like yours. I remember a guy but I really don't remember who he was. He yanked a religious medalion my father had given me just before I reported to boot camp off my neck and threw it into the South China Sea. It wasn't really a fight because he was a big dump fool and could have probably sent me into the South China Sea looking for it in a second. We both had to go to the Captain, but all charges against me were dropped when the Captain heard what had happened. That was my only brush with the law.

I do want to say though, Wes, that there are guys like them outside the navy too. I worked for an Assistant Principas once who hit up on all the women teachers and was drunk on the job half the time. Parents began reporting him and they finally fired him. He had tried to get me fired, but I think I am a very good teacher and never gave him much to go on. He gave every man teacher in the school a very hard time because he wanted to be the only rooster in the henhouse. The guy was nuts. They finally found out about him and got rid of him. There are guys like the ones we've mentioned all over, Wes. We should just consider outselves lucky that we've not run into too many of them on the outside. I sometimes wish I had gotten out of the Navy, gotten a commission since I finished college then anyway, and gone back in as a Medical Service Officer. I think now I might have enjoyed that, but perhaps I would have run into enough pricks that I might not have enjoyed that as much as it would appear.

Hi there, Shipmates! Please allow me to extemporise here a bit.I had pretty much expected my previous story to have been deleted by Sir John, our webmaster extraordinare, and I want to thank him alot for not doing so. Thank you also very much, for sharing your not so good memories Doc Cooper, Sal, our new man, and especially Wes, as his experience sounds so much like mine. And Sir Wes put it so well, those few that so enjoy being so miserable to be around giving all the other career desigs a bad name, and make common joes such as us 1-term enlistees absolutely sure there was no way in heck we were gonna make a career of the Nav! The 2 most important things I want to get across is "Thank you Mr. Webmaster Freeman for allowing this venue to air some of our bad memories, as well as emphasizing all the good'erns!" and may this be somewhat a healing thing for us that have been wishing to retaliate against these transgressors for 25 years plus now, just kinda relate it to steping in Dog crap... Its pretty nasty at first, but ya wipe it off your shoe and keep on going.Anyway, thanks for listening, ye swabs! Maybe Ill fire up my old National Steel and make a tune out of this! )

Marc Tuton STG3,Uss Cochrane jan 74-sept 76- "The pearl of the Pacific" STG2 USS Glover, nov 76-nov79,"The Cow Killer"