Each time I read of the folks who became Shellbacks with the Garbage
chute, the Royal baby with #90 gun grease on the ROYAL Diet Rite belly, the raw knees from crawling on ole Mac's FURRY OX Deck, I just wish I had ole Bill Clinton with me...when he told us ORAL sex was not
really sex............Gosh could we have some fun. Saw a note here not tooo many days ago about them OLE Powder PUFFERS, congrats, it was the highlite of the last day at work after many a year......

P.S. could you think of jumpin' ole Hillary's bones, not even in the
gator pond in OLE LOVE TOWN YOLONGAPOLE......yuk!!!!

tom mills/QM2 66>>>>>>>>69^

I was on that 1979 South Pac Cruise. The nite before the crossing, the Jolly Roger was found by some of us wogs. The following morning I hid in a rack triced up in deck force compartment. I was sleeping until a couple of knuckleheads found me. I broke loose and ran up to the 01 level and hid in the Captains Gig. They found me again. I tried to glimb down the monkey rope to the main deck. I was brought in slowley...right...jerked in by BM1 Tommy Shaw, the grossest man in the Navy (written with much respect), and a couple of friggin huge BT's. It was allover then. Next thing I know I'm on the mess decks eating cold beans and cold spagetthi...crawling through that garbage shoot right after having my face rubbed in that fat S.O.B. OS Chiefs gut...and then being hose down on the forcastle/bow, while wearing my underwear outside my already inside out and backwards dungarees. Hey it doesn't get any better than that!

Who else remembers that day or the day before during the division beauty pagent. Some of those beauties were down right ugly!

Hey Bill, remember that 1979 equator crossing very well. That SOB OSC you were referring to was OSC Hamm. I still have a visual of my face being grabbed by him and having it slammed into that big, old greased up gut of his. Also remember BM1 Shaw, and you're right he was a pretty gross individual. Remember all those ugly beauty contest participants, and there were some pretty ugly ones. Like your 1st Div.
entrant, BM3 Tucker and how about RMSN Roush? I also recall the day before crossing, that a bunch of us Wogs grabbed the Engineering Maintenance Officer CWO2 Krauss. Tied him down on the fantail and covered him in molasses and dumped the feathers from a pillow all over
him. Still have pictures here at home of that. Boy, brings back alot of great memories of the ship and the great bunch of guys we had for a
crew. Keep the stories coming!

Mike Gray
HT3 U.S.S. Cochrane 1977-1979

Yes I still remember the tar & feathering of Mr. Krouss, I remeember him well because he was such a happy go lucky sort of a guy. As for old dog Shaw he hated me with a passion, I happened to be one of the lucky snipes that helped decorate bos'n mate compartment sleeping in the very front, in the first racks what a ride some times. I was very fortunate to have not had to do the mess cook duty for the longest time & I remember when dog Shaw took over the mess cook duties. I remember he wouldn't let me have any chow one evening because my clothes were filthy, but I knew if I put my dirties in 1st class laundry I would have no clothes. But he did have some sent down to me while I was on watch. Then just a few days later I was informed that everybody in main control had done mess duty twice and therefore it was my turn with out a doubt. I remember I almost started crying I saaidd "can't happen, that dog Shaw will eat me up and spit the pieces over the side" but it fell upon deaf ears< so their I went and reported to the old dog. He laughed at first and said to me "I think I'm gonna like this job after all" and believe you me I was scared. He gave me all the worst jobs right off the bat and my mind was made up, weren't no dog gonna get the best of me. I worked as hard as I knew how and the more he would throw at me the cleaner I would make it. I guess it to be about three weeks later we were in a meeting he had called muccch to my amazement he says "I don't care what any of you say so don't complain because I am putting Russell in charge of the mess decks" and the funny thing is is that I was the only one complaining and he told me to shut the hell up and do my job. About two weeks later when The XO inspected the mess decks he told Shaw he had never seen them looking this good before. So ole dog went up in the XO's office later on and said he wanted me sailor of the month but that wasn,t going to happen because I seem to have a bad reputation for getting myself into trouble. But he did get me mess cook of the week, and that meant a lot to me comming from Tommy Shaw. I still think of him often and have nothing but the utmost respect for him because he had faith in a smart mouthed dunb kid when it seems like nobody else did. He really wanted me to become a bos'n mate but I knew I was transfering soon and never even tried. I could kick myself now cause I probably would have put in twenty if I would have. I recall the day I departed the ship I went to great lengths to avoid Tom but as I was walking down the pier Mr. Krouss was putting a red E on the stack and Tom Shaw stepped out of the hatch and told me to have a good life Fireman Seaman which ever one you are. GOD BLESS YOU TOM SHAW for you are a legand in my eyes where ever you may be. GOOD NIGHT ALL. RUSSELL SEAMAN '78-'80 THE FASTEST DDG IN THE WEST

BM3 Ralph Tucker, he was wearing the wig for Division Queen I used sometimes while bartending or bouncing off base at some of the clubs in Waikiki, I wore it so that sailors that I bounced from bars didn't recognize me on base and want to kick my ass, now that they were sober.

Ralph was one of the funniest people I have ever known. He could speak any language in any port we were in...right...a great mimic though. I busted a gut many times listening to him. I remember in Samoa, he met this girl? it was a guy, but he was too drunk to know. He was walking down the port side with the Shim or He She...and I called him over and told him...he about died. But he walked "it" to the pier and said good night.

Russell, I remember your first day on board...Buddy Waggoner...what an influence he was in your first 60 days onboard. I gotta admit over the years that had to be the worst string of luck any new sailor coming on board could ever have had. But it sounds like you harbor no resentments.

What ever happend to Buddy Waggoner...I'm thinking either state penn or dead. Knowing Buddy though, he probably found GOD and is a preacher. Wouldn't that be something. I never got as buzzed at sea as I did with Buddy. Every morning on the fantail...smokin a fatty. That guy would be buzzed on the helm, lookout, sleeping, where ever, whenever. He was a character and I wish him well.

Damn Bill, you mentioned a name that I had almost forgotten about. I
remember Buddy Waggoner quite well. The first time that I went to mast
onboard was with him. It was when he was mess cooking and was the
"Jack of the Dust". With him being the "Jack of the Dust", he had all
the keys to the reefers. Well, he had duty one night and a few of us
decided to go up to the Reefer Decks and go into the reefer to catch a
buzz. If I recall correctly, there were like 4 or 5 of us in there passing a joint around. We had all the dogs dogged down on the reefer
door. The next thing we knew the dogs started to open up, one by one.
Here we were dumping weed down the deck drain and closing down the dogs as fast as they were opening. Well, FTM1 Marchand was duty MAA
that night and I guess he had seen us heading up forward. When we finally allowed the door to open, there he stood. And out rolled all
this smoke from the reefer. Funny now that I look back on it, wasn't at the time though. I was scared as hell! When we went to mast, the
charges ended up getting dropped because there was no evidence! Remember I said earlier that we dumped the pot down the deck drain. The second time that I went to mast onboard, I wasn't so lucky. But that's another story. And like you, I also remember smoking a few with
good, old Buddy back on the fantail while he was on aft lookout watch.
Along with a whole lot of others, probably you included!

Mike Gray
HT3 U.S.S.Cochrane 1977-1979