Comments

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  Jim Decota October 17, 2012 at 1:55pm

  Now I know why that Jello we had in September always seemed to have a thick skin on it! It also seemed they were saving something for those newbies that marched over from the Nimitz side!
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  Rick Gamber October 17, 2012 at 11:43am

  During Service Week in San Diego back in the summer of 72 I made jello.  We made jello in the afternoon for the next day.  In the mornings I cut jello into little squares, prepped it by putting that little square of red or green or yellow jello on a piece of lettuce and putting it on a tray.  IF, by chance that little square piece of jello 'wiggled' its way off the plate, off the tray and onto the floor of the reefer, it was not wasted!  In the interest of the government and the US Navy that little square of jello was recycled!  See the above prep description. 

  To this day I do not eat commercially prepared jello!
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  Stick September 28, 2012 at 5:53pm

  Well,while at RTC Gt Lakes..never did any kind of mess cookin..after basic got to go to ADCOM SECURITY at Gt Lakes...still no mess cooking...about 1 yr later got orders to NAS WHIDBEY IS and VAH 6...got to the squadron hanger/personnel office and never set foot in the barracks...got sent to the mess hall at the seaplane base there on the other side of the island...our Chief was one of the best..and basically told noobs you don't screw up you'll be just fine IIRC all I can remember was we always called him Chief Robby..the man really cared about his people..One guy got a nasty cut one time n the Chief took him personally to the base hospital...Then like 90 days later I went back to the squadron and did COOP CLEANIN...later I was assigned to MAINT CTL..kept statuses on AC...parts needed..decipher pilots chicken track writings in the log books...a couple I even had to find the pilot n ask "W T H is this ....sir?"
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  Robert John Friedhaber September 2, 2012 at 10:32am

  Jim Decota
  We might be coming to Albany next year. The Uss Norris has Albany listed as one of the cities for our next reunion.
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  Jim Decota September 1, 2012 at 8:34pm

  Never had to do mess duty or service week at San Diego! Since I was in the BJC we kind of got out of things like that! Well...up until this past Spring that is! We had our Michigan crew in for their Spring week. I wound up with mess duty in the AM with the Chief and then again at lunch since whoever was scheduled didn't show. The Chief told me to watch the fries in "the" oven and put them on a tray and bring them down to the mess deck when they were done. Which I did! 15 minutes later the Chief comes to the top of the ladder and yells "hey Doc! Get up here!" Which also I did! Upon reaching the top of the ladder I could see the smoke billowing out of the galley. He said "I though I told you to take out the fries and turn off the oven?" I "respectfully" replied that I had done just that! Well...turns out he had two ovens going and two trays cooking! Needless to say, I have managed to avoid mess duty since!

  Bob, if you make over this way I will add your name to the mess duty list! hehe
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  Robert John Friedhaber September 1, 2012 at 3:51pm

  I had 3 months of mess cooking when I went aboard my first ship after "A" school. I used a potato machine that had a rough inside that rubbed the skins off. I also made the salads & dressings.
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  Ronald C. Brabbin September 1, 2012 at 1:36pm

  when I  had mess cooking at San Diego NTC I was serving butter with a fork tine bent down and a knife held with the handle under the tines, I could put a pat of butter on a guys tray as soon as he picked it up.  Well I got caught serving butter way, also for throwing small boxes of cereal to the guys.  got extra duty, had the break eggs, broke 10 cases with 32 dozen to a case, started with one egg at time and a cook showed me the fast way.  a big lattle and grab two hand full of eggs and smash them in the lattle and the white and yoke overflows and the shell pieces stay in the lattel.  One egg didn't get broken and the cook said "it will".  My buddy was moving milk cans and hit a high spot in the floor and he also got extra duty for milk all over.  One guy was serving cookies and we would ask the new guy where are you from and we would tell them that guy serving cookies is from there and he was supposed to put two big cookies on their tray, well he had a bunch of cookie crumbs in the corner of the tray and would put two cookies on their tray then ask them if the wanted some cookie crumbs and when they would say yes, he would take the big serving spoon and smash the cookies he just gave them and tell them "move on" when he did that I had to laugh so hard my knees buckled,  he is lucky some guy didn't yank him over the counter. Good old mess cooking days.
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  Kenneth C. Shee September 1, 2012 at 9:27am

  During boot camp at Great Lakes,I spent service week in the frozen food lockers.Trailer loads of food came in and chow hall trucks took it out.Sometimes a box of orange popsickles or some other delicacy would hit the deck and break open.Of course it had to be consumed or go to waste. 
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  Rich Klemm August 23, 2012 at 9:08pm

  Actually in the "modern mechanized Navy" I never had to peel taters, either. But I did spend a fair share of my liberty hours cleaning the bilges, stripping/waxing the deck, and cleaning the head.
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  James W Ward August 23, 2012 at 5:34pm

  It's not like we all didn't check it out at least once. I never peeled the taters, but I did hang from the Anchor to chip old paint off.