i have been away from sea stories too long. But i had a lot of things going on. One was a trip to Utah for a week of golf with a SEAL i met in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia in 1979. i produced three posts around that adventure. If you would like to read them, you can go to my website, jimjewell.com. They will be the first ones listed after this one. Now, i’m back to the USS Hollister (DD 788) in Long Beach as we began preparations for our overhaul, which was scheduled for September 1974. i was CHENG and, consequently, the Overhaul coordinator.

One of the requirements shortly before entering the yards was a complete inspection of our four 600 lb. boilers’ interiors. The inspection was to be done by an boiler expert accompanied by me. He came aboard when the ship was moored along the quay wall at the Long Beach Naval Base. He was a big, gritty, old Navy sailor. i wish i remembered his name. I do remember vividly he was the first of the Boiler Repair rating i had ever met. He was a Boiler Repairman Master Chief (BRCM). Before we donned our coveralls to crawl through the interior of the massive boilers, we hit it off.

The inspection was critical. It was done thoroughly. i was a bit surprised the four boilers were in as good shape as they were. Of course, there was considerable work to be done on them in the yards. The BRCM documented the needs very well.

As we crawled through the stuffy and sooty boilers, the master chief didn’t really complain but decided to tell me what is was like in his Navy.

“You know, sir” (it seemed to me him calling me “sir” was almost silly, that i should be calling him “sir”), he said, “back in the old days, all the sailors on the ship were required to wear their undress blues everywhere on board except in their work spaces. The firemen had to change from their dungarees to their undress blues in the fireroom before they came out of the hatch in the ship’s main passageway.”

“Really,” i said with amazement. i knew it was a rough life but i was surprised dungarees weren’t allowed throughout the ship.

“Yes, sir,” the BRCM continued, “I was on one can assigned to the after fireroom. Our chief was a tough old goat. He would make sure all of his BTs conformed to the uniform requirement. When there was a change of watch, he would stand over the hatch in the main passageway holding a dogging wrench for the hatch. If a BT emerged still in his dungarees, the chief would whack him on the head with the dogging wrench, knocking the BT down the ladder back into the fireroom.

“We learned real quick,” he laughed.

i’m pretty sure my mouth was agape when he told me that. i wish i could have spent more time with him.

That, my friends, is the real “old Navy.”