Sailors Helping Sailors

By Garland Davis

Hambone’s story and a conversation with him on Facebook Chat about the Petty Officers Club in Yokosuka, also known as the Asshole Locker reminded me of this story.

I was CS1, leading cook in USS Mahopac. I got into a conversation with a CS1, the leading cook in USS Chandler. He was telling me they were getting ready to deploy and he had a problem. The only cook who knew hot to bake bread had transferred. He told me that he had never worked as a baker and didn’t know how to train a cook to do the job.

I started explaining to him the steps in the process for yeast-raised bread and pastry doughs. He was scribbling furiously in a wheel book and asking questions that could only be answered by a hands-on demonstration. We decided that I would come to the Chandler the next evening and hold a class in bread baking.

The next night we mustered in Chandler’s galley. I took the CS1 and two of his cooks through the process of baking yeast raised rolls by actually baking thirty loaves of bread and cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

It being a Friday night, Saturday morning we mustered at the Club where I was treated to many free drinks.

Many times, problems were solved, help was asked for, and received between fellow Petty Officers over a few drinks at the P.O. Club.

With the heightened security these days. I probably couldn’t get past the Quarterdeck of a ship unless I was ship’s company.