Bug Juice
Let’s flash back to June 1978.
But first a preface:
I had joined the Navy on Halloween 1977 after crashing my
1970 GTO on Sept. 2nd 1977. You didn’t have to have insurance back
then, you just had to have the means to pay for any accident if it was your
fault. I had neither. ( I settled with State Farm 5 years later. I became broke
but not in jail) All my friends, my parents, my lawyer and the Judge thought it
was a good idea to get away, maybe a place where they don’t have cars. So,
since my good friend Greg had join the Navy, so did I. After boot camp, 2
occupation related schools and 30 days helping my recruiter in St. Joseph,
Missouri trying help get high school grads into the Navy, I finally got to my
Aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Saratoga, docked in Mayport, Florida in June 1978.
Back to the Bug juice:
After reporting aboard and getting some great initial help
and taken under his wing by Bob Hohulski, my first supervisor, who showed me
where the shop was and where I was to sleep, then promptly, I reported to “Mess
Cranking” duty. EVERY sailor back then had to do 90 days in the ship’s galley.
You would serve food, wash dishes, work break out way down in the freezers,
etc. I got “Veg Prep” for my initial duty. This was a little room off the end
of the galley where I was to prepare all the vegetables for each meal. ALL
vegetables were in big cans so I spend many hours turning a big can opener welded
to the corner of the table. I was also in charge of the “Bug Juice”. Bug juice
is what we all called Kool-Aid. You can imagine were the name came from as it
wasn’t the most sanitary place to work. So, I had this huge mixing tub. This
tub was big enough to bathe in and I stirred the bug juice with a huge
stainless steel oar after placing the exact amount of Kool-Aid, water and sugar
in there. The RULE was that you could only access the bug juice dispenser
located on the mess decks during meal hours. I had to remove the dispensers
during non-meal hours.
So, one day I had finished making the Kool-Aid and was about
to transfer some into the dispensers when I see this big metal hatch on the
deck open up and this big hot plume of steam came out…followed by a sweaty
looking dude climbing out. I had never seen that hatch open before so I stopped
just outside my veg prep door, staring at the situation. He loosens his belt
and pulls off a coffee cup that was hooked onto it through the handle and
redoes his belt. He looks at me looking at him, then looks past me at the bug
juice, cup in hand and cracks a smile as his eyes widen. He starts to walk
around me as I was a few feet in front of the entrance.
I protested saying,
“Hey, you can’t go in there.”
“I’m thirsty.”
He says, continuing forward to the tub of bug juice as he
bumps me out of the way with his shoulder.
I kind of stood there baffled and turned around and stood in
the center of the doorway,
I said, “Stop!” As he dipped his slimy cup in the tub of bug
juice.
As you know I am a man of principle and now a
stickler for rules because boot camp had me all psyched out. So even though he
was a 3rd class petty officer and senior to me, I felt I had “right” on my
side.
This is where I wish we had cameras everywhere, like we do
now. But alas, there is no video, so I will continue to paint you a picture.
This dude walks out drinking his bug juice, as I yell loudly
now,
“You can’t do that!”
Well, he grabs me around the throat with his left hand and
shoves me back into a stainless steel freezer and proceeds to slide me UP the
side as he continues to drink. He has me a foot or so off the ground and I am
still straining to yell at him to stop as I am trying to kick him with my feet
and trying to break his one handed grip on my throat with both of my hands. To
no avail.
LUCKILY for me, evidently, a Chief (E-7) walked by and
stopped at all the commotion. He assesses the situation for a second or two and
says, “Put him down son.”
Whereas I am again on solid footing.
The Chief asks ME what the problem is. I
emphatically say,
“He is trying to dip his slimy cup into the bug juice in
here.”
The Chief looks around and says, “Did this guy just come out
of that (still steaming) open hatch over there?”
“Yes.” I said.
“Well,” the Chief says,
“I suggest you let him have a drink. This guy is a “Snipe”.
He works down in the bowels of the ship. He and his ilk keep the ship going.
They keep the boilers going which makes our water for showering, drinking and
cooking, steam for launching jets, etc. He works in about 130 or so degree heat
all day long. So, when a snipe is thirsty, you should give him a drink. Do you
understand what a snipe is now and why you shouldn’t mess with them?”
“Yes sir, Chief.” I say.
The Chief walks off mumbling something about “bootcamper”
and the snipe walks back into the veg prep room and dips his slimy cup into the
bug juice and drinks two more quick cups of bug juice, then undoes his belt,
hooks the cup back on, as it drips my sugary concoction down his dungarees.
Then smirks a bit and walks over to the hatch, climbs down and closes the hatch
behind him.
Now what did I learn from this whole thing? I learned that
even though I was the victim in this situation and clearly had principle and
the “Rules” on my side, the Chief taught me that Snipes do an invaluable job on
a ship and had extremely rough working conditions and I wasn’t going to get
into any trouble for letting a thirsty man have a cup of bug juice.
Also when a man has you pinned up against a freezer with one
hand and still can manage to drink a cup of bug juice with the other
one...Conceed!!
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