The Haunting

Time to add a sea story today. I have not written a Navy tail fro a while, so I figured I would add this one. A couple rules about sea stories to get out of the way. First, if a sailor starts out a sea story with, “This is a not shitter.” It is true, no matter how impossible it sounds. Second, if the sea story starts out with, “After a night of heavy drinking.” Sit back and prepare to hear some of the funniest shit you have ever heard in your life.

OK, with that being said, this is a real no shitter. While onboard USS Scott DDG-995, I learned the ship was haunted. Seriously, it was haunted. One night while I was on watch in the forward engine room, I was out taking readings in the number 3 generator. I had to go all the way back to the far end of the ship with my clipboard to take readings in the generator room and to make sure everything was running like it was supposed to.

At night on the ship, lights are turned to red, so we do not let white light out, and so we can keep out night vision. White light at sea can be seen fr miles, whereas red cannot be. So, I am heading back to the generator, and the passageway has its red lights on. It was a little creepy I might add. I start to get a bizarre feeling that I am not alone, but it is 2:00 am, so nobody is up but the watch section.

I go through the first room where the large switchboards are located and enter the generator room. It is loud and hot in there since the generator is running. I take the readings there, then do the same thing in the boiler room. I look around and see nothing out of the ordinary. Back thought the switchboard room and the long walk back to the engine room. I had to do this every half hour. Each time I was back there, I felt the same creepy feeling.

This went on every time I had that watch at night, never during the day. Then about 2-3 weeks later, we were all talking in berthing one night and somebody mentions there is a ghost in #3 Generator.

“WHAT??? No way that is crazy,” I add to the conversation.

So, the story of how #3 became haunted is told. It seems a veteran passed away, and the ship took his ashes to burry then at sea. So, the crew assembled on the day on the flight deck, and they hold a funeral service for this veteran. As his ashed were bumped overboard, the Engineers realize the #3 generator is running. The air intake for the turbine is pretty close to where the ashes are being dumped. As they were dumped over the side, many were sucked into the generator.  

After that, several crew members began to see an electrician working in the switchboard area only to have him just disappear. One particular night a crewmember said he went through there, and this electrician was working in the switchboard. The whole thing was disassembled. When he came back out through the switchboard room, it was all back together, and no sign fo anything was there.

That crewmember stopped in engineering central to ask who was back in #3 Switchboard working. The reply was nobody. It was later discovered that the veteran was an electrician while in the Navy.

I still felt creepy every time I went back to take readings. But, I never did see anything out of the ordinary.

My Journey

My journey with writing goes pretty far back. We all had to write short stories in grade school and then had to take English classes in high school. I had a couple classes in college as well. Most of us also had classes where we had to write a term paper in a class that might not be considered a writing class, like history or maybe science.

Oddly when I was younger, I did not like writing all that much. I am not really sure why that is, because as I grew older, I grew to enjoy it. That is pretty obvious now. My 8^th grade year for English was mostly spent with our class running a school newspaper. We wrote all sorts of articles about the kids in school and even threw in some current affairs articles.

We had a good time doing all of that, but it did not push me over the edge as far as wanting to write. That same year during history class out teacher had us write papers during a couple different units of history. First was the Civil War and then World War II. I picked to write about Naval battles for both wars. This was when I first began to learn how to research and us my own words when telling a story. The biggest problem I faced then, and still do, I am a horrible speller. I am better now, but there are still times I get spellcheck to say, “WTF is that?”

In high school, I again fell into disliking English class and basic composition class. I was not the best student in either, so I decided to take two more writing courses along the way, Creative writing and Expository Writing (How to write professionally).

After my time in the Navy, I went back into the Engineering field and soon found myself technical writing. I started out as a Parts book author and then moved into writing Technical Manuals. Along with this, I also did service magazine articles. The focus was to tell mechanics how to fix Caterpillar Paving Equipment. At first, it was exciting. But, after a while, it was rather dull. After all, how many ways are there to remove a tire?

My creative side remained hidden for a good many years. My wife had told me I needed to write the story of how she and I met. But, just could not do it for some reason. Then for some crazy unknown reason, I began running a story in my head. First, it was a way to overload my brain so I could fall asleep faster. Then I started to run it through my head while I drove.

Now, I sit on the cups of a total creative explosion. Seriously, ideas continuously run through my head. I start to revise them mentally until I either tell my self that it is a bad idea, or  I start to write it down. If it gets on paper, I am going to use it. I have a folder of scenes writing but no logical place to put them in a larger story. But, the idea is now there.

