Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 4 Continued

 Bob explains the *items

As shown in Washing Clothes and Personal Inspection (P.I.) some things mentioned just can't be left alone without and explanation of what took place. These are several more items that need further description.

Barracks Inspection:  Each morning, as we were inspected in the drill hall, our barracks was inspected.

The picture at right gives a small look at what our barracks looked like, with me in the background beside my bunk. I really can't remember if I had top or bottom bunk.
Preparation for daily inspection started in the evening, before going to bed (hitting the rack).  Cleaning sessions, or what is referred to in the Navy as "Field Day", was held late, so not much traffic was on the floor (deck) after cleaning.  Floors were swabbed. One swabber,  one ringer, two bucket runners.  Because, as the Navy says, you never swab a deck with dirty water.  Therefore, once a swab (Mop) was dipped into a bucket, you needed fresh water. You only dipped a swab in a bucket one time before it was changed out. So, two bucket runners provided clean water for one swabber and swab ringer. Others dusted windows, tables, bunk rails, locker tops and any other surface around. After breakfast, as most of the Company marched to the drill hall for P.I., a group of 5 men was sent back to the barracks to give it a final going over before inspection. They swabbed the floor one last time, usually in the high traffic areas, checked allignment of all bunks and ditty bags. Ditty bags? Oh yeah. In the picture at right, notice the two bags hanging on the end of the bunk? Those are ditty bags.  That was your dirty clothes bag. One was hung on the end of each bunk and your dirty clothes were put in that until you washed them. They had to be tied in a square knot and perfectly aligned with every other ditty bag in the row. So, these guys made sure all bunks, chairs, ditty bags, lockers, etc. were in order and properly aligned before they left to join the company.

Swimming lessons:  I'll call them lessons, but actually they were swimming tests.  You only took lessons if you failed the tests. These were tests to make sure you could swim well

 enough to abandon ship. The picture at right was the posture you assumed when jumping in from high elevations, which one would normally do when abandoning a ship. The next picture confused me. I'd always remembered us jumping in with our pants on, not holding them.  But, I may be wrong. So I'll go with what the picture shows.  Anyway, one other test we had to pass was to jump into the water with our pants, tie a knot in each leg, then flip it over on top the water to catch air.  This would be a float. It wouldn't hold air very long, but constantly flipping it when deflated would help to keep you afloat.  We did this with our shirt, too. Same test.  Also our Navy White Hats. Some of us not so skilled swimmers had a hard time treading water and tying knots in pantlegs and shirtsleeves.
Another test was to swim the length of the pool underwater. We didn't need to hold our breaths the whole way, but when we surfaced to breathe we had to splash water around simulating coming up in patches of burning oil.  I was never a very strong swimmer.  I can get it done, but I had a tough time with the pants as a float test.  Luckily, when I did it, I manuevered close to the edge, several people in the water at the same time, and I climbed out without being caught 

and only one of my legs tied. Whew!
One other test was for swimming distance. All we had to do was to be able to swim the length of the pool.  I was able to do that pretty easily.

Gas Mask Training:  This wasn't fun. We went to a class for gas mask use. This was a classroom setting, teaching us the proper fitting, uses, names of the parts, what they would be used for, and the different types.  We'd heard about this class from other people who had already taken it, so we knew what was in store.  After classroom work, we put on our gas masks, lined up, and marched to the 'Gas Chamber'.  This was a small building, about the size of a 2 car garage.  We marched inside, where there were benches along all the outside walls.  After the whole company was in, the door was closed and we sat down.  Masks on, making sure they fit properly.  Then tear gas was released.  We had to sit there for several minutes, breathing through our masks, making sure they didn't leak and getting confidence that they really did work.  Then, standing up, we were told to remove the masks, hold them over our heads, and march around the inside of the building, which we had to do for probably one minute, but it seemed longer.  Then as we left one by one, we had to give our name and service number before exiting.  Let me tell you, tear gas makes water run from places you didn't even know you could run water from.  Eyes, nose, mouth....like turning on a faucet.  Even after you got outside it took awhile to stop the flow.  Then back to the classroom, clean the masks for the next bunch of suckers, and we were done.  Being inside a building with tear gas is an experience most people outside of holed up hostage takers don't get to experience.

Thus concludes Chapter 4.  I know I've spent a long time on Boot Camp, and you may wonder how long is this tale of Bob's four years in the Navy going to take.  It won't take nearly as long to cover the rest of the time after Boot Camp, but this period needed a lot of description.  I'll graduate from here before long.

to be continued.........