Submarine Humor

Back in my days at Naval Officer Candidate School, one of the courses I had to take had a section dealing with anti-submarine warfare (from the laughable perspective of the surface fleet). The instructor did get in one good jab in his introductory lecture though. "The submarine has already done half your job: it has sunk itself. All you have to do is make sure it stays there."

Why did I remember this? Because sometimes in Naval training, you'd get as a course instructor some crusty, colorful old chief or warrant officer who'd occasionally tell good sea stories if he finished a lecture early. Today, I made a stop over at A Geezer's Corner, where salty dog (and Navy lifer wannabe) Bothenook tells a couple of hilarious sea stories. If morbid curiosity doesn't drive you there to find out what, exactly, a "shit laser" is, go there to laugh out loud. Both stories are great. Thanks for the memories, chief! (Sez Gus, probably stepping in it. But at least I wasn't sprayed with it! Heh!)

And it was also through the Geezer that I learned of Scrappleface's take on the commissioning of the USS Jimmy Carter. This demanded skewering and I'm glad somebody did it. (Although Scrappleface seems unaware that there really is an animal called the sea hare. It's a mollusc that balls up and squirts ink when attacked. So the real thing is also appropriate!)

-- CAV