This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This story also contains explicit sexual activity between males. If such is objectionable to you, or if you are below the age where reading such material is legal, please read no further.
Please address comments to macoutmann@yahoo.com. Your feedback is most helpful. As we get toward the end, I'd really like to hear from you. So many guys that were in the navy then have already contacted me.
BEFORE "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL"
by Macout Mann
Chapter 15
Back at sea, the routine continued. Mostly exercises with a carrier task force, but ultimately DesDiv 17 was detached, and sailed for liberty at Hong Kong. It was then that Morgan casually mentioned to the Exec. that he had promised his men a party at Hong Kong.
"A party in Hong Kong! You must be crazy!" LCDR. Warren reacted.
"I didn't realize it would be a problem," Morgan said. "I told them if they were rated "four-oh" on their exercises, they could have a division party in Hong Kong, and they've been looking forward to it."
After considerable discussion, the Exec finally agreed to let the project proceed, but said Morgan would "have hell to pay," if anything went wrong.
Soon after they moored in Hong Kong Harbor, Morgan met with Bonner and Eggerson and told them about the exec Exec's concerns. He said he wanted the two of them to check out options for the party, discuss with their mates what they wanted to do, and let him know. He suggested that they first meet with the Anglican priest that had helped him on their last visit.
They soon returned with the news that the priest had told them that they could have a party with "nice, proper English girls" or with "a lesser type of girl" and he gave them a list of restaurants or pubs that would be suitable for each type of party. Morgan was a bit amazed that they had already discussed it with the other men and had opted for a dinner with the "nice" girls.
Morgan went with the two of them, who chose a restaurant three blocks down from Hong Kong's premier hotel. They were able to rent the entire facility, book a steak dinner for thirty-four with an open bar for a little less than the amount budgeted for the party. Morgan suggested that they invite the captain, exec, and operations officer, and his petty officers agreed. The captain declined, but the other two officers accepted with pleasure.
Morgan's only concern was that some of his men might, probably unintentionally, offend some of the nice girls. He was sure that the exec's concerns about causing an international incident were unfounded. After all, the men had planned it themselves and were invested in its success.
The night arrived. All the navy men were there, and the girls arrived in twos and threes. Morgan guessed they were daughters of British civil servants and merchants, probably more at home with crews from British men-of-war who called at Hong Kong. But they were charming and mixed well with the American sailors. Lt. Petress, the ops officer, excused himself after having a couple of drinks and circulating among the men. The exec remained for the whole affair.
The only incident throughout the evening was caused by a tipsy British couple who wanted to have a drink at the restaurant. They were berating the Chinese proprietor for not letting them in, when Morgan went over and explained that the Americans had rented the entire establishment for the evening. "Like you bloody Americans!" the Brit chided. "Take over the whole goddam world."
Next day the exec called Morgan to his quarters. "I've got to hand it to you," he said. "I thought that party would be a disaster, but it was the nicest affair I've been to in a long time."
"Hand it to the men," Morgan replied. "They planned the whole thing."
After Hong Kong, DesDiv 17 drew "Formosa Patrol" duty. It was still called "Formosa Patrol" despite the fact that Formosa had been Taiwan for god-knows-how-long. The destroyers would sail up and down the Formosa Strait to keep the Chicoms on the mainland from invading the Chinats on Taiwan. Purely symbolic.
It did mean that Morgan would get a fourth medal. During this period everyone in uniform received the National Service Award. Those serving in the Korean Theatre received the Korean Service Medal and the United Nations Medal. Since Purple Hearts and personal awards for valor could only be earned by those actually fighting in Korea, most younger servicemen could at most only sport the three service ribbons, but men on ships patrolling the Formosa Strait also received the China Service Medal (extended), which being an older award was worn senior to the other three. Not that it made any difference to anyone, except guys in service at the time.
To tell the truth it was deadly dull duty.
For Morgan the only break in the tedium was the discovery of a submerged submarine in the middle of the strait. Now it was highly unlikely to find a submarine there. If there was one, it would have had to be Soviet. China didn't have any, and the Stough would have been alerted to undersea operations by any friendly power. But sonar detected something, and the doppler effect met the criteria for reporting the discovery to higher authority.
