Wednesday, March 12, 2008
St. Maxime, France 1998
During one my first port visits back in the Navy I had a rather interesting experience on July 14, 1998 during the USS ANZIO’s second port visit, I had an altercation while visiting a port visit on the Southern Coast of France during Bastille Day. I was a 20 year old kid fresh out of boot camp and a deck seaman recruit at that, the Captain, a day earlier had put out the Lawful Orders for our port visit, one was, no more than 3 drinks per person per day and the other was to have a buddy at all times while on shore leave. This seemed logical to me but being that I was young, impressionable, and wet behind the ears I found myself forgetting these commandments as soon as my buddy challenged me to a drinking contest. In short I drank my buddy under the table and then attempted to carry him back to the liberty barge when we ran into some of his other shipmates, they offered to help me take him to the pier and once there we sat him down. He was done for the night and they wanted to head back to the ship but for some reason I decided to go off alone, in search of a club. It was a short trip because 5 minutes later I ran into shore patrol all by my lonesome and they escorted me back to the pier. My buddy, Nick Safos was there, barely conscience and not looking so good. The bumpy barge ride back to the boat didn’t help matters either. When we arrived to the ship the Officer of the Deck chewed my butt off for 30 minutes and ordered me to my birthing. A couple of days later I went to Captain’s Mass and was awarded 45 days restriction 45 days extra duty and ½ month pay for 2 months. It was really stupid and it wasn’t worth 45 days restriction to the boat and the 45 days extra duty days that followed during the best part of the 6 month cruise but I was young and my priorities were in the wrong place. About the time I got off restriction we were order to War inthe Arabian Gulf for the rest of the 6 month cruise. Many of you don’t actaully remember but there were a couple of conflicts in betwee the Gulf War and the Iraq War, this one called Operation Desert Fox.
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3 comments:
Sounds like a good time.
Man, that brings back memories. Although, I was not in the Navy, but the Army and stationed in Germany. After coming back from Operation Joint Guard in Bosnia in 1998 for six months, I pretty much did the same thing. I was not ordered not to drink, but was caught contributing to a minor. Of course, I had just turned 21 at the time and I had buddies younger than me. My point is, every young man or woman has experienced a drinking event in the military. Who is not going to drink, given orders or not, I am fighting for my country and I deserve the right to drink. Those were my thoughts....
The rules about minors makes it really difficult for young adults who have a variety of friends to transistion. Often it isn't the age, it's the maturity that really matters. You could make a poll/survey question. What's your favorite beer-drinking band?! That's some good stuff.
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