The moral of this story, never expect your life’s journey to be straight forward. Not everybody has an A to B life path. Some of us have multiple hard 90 degree turns along the way.

Why I Write

            My initial reason to start my blog was to share my writing. To do that, I started off with my boot camp experience while in the Navy. Now that has been shared, I will be adding more Navy stories as well as posts about writing. I know, reading posts about writing, sounds fun. But, it can be, you just have to take a step back.

I chose the name of the blog for a reason, experiences give inspiration. My Navy experiences have given me the inspiration to share those. Other experiences I have lived gave me the inspiration to write a romance book. Yes, I did just say I wrote a romance book. Well, a series really, but I did write it.

I combined two separate experiences in my book. First, let me talk a little about it, and you will see where it came from. It is a story about sailors. Yes, it’s a Navy book. Well, not really a Navy book, so to speak, but ti is a romance set in the Navy. It centers on three friends who met in boot camp and who have spent their careers together so far. One particular sailor, Emily Rosen, is driven and has a big ambitious career goal, to be a Command Master Chief on a destroyer.

What does that mean? I set the story in 1994, and women were just starting to serve on combatant ships. Emily is assigned to a tender, repair ship. But, she wants to be the top enlisted person on a destroyer, at the time that was a lofty unheard of goal. But, she is driven to do it. She wants to make it. She has had a hard time with relationships and has put ant of those ideas on the back burner.  

While leaving for a 6-month deployment, she sees a man on another ship taking pictures. She is feeling lonely, so she waves to him, he waves back. Later she tells herself to forget about it and concentrate on the Navy. In Naples 2 months later, she is needed to fix a problem on a destroyer. She does this and meets another sailor Gene Bain. They fix the problem, and Gene invites her to lunch on his ship.

Gene is not in the market either, because he is recently divorced after choosing the Navy over his wife. And, with this being a romance, you can see eventually they become involved, which they do to a certain level. The Navy being the Navy, they are separated.

OK, you can see my Navy experience playing into this. But, another experience played into it as well. It is my relationship with my wife, Valerie. In nearly every way, Valerie is Emily and I am Gene. She had told me to write a book about our relationship, but I just never could. I finally tied two separate aspects of my life into one story, which will span several books.

At the moment, book #1, “In The Stars,” is being edited and has a tentative release date of mid-2021.

Two experiences that formed one inspiration. The lesson here is if you want to write but do not know what to write, look at yourself. You have stories that can be interesting. 

Letters From Home – Gas Chamber

C077/K051 – Feb 21 – Apr 25, 1990

It is good to get some solid dates as to what we did and when. I already wrote about the Gas Chamber, I’ll add a link below. It is funny how, when boot cam started and we were threatened with different punishments, we were scared it would happen, but the later we got into training, we were not scared.

I remember by this time in training, we still had a few hard cases who just would not get with it. And as mentioned below, one more left us for some extra training. Packed his seabag and did the walk of shame to his new company two weeks to the rear.

The letter was written on our 6-2 day of training. Odd, I don’t mention controlled liberty.

Hi Guys,                                                                                              90Apr10

Well, today we got gassed. That tear gas really burns your eyes and nose. I took off my mask and “bang” it hit me. I screamed out my name and left very fast. My eyes were running, and I could hardly see a thing. The burning only lasted a few seconds, then it was gone, but I don’t feel like going back.

Tomorrow is our day to fight fires. All I know is we go in the morning and learn to fight fires the Navy way. Today was out last locker inspection. I passed, but 5 others didn’t. One guy even got put to the rear two weeks. The CC’s weren’t really happy, but they weren’t super mad either. Now they are telling us to do good, or we won’t get uncontrolled liberty after pass in review. It’s just a threat like freezing the company. But, I’ not sure whether people care.

Yesterday we got out dummy orders and leave request papers. So far, I’m a nuke still and have to be over to Orlando NTC by May 10. Can you check on prices fro lane tickets from Orlando to Rockford? The Navy is going to check on a ticket for me, but I have a feeling you might be able to get a cheaper one.

I went to the eye doctor Monday, and everything is finally OK. The vision is back to 20/20. I talked to Kathy a little, and she said everything is going great. She told me about some of the gifts she got at her first shower.
Well, I just wanted to let you know what was going on. It’s almost lights out so time to run.

April 25 Orlando to Rockford. Leave Orlando around 1:00pm.