Combat dutifully plotted its movements. But the captain declared that it must be a rock and refused to report it. (He even joked later with his fellow captains that his sonar had found a moving rock in the strait.) Morgan felt Cdr. Eddins was simply afraid of a negative reaction from ComNavFe, if he did report it; so the incident lessened Morgan's respect for his captain quite a bit.
After Formosa Patrol, the ships rejoined a carrier task force. The carriers were doing their own annual exercises for record, and Morgan was ordered on board the Essex for temporary additional duty. Since he was a certified air controller, he was to judge the performance of the carrier air controllers as they directed their planes to intercept "bogies," unidentified aircraft which were actually planes from another carrier in the group. The exercises were to take three days.
The Essex dispatched a helicopter to the Stough. It hovered over the fantail and dropped a ladder for Morgan to climb. As he did so, the wind blew his cap off and it plunged into the sea; creating a potential protocol problem, when he reached the carrier. The Chief Boatswain wanted to retrieve the cap, but the exec stopped him. It had been given to Morgan by a buddy in Pusan, and had seen its better day. The exec thought Morgan's wearing it was almost insubordinate
The helicopter dropped onto the flight deck of the carrier, and Morgan discovered that no one seemed to care whether he was covered or not. After he reported and was assigned a cabin, he did ask directions to the ship's store, where he did buy substitute head gear, which, it turned out, he wouldn't need until the operation was over.
Being on the carrier was like being a guest in a very large hotel. His responsibilities involved about forty-five minutes of work each day. The rest of the time, he lounged in the wardroom or slept in his quarters. When the exercises were over and he had submitted his evaluation, he was told that the seas were too rough to return him to the Stough by chopper, that they'd transfer him by highline.
"Oh, no," Morgan said, "it'd be twice as dangerous to do it by highline."
"Well your ship is going to Subic Bay and we're going to Yokosuka," he was advised. "We can transfer you to the Boxer. They're going to be doing independent operations for four days. Then they're putting in at Subic."
So Morgan went by helicopter to the USS Boxer and spent four days in their wardroom, while they spent most of their time at general quarters. At Subic the Boxer's motor launch took him to the Stough, where he learned that ComNavMarianas was giving a party that night.
At this point, Morgan hadn't had a drink for about three months, and the temperature in the Philippines had to be in the nineties even at night. His shipmates had been in port and had liberty for almost a week. It didn't occur to him that he might have difficulty adjusting to the weather and handling his liquor, and normally he wouldn't have. But at the party, the Philippino stewardsmates were generously pouring gin and tonics with twice as much gin as quinine water. So after two, Morgan had the feeling that if he didn't get out of there, he was going to make a fool of himself. He did manage to get from the officers' club to the boat dock and find a bench, but then promptly passed out.
Fortunately, Roger Hamilton found him and helped him to the Stough's motor whale boat, before the captain or exec left the party. The exec still commented next morning that he seemed tipsy, when he left the party. He swore to Hamilton that that was the first time he'd ever passed out drunk.
After a week at Subic, DesDiv 17 returned to Yokosuka. Morgan received word that he had been promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant, and now had two full stripes on his shoulder boards.
It was time for it to run its annual exercises for credit. Morgan's three years of active duty were nearly over. He had leave accumulated and arranged to take it in Japan. But he discovered that the commodore, Capt. Levinson, had requested that Lt. Bowen assist him in judging the anti-submarine exercises of all four ships.
The request didn't come until the division was back at sea, so Morgan was transferred to the Spencer by highline. He was assigned a space in aft officers quarters, checked in with Capt. Levinson, and then took a shower.
The Spencer's operations officer seemed surprised that Morgan was showering and asked if the Stough had "water hours." Morgan assured him that the Stough had plenty of water and that he normally showered before dinner. Ships that became short on potable water often rationed water by limiting times that the crew could use water. For some reason having to institute water hours blemished a ship's reputation. The other officer then told him when dinner would be served in the wardroom. Morgan replied that he had been invited to dine with the commodore.
"He's never invited anyone else to eat with him!" was the surprised response.
"First time for everything, I guess," Morgan replied.
Morgan and Capt. Levinson agreed that their evaluations should be thoroughgoing, that no purpose was served by overlooking any flaws.
The exercises proceeded smoothly on all four ships. Morgan did try to find the extent to which ships' personnel really understood what was going on, and included his findings in his observations.
