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PAGE 3 PORT & STARBOARD
Shipmates,
Greetings to all and I hope this finds everyone well. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent wishes for a speedy recovery to our Association Secretary/Treasurer, Steve Hunt, on his recent quadruple bypass surgery. I can assure you that he is doing fine and is well on his way to recovery. Just another of life’s bullets dodged and he is looking forward to our annual gathering in Jacksonville, FL this September.
And speaking of this year’s reunion, I hope, no, I will be glad, to see many of you again. Like Steve, I had my own “cardiac adventure” a few months ago. It was nothing as serious as the procedure Steve went through, but enough to remind me of the uncertainty of tomorrow. Like Steve would say; “Big deal, you just had a wire run up your groin (love that word) into your heart. I have my chest cracked, an 8 inch scar, and have to hug a pillow for a month”. OK Steve, you win. Seriously though, these types of events make one appreciate the opportunity to get together with friends and shipmates and share good times past and present. Who would have thought, when we kicked off this little adventure called the “Brooke Association” sixteen years ago, that all this time later we would be planning another annual reunion this year. That says a lot about the folks who are part of this crew. Yes, a tip of the hat to all of you out there who have been part of the “Brooke Gang” as I fondly call our Association. Without your continued support we would probably be just another memory of a ship’s association that came and went. Heck, when we started this thing we discussed making it to ten years. Now we are discussing twenty and what might happen when we get there. I know when Steve and I discuss this we keep hoping that the younger members of the Association will pick up the baton and run with it in the future. It will be these “younger folks” who can keep the Association going.
So here is a little trip down memory lane. I had a neighbor stop by the other day and she saw some of my Navy memorabilia in my garage. After asking the perfunctionary question; “So you were in the Navy”? She went on to ask; “What is it like to live on a ship”? Trying to give her a good frame of reference,. I told her to imagine that her master bedroom was twenty feet long and forty feet wide. I was using the dimensions of the 3rd Div. berthing compartment on the 2nd deck forward, just aft of the 5” mount. I figured that with a 40’ beam and three sets of three racks on each side, that would be about 20’.I told her there were 24 men living in that space (I added the additional two sets of three inboard on each side of the 5” magazine chute.) While she tried to wrap her head around that I added the ladder going down into the space, the pea coat and laundry lockers, the card table, and the numerous pipes and wire guides running throughout the space. As her eyes glazed over I mentioned that that the top rack was about 6’ off the deck (for her I used the word “floor” so as not to confuse her) and there were about 18” of space to turn over in. I also added that she needed to imagine sleeping on a moving roller coaster that was going, not only up and down, but side to side. And that was on a good day. I figured I really didn’t need to get into the various sea states as she was already mumbling the word “Seriously” over and over. I told her to come back tomorrow when the next chapter would be on how to wrap a leg around a mess table stanchion and slap a wet napkin down on the table to keep your mess tray stable. She left mumbling something about joining the Army.
And that my friends is why no one can understand what we did unless they were there. Looking forward to seeing you in JAX.
Fair Winds And Following Seas,
Tom Adametz
President, USS Brooke DEG-1/FFG-1 Association
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