US Navy Deployment, Bahrain
Once underway for 45 days without liberty, we had a steel beach and everyone onboard got two beers. The legal age for alcohol in international waters is 18; everyone on the ship gets two beers. One of the gals I served with was 17, it wasn’t widely known and even she was given two beers. A steel beach is on the helicopter deck on the 01 level, aft part of the ship. Big grills are brought out and music is played.
No one eats breakfast on these days so they can chug their two beers, praying the whole time for escape. For this steel beach, there were O-1’s (lowest ranking officers, they knew nothing and no one on the ship) tasked with recording all the sailors names who received beer. There were over 500 people on my ship and they were hand writing down each name, but only the last name. We were allowed to wear civilian clothes during the steel beach. People were changing and giving different names. Others sold their beer. I just got back in line and gave them the same name. It was a mess and I knew I wouldn’t be caught. Around the time I got in line for beer number three, one of the senior enlisted who was tasked with stopping the madness tried to challenge me and I told him I had only gotten in line once. I had gotten in line once and gotten my two beers.
A friend of mine had received maraschino cherries in ever clear through ships mail from a family member. Ship’s mail (FPO AP addresses are military mail) is like mailing things inside the USA no matter where the ship is. I mailed many boxes home, as I had no space to store anything onboard for my family. My friend gave me two cherries and it was so weird to be drunk, underway and working. Not long after, it was time to stand watch. The engineering room watch had three sections that rotated. Each watch section had three people in each engine room, with one considered the leader of the watch team. There were many other parts of the engineering watch that were managed out of CCS (Central Control Station). The Engineering watch leader stands watch in this space, in the middle of the aft part of the ship on the main deck. Senior enlisted stand this watch, usually an E-6 or higher. They lead everything related to engineering and manage all engineering spaces in port and underway. In port the position is usually named by an E-5 or E-6 and there is significantly less involved.
After the steel beach and my two cherries, I went down to watch only to find the lead watch stander in my engine room very drunk and making out with a girl in the escape hatch. Each engine room had a ladder that lead straight up, directly out of the space for safety. I don’t remember much else, the watch continued.
After Singapore we went 89 days without liberty, our first port being Bahrain. I had quit smoking during this time to get my teeth bleached and everyone during liberty kept commenting how they hadn’t seen me in forever. My berthing, engine room and the mess decks (cafeteria) were all in the same 30 feet of passageway. If I wasn’t working, I was eating or in bed. Engineers always cut in line for the galley (food). If you had watch, which most of us always did, we got to be fed first. No checked to see who was actually part of any watch section, it was a perk of been part of engineering (not worth it!).
As Main Propulsion Division, I was the last to leave the ship. We weren’t allowed to leave the watch section to wipe out the turbine enclosures; they made all of us wait for the engines to cool down to do it.
In Bahrain, anyone ranked E-7 and below had to be back to the liberty boat by midnight. I had 25 shots of liquor in about seven hours. They don’t use the term “drunk like a sailor” for nothing. I remember the whole night, at least half the shots were Malibu (that doesn’t even count). I had a senior enlisted from a Dutch ship in port buying me shots and eventually he took me to a lounge for senior enlisted and he was telling me all the things that were different about Dutch ships compared to US Navy ships. They had machines filled with beer on board for anyone at anytime! He invited me to visit his ship while we were in port but I was too chicken to go later. I didn’t think it would be acceptable to show up with a guy liberty buddy to be shown around. A few minutes before midnight, one of my E-7 found me and dragged me to the liberty boat so I wouldn’t be late.
For anyone who’s never been in a large harbor on a small boat, I highly recommend not traversing the waters wasted. About three feet from shore I was asking where to puke, they told me over the side was fine. First time I went to go over the side, I hit the rail, face first and split my lip open. I remember sitting there and was surprised at the number of engineers on that liberty boat. My friend asked me for a photo and I told him no. He threatened to take one the next time I was sick over the side so I smiled stupidly for him. I have a copy of that photo.
