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An Exercise in Visualizing the Invisible

Otherwise, I found life onboard ship boring as usual, so much so, that one day I was moved to paint what I was feeling after having been assigned to paint some pipes that ran up beside an exterior bulkhead along the starboard side of the hangar bay. Since these pipes had already been prepped, I [...]

Yankee Station

In the silence that overcame me as I refixed my gaze upon the stark panorama, which had unfolded before my eyes, I recalled some vague passage from the Gospel of Luke (12:54-57): “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say immediately that rain is coming—and so it does. When the wind blows [...]

The Vagaries of a Melancholy Mood

As the ship steamed relentlessly southward at full speed ahead, the mood of the crew grew conspicuously more somber. Forced to let go of the frenzied and orgiastic pleasures of a Dionysian holiday in Japan, they unwillingly surrendered themselves to the more Apollonian way of life found onboard the ship. Totally incapable of seeing beyond [...]

For Reasons of Unsuitability

Not long afterwords, was I ordered to report to the XO’s stateroom. With some anxiety, did I proceed to his stateroom, for I had been on pretty good behavior, of late, or so I thought. “Come in,“ responded the XO to the knock on his door. “Mr. Drury, Sir,“ I reported upon entering his stateroom. [...]

The Respect a Wild Animal Has for Fire

Over the next thirty days, I was made to perform the most inane work imaginable, tasks strictly meant to be punitive. Many an evening was I forced to scrub oily decks down in the bilges, on my hands and knees, with an old brush and can of scouring powder. Or worse yet, was I made [...]

The Price We Must Pay for Our Actions

After we’d pulled out of Yokuska, later that morning, I was ordered by the master-at-arms to report, in dress whites, to the Captain’s stateroom for a Captain’s Mast. With my entry into the Captain’s stateroom on the heels of the master-at-arms, I found the XO and a yeoman from the ship’s office already standing by. [...]

The True Meaning of Forgiveness

I was so overwhelmed by my own existential pain that, to this very day, I can recall little else about the trip back to Yokuska. O how I did long for a way out of the nightmare that haunted me, both day and night. O how I ached for the physical presence of Mary, as [...]

Walking on Water

Having been relieved of my duties, I was sent below, never to stand another watch while I remained in First Division. Even I had to laugh as variations of the story, about how I’d hit the old man in the head with orange peelings, filtered back down to me through the crew. Lest I get [...]

She Who Must Be Obeyed

As Fate would have Her way, I was not destined to enjoy any pleasure cruise, for She was bound and determined to stir up the waters of life, enough to keep me at odds with the Navy. Unable to circumvent my fate for very long, I began to see why She had earned the name [...]

The Real Reason

Shortly thereafter, we were granted shore leave into some small port along the coast of South Korea, accessible only by launch. Since I had to stand watch that evening, I was unable to go ashore. But that didn’t stop those whose noses had sniffed out some free p___y. Hootin’ ’n’ hollerin’, like a pack of [...]