For example, the Fletcher was conducting the two ship drill that had caused Capt. Eddins such agony in underway training. Morgan was on the bridge. It was his first time to participate, when he was not in CIC, and he quickly understood why a captain could get apprehensive with another ship close-on headed directly at you.
At a point when Morgan knew combat had the conn, he casually asked the Officer of the Deck who the "attacking ship" was. "I don't know," was the reply. Bad news. That was the sort of thing Morgan made note of.
They had started with the Spencer and transferred by highline to each of the other three destroyers as the exercises were run, ending on the Stough. Morgan and the commodore then conferred. Morgan took the commodore's notes, combined them with his own, and wrote up the reports for the commodore's approval when they returned to Yokosuka.
The reports consisted of evaluations on specific points, each of which received a numerical grade. These were totaled to produce an overall score for the exercise. The score was supplemented with remarks, suggesting improvements that the ship could make in conducting such operations.
Morgan was pleased that each ship had scored in the satisfactory range or above.
Back in Yokosuka Morgan met with the commodore on board the Spencer. He gave Capt. Levinson the completed reports, which he had already signed. The commodore complemented Morgan on his work, signed off on the reports, and said that he would take care of forwarding them on.
Morgan returned to the Stough, and packed a bag for his last leave. He was to spend two days in Tokyo and then visit the ancient city of Kyoto. When he arrived at the Nikkatsu, however, he was told that his presence was required back on board the Stough at once. He went ahead and checked in, then took a cab back to the train station, and caught the next express to Yokosuka. It was about an hour before he reported his return aboard.
"They're waiting for you in the wardroom," the Officer of the Deck said.
In the wardroom, Morgan found all four captains and the commodore ranged around the table. The reports had to be redone, he was told.
"Why so?" Morgan asked. "Everyone passed and Commodore Levinson has found them in good order." He looked at the commodore for confirmation.
"I'm sorry, Morgan," the commodore said, addressing him by his first name. "I didn't understand. It's not the scores. But these gentlemen tell me that the things we put in the comments would cause ComCruDesPac to lower the scores to failing. And we can't have that, can we?"
The captain of the Fletcher chimed in. "Yeah. And that comment about the OOD's not knowing who the attacking ship was! What difference does that make?"
Morgan was furious. But he spoke very calmly and deliberately.
"If what you told the commodore is true, gentlemen, I think it is a very sad commentary on the integrity of the system. The scores should speak for themselves. The comments should simply be constructive. And, sir, I don't want to be on a ship where the Officer of the Deck doesn't know who the attacking ship is. That's a collision waiting to happen.
"I think most of our observations addressed the strain that ships' companies are put under in conducting operations like this one. I would think that's the sort of thing you would want the type commander to be aware of.
"But it's not my navy. I'll be gone in a couple of weeks. But I do love your navy. And I just want to point out to you that at full complement these ships are supposed to carry a crew of three hundred and fifteen officers and men. When I came aboard, the manning level was two hundred seventy five. Currently it is two hundred sixty. I suggest that if you continue to produce excellent exercise results with fewer and fewer men, the manning level will ultimately be reduced to the point where you'll have difficulty even getting underway.
"Now, gentlemen, I am on leave. I am not going to change one word of these reports. But before I leave the ship, I'll sign four copies in blank, and you can put anything above my signature that you goddamn want to."
Before leaving the base, Morgan stopped by the BOQ and sought out now Ltjg Strickland.
"Well, hi," Strickland said, "Come in. I never thought I'd see you again."
"Sorry to bother you," Morgan replied. "It's just that I'm so fucking frustrated. You got any of your good Scotch around?"
Strickland poured them both a shot, and listened patiently as Morgan unloaded on him.
"I can see why you're pissed off," Strickland said. "But what you need is to calm down, and I know just what'll do the trick."
He crossed the room and undid the web belt on Morgan's uniform and unzipped his pants. Since he was going on leave, Morgan hadn't bothered with undershorts. Strickland knelt between his legs and took hold of his hardening tool.
"Yeah, that's what I need," he panted.
"Just forget about your troubles, man...or should I say `sir,' Lieutenant?" Strickland's warm lips engulfed Morgan's anxious dick and erased every thought from Morgan's mind, except for the ecstatic thrill of complete sexual satisfaction.
Copyright 2011 by Macout Mann. All rights reserved.