Daily life on shipboard was routine, broken only by General Quarters alarms signifying German submarine presence below, as I wrote in my blog ASSIGNMENT.
The radio room personnel were on a four hour duty, followed by an eight hour off schedule. That meant we could "hit the sack," unless assigned extra duty jobs. Often we were quizzed by our chief petty officer regarding the technical aspects of radio equipment and its operation.
However, when in port and the radio silenced, we radiomen joined the deck crew in housecleaning, including shining the brass, which was everywhere. No matter how hard we rubbed, the chief bosun was never satisfied. Relief came in the form of shore liberty, which gave us an opportunity to eat restaurant food and drink beer. Interestingly enough, whenever we first had liberty, we didn't head for a glass of beer, but for glasses of COLD MILK. The beer came later.
On our first return trip to Norfolk, it happened to be at Thanksgiving time. The captain invited guests to join him for a turkey dinner aboard ship. Unfortunately, the crew ate all of the turkey, and the guests had to be fed otherwise. The captain WAS SO MAD that he had the quarantine flag flown and liberty was cancelled for two days. THE JERK!
More, later
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