We were the only sub home ported at MINSY. We spent a lot of time there and a lot of that time the sub was torn up, in dry dock or both. We had our own barracks. Even better, our barracks originally housed the Marines that crewed the shore battery at the mouth of the Napa river. There wasn't much else out there. The terrain was hilly, grassy, lightly wooded. Nice. When it was built, somebody had gone out of their way to make the building look nice. It was done up in stucco, with a tile roof and veranda in the Spanish colonial style. Had some hedges, a little fountain and fish pond in the front. Inside it was a standard open bay barracks, two story, with showers and shitters at one end. We had guys with all the skills and it was a Navy shipyard, plenty of building material. Crew did all the renovations needed. They did it up nice. They framed, drywalled and wired in, mostly four man rooms. Even had coaxial connections from a big TV antenna on the roof to all the rooms. Me and a forward ET did that. There were some nice one man accommodations, for really senior guys who were single or lived too far away to commute. When I reported aboard, I got a two man room and the next guy that reported would be my roommate. It had just been enclosed from part of a large day room. There was an old pool table somebody had scrounged up in there and a beer machine. Pretty loud, day and night. A lot of people watching you come and go. Not that great for a drunk but what the hell.
A few months later I got lucky. A Third Class special projects guy was mustering out. He had a single room and nobody else wanted it. What it was, really, was the old barracks towel closet, situated by a side entrance that led into the showers, not one of the rooms we had framed in and wired. It had a window and was probably ten by twelve feet. Not that small. Had a florescent ceiling light and one plug outlet. Most guys wanted a refrigerator, stereo and TV in their room, at least. Would've been small for that and probably blown fuses like crazy. Maybe that had something to do with why it went begging. All I had was a cheap, thrift shop clock/radio. There was a bed, a small, open cabinet to hang clothes in, small chest of drawers, a little writing table and chair under the window and a small couch. It all fit in nicely. The Navy always has plenty of real small furniture. The guy before me had put down a square of nubby carpet. Comfy. Big, heavy Dutch door. The bottom half had a counter top attached. The the two halves could be connected by a steel bolt and the entire door secured by a heavy hasp and padlock, on the outside. That was good. Most of the rooms there were easy to break into and the fact that we were all shipmates aside, theft was pretty common. Sailors at sea and ashore are two different animals. Been that way for thousands of years. It'll be that way for thousands more. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. I liked the room. I stayed there for the rest of my enlistment.
Maybe six weeks after I moved in, they came through with drug sniffing dogs. This was the mid seventies and drugs were ubiquitous at every level of society in those days. Everybody smoked weed. I'm not gonna say I didn't do drugs at that time but mostly I indulged for purposes of social bonding with those that did. After a friendly toke or two, upon meeting a new friend, I always turned it down. Nobody minded. More for them. I never bought any weed or kept any around. I had been through my drug phase. Beer was fine with me. Hard liquor if somebody else was buying. I never got used to paying more than the $10 a lid that grass cost me as a kid. Turned out, there were a few marijuana seeds under the cushions of my little couch left by the last guy. Dogs went right to it. Bummer. After that, they tore my room apart and didn't find anything else. They would have searched my car too but I didn't have one.
I was surprised when I found out but really not too concerned, even though I wasn't guilty of this particular infraction. A lot of people get popped for stuff they don't do. It all evens out in the end. If they wanted to court martial me and give me a DD, it was OK with me. They weren't going to give me serious brig time for a few marijuana seeds. Employers never give a shit about military discharge status. After they told me and I denied any knowledge of the marijuana seeds in my couch, they just let me go back to my regular duties. Nobody ever questioned me about it. Nothing went into my service record. My next set of evals were real good. They let me take the second class exam early. If anything, my standing within the crew, among both officers and enlisted, seemed to have been enhanced.
What I learned from this, was that the Navy's anti drug efforts were a complete farce. They probably still are. Now that I think about it, I never knew of anyone disciplined in any manner, for drug use in the Navy. We had a lot of serious stoners aboard and a few, more than casual, dealers. Some guys even took weed to sea and smoked it next to ventilation intakes.
Just a little informal poll. Did anybody out there know anybody that suffered any disciplinary action related to drug use, while in the Navy? I didn't.
2 comments:
Well, golly.
I was at the boat school from 1975 until 1979. They had to catch you with drugs, or have an informant to turn you in. I knew of two people in my class and company who used drugs, mainly uppers. No drug dogs, but the day before graduation twenty one of my classmates were implicated by a snitch and didn't graduate. They all went to the fleet as E-3s.
They started drug testing in 1981 as I recall, and the penalty if you popped positive was Captains Mast, maximum penalty and submarine disqual. Don't know where those guys went but probably to a skimmer.
Drug dogs were big in the eighties as we came aboard the tender we were sniffed. If you popped positive twice you were discharged.
My own personal opinion is that we ought to sell drugs over the counter in pharmacies for anyone who wants them. Let the navy continue ruining people's lives.
We had a real young First Class Sonar Tech who was a bust out from Annapolis. Very ship shape, beautiful manners, obviously Gay. He had big money, nice clothes, a lot of expensive sporting gear, big shelf of expensive liquors (which was why I liked him), drove a brand new Jensen Interceptor, cleared out of town every time he could string a couple of days off in a row.
Maybe he was doing mandatory time. He was young enough. Didn't seem like a cheater, too smart to flunk, not the stoner type. I don't think, in those days they would have sent an identified homosexual into the fleet. I never asked him. He had gone as far as he could go. No Chief selection board would ever have passed him.
Kinda sad.
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