It took about 30 minutes to get from the pier to the boat and in that time, my Chief (E-7) started freaking out because I’m super drunk. I really didn’t care at that point until he tells me they just put my name in for junior sailor of the quarter for the entire Engineering Department. There are only three sailors nominated per quarter. I kind of still didn’t care. I was friends with the only female nurse we had onboard, Lil doc, and she reassured my chief she’d walk me onboard and get me to bed and no one would question me as she was with me.
The liberty boat docks at water level to a platform and the platform has a ladder well straight up to the ship. Everyone who comes onboard, even the Captain, has to show his or her ID and request permission to come aboard, very formally. It was the final goal. Lil doc helped me get to my berthing and asked me if I needed help into my bunk. I had a middle rack at the time (I moved bunks three times during this deployment) and they were at a very awkward height with not much to use for getting into the rack (bed). I declined and regretted it about 30 seconds after she left.
I did make it into bed without assistance and didn’t move from that position for the rest of the night. Bahrain is the only place I’ve ever gotten drunk, puked and kept drinking (another night).
I mainly stayed on base while in Bahrain. There were very strict dress codes for females to leave base and I wasn’t comfortable. The two chiefs who slept with the lower ranking female were allowed off the ship the last night in port to go do whatever they wanted in civilian clothes. I saw them. She was not given the same courtesy.
Sometime after Bahrain we had a swim day. Ever day blurred together with only the extreme things sticking out. I looked forward to swimming in the sea as the chemical used on the ship to keep the water clean was turning my hair green and messing with my skin. We had a female captain at the time; we were her first sea command. She ordered all officers to the aft deck to swim. One officer didn’t show and she called him out over the ship’s load speaker (the 1MC). Every sailor that went into the water was numbered and their name written down. The SAR (Search and Rescue) swimmers were in a boat on stand by the whole time in case anything happened. I dove off the back of the boat and was swimming away for the next person to jump in and when I turned around to the boat, it was to my right. There were four-foot swells and a current that day. We spent the whole time swimming to stay behind the boat. I was allowed to stay in longer as I was in the last group and the captain was also in the water. I remember being sore a few days later as it was not a normal activity for me.
On my birthday, the new female chief once again decided I was a problem. She determined my haircut was “fashionable” and against regulations. I had cut my hair short in the back with a long front (barely past my chin, nothing super severe) five months previously, a cut I’d had off and on since being a pre-teen. I fought against her decision with that information and I reminded them I spent sixteen to eighteen hours a day in an engine room that was at 120 degrees. I was told it was ok as long as I always had a cover on and my hair was always up. I used to braid the front part into two half French braids to keep the hair out of my face and I could tie it up within regulations this way. I made sure it was never down again.
After our first beer day, the Captain sent out a scathing email to all the senior enlisted yelling at them about how could they let that happen and they should have done something. For our second beer day, senior enlisted ran the second beer day. The day prior, ever department on the ship sent an email with a list of people in the division on that day. We were a supply ship and carried people to other ships along with food, fuel and mail. If your name wasn’t on that list, you received no beer at the steel beach. About half way through the event, the Captain walked over to the pallets of beer, looked down and said, “I want all this beer gone.” They started handing out more than two beers anyway. The chiefs complained all the extra work was pointless.
We had another beer on the pier during this time. A guy who had a girlfriend propositioned me. I had zero intentions of ever meeting him and shrugged him off, he was on duty and I thought I would be safe staying away. I was struggling badly by then and was very drunk quickly, I left the pier to email my family and go to bed. He found me and I don’t remember much other than he should have walked me to bed, not taken advantage.
The next port we pulled into was Perth, Australia. Sailors tell tales of four to one, men to women in Australia. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’d believe it with the way Australian men treated women.
Next week: Dreams happen and more Navy deployment