Comments

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  Emmet Molloy April 16, 2018 at 8:44am

  I am from the time it was “commissaryman”. I didn’t start cooking until the summer of 1967 on the Naval Deperming Station, Norfolk (actually located on the Elizabeth River) even though I enlisted in August of 1965. That station is where they demagnetized ships, and maybe still do. We did mostly subs and I was a an E3 when I arrived there and handled the cables used in the Deperming (degaussing) process along with other sailors there. I also ran the liberty launch back and forth from the station to the landing at Lambert’s Point. The station was in the middle of the river. There were two cooks there when I arrived but the one got new orders and the E6 in charge of the galley needed a new helper, and I became his trainee. His name was Bob Pyatt from Columbus, Ohio. We had about 15 sailors on that station and Bob and I rotated in the galley once I was good enough to handle the meals on my own. He was an excellent guy to learn under and I learned fast from the recipe service cards. Bob usually stayed on the station most every weekend which gave me weekends off. I had my car there on the landing so I headed home to Pa. on the weekends or to my friend’s home in Maryland. When my next orders came they were for Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I went there in late January 1968 and was there until August 1969. I worked at what was then, (now?} Bay Hill Galley and worked “port and starboard “ shifts with the other cooks and stayed in a separate barracks called the “cook shack”.  I think it held about 16 cooks, it has been a long time. I did just about everything, grills, ovens, kettles, butcher shop, store room, education petty officer, line server and cooked eggs to order on the grill for breakfast. Normal days were from 4:30 am until 6:00 pm. Hot as it was there, I took salt tablets from the dispenser and usually worked in the galley with a wet cold towel around my neck. I had a great chief petty officer by the name of Cecil Moss from Oklahoma who was in charge. It got a bit boring there at times but we could take a ship that was there for fleet training, and go to Haiti or Jamaica on a given weekend. I have fond memories of some wonderful shipmates that I met there. Windmill beach in the afternoons, the club and movie and just sitting behind the cook shack at night telling stories and singing some country songs. We also had a weight room next to the barracks where we worked out. 
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  Ricky L Covic November 12, 2017 at 11:17pm

  I entered MS A school at NTC San Diego in Nov of 1975 and finished in Jan of 1976. I was 7th out of a class of 35 and was Stationed after school at the Officer's Club and BOQ on Midway Island from Feb 76 to Apr. 77
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  Eddie L Muller May 5, 2016 at 12:01am

  I started  cooking at NTC, San Diego in 1958 and ended my career at EM Galley Subic Bay, P.I. in1968 as an E5
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  Elizabeth Abustan (St.Amour) January 8, 2016 at 9:04pm

  I was the first female Steward,I went to CS/SD CLASS A NTC San Diego March/April 1973.
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  Brad Bartz July 12, 2013 at 2:28pm

  WE MAY NOT BE THE ELITE OF THE FLEET

  BUT WITHOUT THE COOKS,THE ELITE DON'T EAT!
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  Brad Bartz July 12, 2013 at 2:27pm

  Hey all. I wasn't your average stew burner.I love the rating.Even learned advanced food art(flowers out of everything,swans,you name it I carve it).Worked in the wardroom on 5 destroyers,and the USS Kitty Hawk main crew's mess. I've got some hilarious stories for my shipmates.I salute the cooks.
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  John W. Souder July 27, 2011 at 1:48pm

  I was a mess management specialist on 4 ships...USS Exploit, USS Affray, USS Adroit (Mine Sweepers) and USS Nimitz...On the Mine Sweepers I cooked for a crew of 80 and on Nimitz I cooked for the Officers in one of the Wardrooms and I also had the pleasure of being the XO's cook on Nimitz also...before I was stationed on the carrier I went to MS "A" School in San Diego...
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  William R Batten June 8, 2011 at 10:49am

  My name is Russell Batten and I was an MS3 on board the USS John Hancock

  (DD-981),Uss Leader(MSO-490),and the USS South Carolina.I wasn't on board

  the SoCar very long till I had an accident and was on med hold,then medically

  discharged.
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  Deanna Little June 12, 2010 at 5:25pm

  i agree we got our grubb onnn!!!
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  Donald Krein June 5, 2010 at 12:31am

  Cooking for the Navy we the cooks always had the best grub and how we can make deals for gear.