I was very excited. My ship was going to
travel up to Seattle, for the local festivities known as Sea-fair. We were going
to be the main attraction, in more ways than one.
I had invited my sister and my best friend up to ride the ship down for the trip from Seattle back to San Diego. We pulled in to Seattle in the morning, and I had to get to the airport to pick up my guests. As I was leaving the ship, I went by the booth where they were issuing the "Adopt A Sailors," and I saw a good friend of mine getting assigned to this really nice group of gorgeous men. I found out later from my friend that they were doing more than just feeding him a good meal, if you get my drift. Anyway, I picked up my guests and we enjoyed a few days of Seattle. Friday, the ship got underway for San Diego. It was to be a 3 day trip, and the recreation committee had planned a few things like a M60 and M16 shoot with the Marines onboard, and a flight deck demonstration where the guests could watch the planes move about the deck. If you've ever been on the deck of an Aircraft carrier during Flight operations, then you will totally understand that you cannot understand anything the person next to you was saying. I was trying to explain the flight deck, and what was happening on it to my sister and best friend. My best friend, by the way is a girl. In order for them to hear, I was between them, with my arms on their shoulders holding them in so they could hear. Well, apparently, the commanding officer himself was standing right behind me and noticed the scene and assumed that I had brought my girlfriend onboard. He had a security officer come and take my name and division and then proceeded to splash this information down my chain of command. The funniest part was that they knew that I was married, and assumed that I was an adulterer. (Some of you may understand why a gay military person may get married, and those of you who do not, just let your imagination wander, and you can probably come up with a pretty accurate idea.) So, here I was down in the galley, (cafeteria to you land lubbers) trying to enjoy my dinner that evening, and down races my supervisor. It seems that the CO had pulled my service record and wanted really bad to see me. He was ready to call my "wife" to tell on me. My Division officer had called me from the galley and demanded to know who this woman was that I had brought on board. I told him that she was my friend, but that wasn't good enough. I finally brought Carol (by the way, did I ever mention her name?) up to see them, and she bitched at them telling them she was ashamed to know that they were in charge of anything more that a dinghy. Eventually that blew over, and when I was being processed out for homosexuality, I made a point of reminding the captain that this was justification for her just being my friend.