(Continued from Page 1)
Also any money confiscated from gambling activity, you could get your money back by going before the CO the next day and request that it be returned to you. Also any clothing lost to the Lucky Bag could be redeemed for a price.
From this point on we always met our 100% quota with no pressure on the crew. I did have to negotiate with the CO, as he always wanted to go beyond the Quota, and I had to constantly remind him that the money belonged to the crew. He would want to put in an extra $100 or so and we would dicker and cut it down to half that amount. The fund worked real well for the crew and the ship.
Remember the ‘Spit Shoe Shine’? If you stood in the sun too long your shine would melt. So we would about fact the crew to shade the shoes and just before the inspection party showed up we would about face, and have the spit shine to present.
Special Court Martials were always a hassle. A good way to be challenged, was to make sure that the Defense Attorney was within hearing distance and then make the comment “If the guy wasn’t guilty, then he wouldn’t be here.”
Summery Courts, for me were rather interesting. Most of the time I would listen to the accused, and then tell him “Look, I’ve been there, done it, and didn’t get caught. You got caught.”
Another incident that happened while on the Cuban Operation. We had a recreational beer party, and the first group went ashore. Well, when it was over, and they got back to the ship one of the sailors was missing. He was finally found while trying to swim back to the ship. I don’t recall who he was, but the CO really crucified the officer in charge of that group. I had the party the next day, and you can bet I made sure that we were all there before we headed back.
While in the Cuban area we got a new CO. What a change! All for the better. It was really a pleasure to work with and for him. I had been inventorying medical supplies, and the Brandy count was always the same, (the small bottles). This CO felt that they should be used, and so whenever the crew was exposed to heavy weather and got soaked and cold, he ordered the Pharmacist to give each sailor a ration of Brandy. On the Christmas holidays he had the cooks & bakers spike the fruitcake and mincemeat with Brandy. He believed in putting it to good use.
Don’t be surprised at what you hear when you listen in on the Eng. Phone circuit every so often. Every so often I would get up at odd hours of the night and drop into one of the Engineering spaces, have a cop of coffee and see how the watch was doing. I felt that they should know that I cared about what was going on, and they would never know when or where I was going to show up. Upon completing one of these visits I got up to my stateroom, and decided to monitor the phone line. And what I heard was really hilarious (WATCH OUT, THE SPIDER IS ON THE PROWL!”) One surprise trip is all you can make for one night, because as soon as you leave, the word is out that someone is snooping around.
For me, the tour on the Whetstone was quite a learning experience, and adventure. There were good times and there were not so good times. I think that I had some darn good officers, who really knew their jobs well, and I felt that some of the other Departments were envious of me because all of us in the Engineering Department were ex-white hats, and had years of experience in their fields. I only had one officer assigned to the department that was not a ex-white hat and he experienced a difficult time during his training. I met him years later and he turned out very well. I think the Engineers, officers and crew did a good job in helping him to become a better officer.
Well John, I hope that you are able to use some of this stuff. I think that you put out a wonderful news letter, and I do enjoy reading it very much.
Martin F. Zdolsek
LCDR USN RET.
John
I see in the March 2005 news letter that Fred Scharnhorst has taken that final voyage into the great beyond.
I remember his brother, John. There is a photo of him with Schmidt on the Whetstone CD I mailed to you earlier this year. That pic was taken aboard the stone at Cam-Ron bay in V-M in 66. They are standing near the bow of the motor whaleboat. You know there are always some crewmates that become really good friends with. Scharnhorst and Schmidt were really good friends. Those two guys both have German names, but Scharnhorst had the same name as a famous WW II German heavy battle cruiser
The Scharnhorst was named after a cruiser sank by the British south of the Falklands in 1914. Commissioned three years before the famous battleship Bismarck, the Scharnhorst keel was laid down in 1934 and was activated in Oct 1936, with displacement of 32,000 tons.
(Turn to Scharnhorst on Page 8)
