I was stationed on the Carp (SS-338) in Norfolk in the mid 60s. I knew and hung out with some of those people. Thelma, the waitress at Belles was a fixture on the strip outside the base. She was lewd and rude and crude and probably slept with half the Atlantic fleet. I remember one night around closing time and she is behind the bar yelling OK boys slap em down on the bar and I'm going home with the biggest one-and they did-and she did. Percy Turner the engineman was on the Carp when I came aboard and he was a very funny guy. He was also a very large person and after one patrol he had to stay on the boat for a couple of weeks after we got back to port because he couldn't fit thru the hatch! We had a party one time where the married men brought their wives and as we were sitting around shooting the **** someone commented on the size of his belly and his response was yeah but it all turns to peter at midnight at which point his wife screams out in mock horror "Oh Percy". Some of the best times of my life were on that boat! The COB on the Carp put the boat into commission in WW2(as a seaman) and decommissioned her in 69. Back then Submariners were the only ones in the Navy who could have mustaches and beards so we took full advantage. I had kind of scraggly beard but I kept it cause They wouldn't let me stand inspection with it. Guys had earrings on the boats way back then! We wore sandals and cutoffs out at sea. I(and a lot of others) would probably still be in the brig if we were on a Carrier with all those petty little bulls**t rules the surface Navy had. Good times-good people I miss 'em all!
Urge
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