Thanks a lot, take care!

Jim

https://www.theexperienceofme.com/2020/05/the-gas-chamber.html

I must be mistaken.

USS Scott DDG 995 Feb 91 – Jan 92

Early one crisp Saturday morning, I was walking down the pier to my ship, USS Scotts DDG995. I had duty this particular Saturday, causing me to wake up early to drive from my apartment in this specific early fall morning. It was a little chilly out, so naturally, I put on my jacket from the technical college I went to.
After the drive to the base and finding a spot in the farthest parking lot near the destroyer piers, I began my walk to my ship. It was probably around 6:30 am, since I had to be onboard by 8:00 am and being late was not an option. Besides, I had to change and enjoy an excellent Navy breakfast.

For such an early part of the day, the pier was full of activity. There were probably half a dozen ships tied up to the pier, among them were two Destroyer tenders with 1500 sailors on each.

 As I made my way down the pier, I heard footsteps next to me. I glanced over to my left and saw a young Lt.

I was about to say, “Good Morning Sir,” But he gave me a quick salute and said, “Good morning, sir.” Here is the rub, I was only a Third Class Petty Officer at the time.

He must have deduced from my jacket that I had to be an officer since I went to MIT. Yes, I said, MIT. I seriously went to MIT, well, not that one, but I did go to one. Our school, colors were even the same at the real MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The school I went to was the Morrison Institute of Technology, a small engineering technical college in Illinois.

I laughed to myself because of the encounter. Later that day, I was on the pier with a group of my shipmates. I forget what we were doing, but as we were walking, I saw that same Lt approaching us. The sailors I was with each saluted him and addressed him.
When it was my turn, I snapped off a crisp salute, with a commanding, “Good Afternoon Sir!”

He obviously recognized me because his reply was far from military. He did not return my salute and instead replied, “Yeah, whatever.” As he shook his head. 

I laughed after he passed, and the guys with me asked me WTF was that about?


I told them about the morning encounter. They laughed with me.

So, be careful when making assumptions. 

Letters From Home – Sisters Birthday

C077/K051 – Feb 21 – Apr 25, 1990

My sister's birthday is on April 1, so I was writing to her since I would not get a card. But, I do explain that to her, this must-have ben after our third week as well. I try as hard as I can to transcribe the letters as they are, but I just cannot help but fix some of the poor grammar.

Hey, Lorri 90Mar26

Well, since I can't get out to buy you a birthday card, I thought I (world) write a quick letter. Last week was really strange, inspections every day. Our sister company was beating us all week until the locker inspection. They had 14 people fail. Until then, they were leading the training group. We got a blue streamer, which means we met the standard. They did not get any streamer to put on their first comp flag.

Tomorrow is our second infantry inspection. We have to make three left turns while marching to music. The other problem is we also carry our guns and "flip" them around. Today we went out and practiced for at least three hours in THE HOT FLORIDA SUN. The weather flag went to amber for 2 of those hours. The flag lets the CC's know how much they can push us outside. Green is normal, and amber is two steps below the green.

Our sister company was out with us too, and their CC's were being mean to them. They were making them do push-ups, sit-ups, and 8 count bodybuilders. Then they had to run around the grinder with their guns. Our Cc's were making guys do push-ups and laps for messing up. I didn't have to do any.

Friday, we start workweek. Sixty of us have to work in the galley. If I work there, I'm going to be mean to the guys who just got done working there. Right now, they know we're next to work, so they're treating us rotten.

Being a recruit with a few weeks under your belt is really fun. We can make fun of the RIF's, the fresh guys. We tell them horror stories about 1-5 day and the third-week inspections. Then we say stuff like, "Hey, you dropped your billet number" and "Hey your military bearing just fell on the floor." Those are both recruit jokes you civilians might not understand.

Boot camp is starting to get fun. We've already got a radio, and most companies don't get one until their 5th week. Well, I've got to go shine my boots for the infantry inspection tomorrow. Have a great birthday, and take it easy. Bye for now. Jim

So, as we read, I was really into messing with the RIFs. I guess we all were at one point. And of course, looking forward to work week and harassing anyone we could while doing that. According to my calendar, this was written the night of our 4-1 day. We had just had our CSRE Locker Inspection. Since I did mention it, it looks like work week started on out 4-5 days, a Friday. I do remember that with the companies from PIR coming in wearing whites.

I cannot believe I wrote that letter on spiral-bound paper. That was the only one from the group to have been written as such.