by gunsup » Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:55 pm
I went to Nam on USS Frances Marion Dec 9-66 but on my orders they put USNS Gaffey. They were wrong, I looked at the name on the side of the ship before I got on and I had another Bro that was in D-1/9 that went over the same time as me. I never understood that screw up! My ship was also run by Merchant Marines. A buddy got me to volunteer for the night laundry detail. I was really glad I did that. We had a Pilipino that ran the laundry. Every night he would go to the Captains mess and get us good chow for dinner. We had steaks and Lobster and shrimp. Good Chow! We worked at night and when morning came we would go to the head of the Chow line. It Pissed a lot of Marines off, but oh well. We would sleep during the day and work at night. I can remember standing in formation, just before we got to OK and a Marine ran up to the railing and threw up. It blew back on everyone. Marines broke rank and started to beat his dumb ass. Some started to throw up too! We had about 500 Sailors on board. One of the wise assed young Sailors called a Marine a "Sea Going Bell Hop". The Marine said back to him, "The Last Bell I hopped was your Sister" and a brawl broke out.
I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was!