Drinking coffee. It’s part of Navy life, heck part of all military life. Coffee on the boat though, that was real mans coffee.

Real men drink coffee made with old grounds piled on new in the filter, from a cup that was cleaned before the weighed anchor. I’m sure this is where the term ‘mud’ originated.

Tough cleaning problem? Pour on some coffee.

Need to stay awake for that third watch in a day? Pour on some coffee.

Coffee in military life is a valuable commodity. When something comes in 20 lb. cans, it must be important.

More than for drinking yourself, cans could be exchanged for favors.  More than one bit of work on the boat got done quick with a bit of black stuff exchanged.

Sure the sailor might stray to something softer once in a while, like a beer. But the days don’t go by that won’t find him/her cup in hand, steam a rising, and so dark you can’t see the bottom.

Coffee. Drink of soldiers everywhere.

Original photo by Telstar Logistics.

Extending the story telling and sharing to you, Underway Life now has a Facebook page. The Underway Life Faceboook page will be a place for exploring your stories in depth, with pictures, videos, links and more.

Please drop by and like the page. Share your stories today.

Today the U.S. Navy advanced the Sailors of the Year for calendar year 2009 to Chief Petty Officer. This year was not like any other, because this year all four of the Navy’s best are women.

You can see the pics over the official US Navy Facebook page photo album.

Ship’s Store guest post by Rex Dixon:

I bet a lot of the readers here remember the way the “old Navy” was. Not the clothing store, but the way things were. Back in the day when you waited for the ship store to open once you were in international waters. Since I was an east coast sailor, we’d have once to twice a month operations out in what they called the VACAPES. Wasn’t a code name, just an abbreviation that stood for Virginia Capes.

Once you are 12 miles off the coast of the United States (VACAPES), you are in international waters. Once the ship store opens, everything is sold tax free. Nice. Now back to the days of the old Navy, the main item that went like within the first hour of the ship’s store opening was cigarettes, smokes, etc… At $7 a carton you couldn’t beat that with a stick.

Now that I look back on it, I think that being that I was in the “old Navy” smoking was more or less the defacto standard if not encouraged a bit. Quite strange I’m sure from the more modern 21st Century Navy.

I know another favorite item was all that junk food, cup o’ noodles, pringles, etc… Most of the guys on my ship had 2 lockers, and one usually had their “stash” in it. Guys on my ship. Yes, I know, times have changed! That’s a story for another post though I’m sure!

What items did you like to buy and stock up on when you were at sea? Do you ever wonder how the old Navy compares to the 21st Century Navy? How about those that served in both centuries and saw both Navy’s?

Rex Dixon served 4 years in on the USS El Paso (LKA-117) – gator freighter, 2 Med Cruises, 1 north Atlantic cruise, 1 Gitmo Refresher. Honorable Discharge as E-5 (Radioman). Rex has his own blog Technically Speaking, and can be found on Twitter, @RexDixon.

Note: This is personal. Tag Jordan is my brother. He’s ex-Army.

MT. VERNON PROFESSIONAL
FIRE FIGHTERS
BBQ COOKOUT

PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT TAG JORDAN

WHEN: FRIDAY, JULY 16TH, SERVING BEGINS AT 11:00am
WHERE: MVFD FIRE STATION 1, 1100 MAIN ST. MT. VERNON, IL
WHAT: OUR FAMOUS SMOKED PORK BBQ, BEANS, CHIPS AND A DRINK.

DINE-IN OR CARRY-OUT, WE’LL GET YOU SERVED QUICKLY ON YOUR LUNCH HOUR!

PRE-ORDERS ARE AVAILABLE BY CALLING
242-6880 PRIOR TO THE DATE. ORDERS ON THE DAY OF THE BBQ SHOULD BE PLACED TO 242-2299. DELIVERY IS AVAILABLE TO BUSINESSES IN TOWN, SPECIFY PREFERRED DELIVERY TIME WHEN ORDERING.

Tag Jordan is a Mt. Vernon man who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a year ago. All the proceeds from this BBQ will go to him and his family to help with medical and household expenses.

(My friends, if you’re in Mt. Vernon Il, be sure to stop by Friday and enjoy some BBQ.)

What was your underway must have?

I was that guy on the boat, the one always reading something. Bible browsing, men’s adventure novel, or 3M manuals, I covered all the bases while underway.

Reading books helped me escape for minutes or hours.  Drifting off to sleep with visions of dragons in your head or even scary clowns was better than pondering oil temps and midrats.

What else was good to have on long runs?

Playing cards takes my #2 must have on the boat. Long runs found us playing endless spades and pinochle tournaments. (okay, maybe on fast attacks we weren’t bright enough for cribbage)  Bonus time with cards is you rarely played alone, though I just have spread the cards for solitaire hundreds of times.

Any creative outlets?

Writing took up a noticeable portion of my off time. It seemed I started more stories, and journals than a guy should admit to. There were poems, diary entries, and rants at people and God. (He gets His own post some day soon.)

Many shipmates were artists of sorts. I was amazed at drawings and sketches more than once. Art for me at the time was doodles during training.

What else?

Board games? Magazines? Collections? And what sort of books? Mens adventure? Love stories? How to guides? And not to be left out, how about you closet musicians?

“Eight SUB-SAILORS conducted the ONLY GROUND COMBAT OPERATION on the Japanese “homeland” of World War II.” is a great read found aboard ULTRAQUIET NO MORE, a submarine focused blog.

Here’s a snippet:

In the four days the saboteurs had anxiously watched the skies for cloud cover, the inventive crew of the Barb had built their micro switch.

When the need was posed for a pick and shovel to bury the explosive charge and batteries, the Barb’s engineers had cut up steel plates in the lower flats of an engine room, then bent and welded them to create the needed tools.

The only things beyond their control were the weather .. . . and time. Only Five Days Remained In The Barb’s Patrol.

The tail is something of legend or a movie but better; it really happened.

I encourage you to read the full story - U.S.S. Barb, The Submarine that sank a Train.

Radio, not just operations support.

Deployments are tough for many reasons. Separation from family and friends is toughest. How does the ship’s radio figure in?

Receiving actual letters from home while underway is sporadic at best. Submarine life means even less mail runs. Port calls are exciting just for the mail bags.

Radio helps in the between with one way notes from home – family grams. Family grams are short messages your loved ones draft for sending over the Navy radio system. Stateside commands would take a note from a spouses, screen it for ‘flagged’ words, and send it off to every ship in the Navy.

Yes. Every ship.

Radio men screened the initial note for overly sexualized language, death reports, and other potentially emotional words. No use in having a guy go AWOL over such a message, or everyone reading about how ‘satisfied’ they will be once they get home.

Receiving these wasn’t limited to in port time.  Family Grams were broadcast on a schedule.  We’d wait anxiously in the galley if they were supposed to be coming in.  It was a nice surprise though to be woken up and handed one.

Do you have fond memories of family grams? Was there one that really stands out? Did your spouse have a secret code for those provocative topics?