If you worked for Ringling Brothers
Barnum and Bailey at any time in your life, you were always circus people.
Din't matter if you set up the tent, showed up to shovel zebra poop or
were the ringmaster... You were always 'circus people'. You knew the language
of the circus... The secret handshake and how elephants smelled.
Same with boat sailors. From mess cook
to the skipper, you were submariners... You were always a boat sailor...
It came with Dolphins.
My wife met me after I rode the boats.
She knew nothing about my service days because the only evidence left by
the time we married was an old, tarnished set of Dolphins in my cufflink
box... A cherished photo in a silver frame of our skipper, Cdr. Edward
Frothingham and my old foul weather jacket that my new bride kept trying
to send off to the Salvation Army.
In 1991, I found out that the Requin
was in Pittsburgh. I told Solveig that I wanted to see it again... But
I realized that it would mean very little to her. So, I decided to take
her to New London, the Vatican of Undersea Warfare.
Not wanting to drive a helluva long
way to be turned away by some jarhead at the gate, I phoned the base. I
got some operator who didn't know where to route the call. The next thing
I knew, I was talking to some four-striper.
"Sir, I know you're busy. They should
have connected me with your 'stupid questions' J.G."
"I don't know... What's your question?"
I explained that I was a qualified diesel
boat sailor. I emphasized that I was NOT an officer... In fact, I had spent
most of my tour as one of the lowest life forms in the submarine force.
I told him I just wanted to see the base once more.
He asked,
"Do you still have your Dolphins?"
"Yes sir, sure do."
"Did yours come with an expiration date
on the back?"
"Expiration date?"
"When you go home tonight, check your
Dolphins and if there is no expiration date on the back, you are still
as valued by the submarine force as you were the day we pinned them on
you. We will expect you and your wife at the main gate at zero eight hundred
on such and such a date. Plan to spend your entire day with us."
That conversation validated the brilliance
of the decision we all made to ride the boats. They treated us like visiting
royalty.
That night, at the Mystic Days Inn,
for the first time my little blue-eyed Norwegian recognized that twenty-five
years earlier, the fellow she had married had once been one of a special
band of men.
I'm sure somebody did something so evil
they took away his Dolphins but I never heard about it. It's like a girl
giving up her virginity... Takes place once and the condition lasts a lifetime.
Dolphins are unique.
Officers get gold Dolphins. If you wore
gold Dolphins, you must set an example... Never admit that you know games
of chance take place on board... That cross-pollination occasionally took
place on the bridge on duty nights... And you never stood topside watch.
You lived in a nice residence and could afford personal transportation.
Enlisted men get silver Dolphins. If
you wore silver Dolphins, they allowed you to set an example for monkey
house residents and you lived in an off-base gin mill... And you never
forgot the men who accepted you as their shipmate.
Most books about submarines are written
by gentlemen who wore gold Dolphins or guys like Clancy who became an expert
by mystic innoculation and never saw his name on a qual card.
But there is a book... A book written
by a real raghat who wore cloth Dolphins and a combat pin... A fellow who
knows what little lethal packages called Japanese depth charges sound like.
His name is Ron Smith... His book, Torpedoman. If you haven't read it,
you should... If for no other reason than former torpedoman Ron Smith is
in dire need of clean socks... And he was one of our silver Dolphin representatives
in what Tom Brokaw calls 'The Greatest Generation'.
I can relate a personal fringe benefit
of reading Ron's literary masterpiece. When your bouncing bride puts it
down, looks at you and asks,
"What is strip poker?"
If you play your 'cards' right, you
are in for a very interesting evening. You won't find anything like that
in other books written on the topic.
Silver Dolphins... We got the complete
lifetime package. Not the Ginsu knife lifetime 'Where-will-they-be-when-I'm-eighty?'
warranty. No expiration date... No 'Use by...' instructions or 'Mail in
by...' warning. Just a complete lifetime knowing guys who forgive your
sins and accept you, warts and all.
Dolphins... The damndest common denominator
ever made. |