USS Scott: Mess Cranking

USS Scott DDG-995

Feb 1991-Jan 1992

 

Mess Cranking       

 

Of the various jobs I had on Scott mess, cranking was hands down the worst. I reported on board as a GSM3 (E-4) and was hoping that would keep me off the mess cranking list. When I started in the oil lab and helo refueling team, there was another chance to keep me off the list.

But, to no avail, I had to go, as did my A-School friend, GSM3 Escobedo. I will admit part of me being on the list was my own fault. Had I pushed and became oil king qualified during LeoOps, I would have missed that fun. But, uncharacteristically, I slacked off slightly.

Escobedo went to the chief's mess, and I went into the galley. I swear I was being punished for not getting Oil King. Most of the cooks were decent guys. A couple of them were jerks, or they just treated the cranks poorly. I remember one guy who baked the bread. He was an MS2 when I reported on board but slowly was down to MSSN. Just wanted out of the Navy and took any route to do it.

For some odd reason, I remember an MS3 Cheney. He was just unique in my memory. Even stranger is how he hated doing anything with jalapenos or onions. He never liked cutting them and asked me to do it for him from time to time. We were not supposed to do any food prep, but we did from time to time.

Most of our duties were cleaning and serving. We were busy pretty much all day from before breakfast until late at night. It was not a decent job. I had the pleasure of doing this while on the North Atlantic cruise. It was rather rough at times, and things in the galley could get messy then. Pots full of whatever would fall on the deck, and of course, who had to clean it up?

The job I just disliked the most and got stuck with the most was washing the pots and pans used in food prep. There is no easy way to say this, but it just sucked. You were busy the whole time during the meal and them after the meal. Nobody helped, and the sink got plugged up all the time. It was wet hot nasty work and being tall, I had to half bend over the whole time.

Serving food was the most straightforward job in the galley part of the job. I spent very little time on the mess decks cleaning there. The serving was straight up, give out a proper portion of what people wanted. Easy, right? Except remember leaving Bergen in the storm? That was hard to serve that night. Another service I remember was in Germany a couple days later. We had turkey, and Cheny had plenty carved up. But, being our only night in Germany, he wanted to get cleaned up fast. So, he was cleaning while I was serving. We ran out of cut turkey. So, I was told, cut it. I butchered that bird all to hell. 

At one time, I was assigned to the "Jack of the Dust." The guy who picked the next day's food from the storeroom. That was actually a decent week or two. We had a list of what food to get, and we did. The storeroom was jammed with food, and we had to belly crawl on top of the boxes to find the proper location. Then we had to dig out the right box. After a week of removing boxes, there was more room to move around. The freezers were the hardest to move things around in. They were packed top to bottom, front to back. Plus, they were pretty cold. Sometimes we had to unpack most of the boxes to find the right one.

Typically, you spent 90 days doing this, but my time was split. I was able to stop in the middle so I could attend some training at Little Creek for boiler water feed water school, Navy Fuels School, and JP5 School. This pushed me back to the beginning of the Med Cruise. There was a glimmer of hope near the end of my time for a slight reprieve. The advancement results were announced, and the Chief over the galley said anyone who makes it can be done cranking today. The results were announced, and I made E5. The Chief then renigged on his comment and did not let me out. I really do think I was being punished for not getting oil king sooner.

But, I finished my time, 97 days in all, and survived. During my time, I also kept refueling the helo and my duties as oil king while UNREP. I know that caused a rub with the galley staff. That helo came in at the strangest times, and I was there to fill her up. Sometimes we sat and had to wait, so I would be gone for a while during mealtime. UNREPs were a little different. Those typically did not happen during the middle of a meal, but they would drag on into mealtime. I did enjoy UNREPs; more on those later.

For you non-Navy readers who made it this far, let me help you a little. Mess cranking is a collateral duty that people do when they first report to their ships. It is ships service work, and just about everyone does it. On some larger ships, people also work in the laundry. On our destroyer for mess cranking, you could work in the main galley, the Chief's Mess, or the wardroom. The wardroom was where the officers ate. Those assigned there also did other services fr the officers, such as getting their laundry.

Also, a UNREP is refueling at sea. I will talk about those later. JP5 is fuel for our helo, and only certain people can refuel the helo. I will also cover that later on.