The Unauthorized Randy “Duke” Cunningham Page

The award in for giving out pork its called the "The Cool Hand Duke Award", it for $5 million for a Provost Marshall screening facility at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in the district of newly incarcerated former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif. Congrats on the stunning win Randy or should I call you prisoner # 0562487

Brent say: "The Cool Hand Duke Award". You gave me a side-ache from laughing. Good one!
Scott
Methinks Karl would have given him more than "a night in the box" as well!

Very good! I hope Bubba, his cellie, does not mind that he has a "cool hand . . . ." Raz . . . and I have a million of 'em!

Sr. Ensign Raz, go take an attitude check in Ready 6 . . . we just got word that we are skipping the 14-day port call in Sydney, Australia and going to a 72-hour steel beach liberty at the anchorage in Northern Luzon!! The good news is that we get beer. The bad news is that we only get 2-each and its warm.

Then we go back on Yankee station and extend the cruise for 90 days. The $hitty Shang blew a reduction gear. Someone tossed gravel in the # 1 shaft alley gear box. Why, Sr. Ensign Raz was that guy not aboard this tub? We hold you personally responsible, for that personnel management gaff.

"Just can't get good Ensigns these days . . . !"

Come on Raz, dont cha believe in true love in Po City? "I love you baby no chit, how about a discount?"

Sailors and reduction gears were relevant to the vietnam thingy. It affected Gun train in '72. It extended me with the Shang incident during Tet '68. It happend to the "Anyprice" (Enterprise) in '70 I believe it was.

Interesting and to show how really stupid our Navy was/is, it took many of these 'incidents' before it put really big locks on all of the access covers to the reduction gears and shaft alleys.

And why none of my ships ever had these great snipes that would destroy a reduction gear just to stay in port a few extra weeks, was my karma.

When it happened to the Shang and we got to stay on the line and were extended, I said, "Can we get that guy transferred to this tub?" I was very popular with the brass . . .

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Big E wasn't in Westpac in '70. But we on CV-66 lost liberty in Singapore and again in Sasebo due to Shang or aother boat losing a shaft and then a prop.

Someone sent us a message...."You get screwed while we fix our shaft". And then "You get the shaft while we're getting screwed".

I can hardly recall last week anymore !

Yep, here is "Climax's" deployment schedule. http://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn65deploy.htm

It was the Connie, aka "War Chief" that was on the line in 1970. The other ship on the line with her had the engineering "incident>"

BTW, I know a guy that got tossed off her for, get this, drinking! He got to leave the war . . . "OK, we get caught drinking, or we punch out a CO or XO, and we get tossed out of the war . . . well, Roger that!

<<"

BTW, I know a guy that got tossed off her for, get this, drinking! He got to leave the war . . . "OK, we get caught drinking, or we punch out a CO or XO, and we get tossed out of the war . . . well, Roger that!>>>

America was the only big deck boat out there in '70. At least from May-November. It was an older small deck boat that shafted us....TWICE.

As for the guy who got sent home for drinking...I'd think that may because of punching the CO or XO...or ???

The 8-man JO bunkroom I was in was the party place on the boat. Every 8 days was stand-down and the eve of stand-down was party time. And it certainly was no secret since the ships patrol more than once had to tell us to hold it down. Here's one of the great stories of our cruise:

During Vietnam, the difference between East coast (aye aye SIR) carrier
aviators and West coast aviators was like night a day. Most
of the East coast aviators enjoyed the "Club Med Cruises" complete with ports
of call in places like Italy, Spain, France, Greece, etc. The West coast
flyers were either combat vets or soon would be, and enjoy such places as
Olongapo, Ban Karai Pass, Hanoi Hilton, and the bottom of the Gulf of Tonkin. Thus, west coast aviators had a LOT of animosity towards the East Coast Pukes.

My squadron, VF 96, had a change of command July 1970, after our second line period. The CO was transferred and the XO, who was well liked by everyone, was promoted to CO. We anxiously awaited word on who our new XO would be.

A week later we were horrified to learn that not only was the XO coming from the East coast, but this Commander had NEVER even been in combat!!!! We had to do something to ensure that this East Coast Puke wasn't going to screw with the camaraderie of this squadron.

It was the 7th day of our 8 day work cycle when the new XO arrived, so
tomorrow would be stand down day where everyone could relax a bit, and all hands enjoy a BBQ steak on the flight deck. It also wasn't unusual for the aviators to get some medicinal liquor...well, a LOT of "medicinal liquor" and relax the night before....and....we JO's had worked up a plan.

The skipper (CO) called an all officers meeting, introduced the new XO,
then said "let's give him a VF 96 Welcome". We all did a karate chop with
our left hand to our right elbow crotch, fist shot straight up, then middle
finger extended in a rigid salute, right at the new XO, and a rowdy, "HELLO,
A•S HOLE", everyone in unison.

The XO was astounded!! I thought he'd fall backwards through the wall. He looked at the CO for some support but the CO just smiled, and shrugged his shoulders. Then the XO gave some kind of short talk. He was still in shock.

That night we invited him to the JO bunk room. This normally slept 8 men in
tight quarters, but on stand down nights, we would cram 25-30 in there for
popcorn, "medicine", and dirty movies, etc.

When the XO arrived, he was even further shocked when we handed him a
drink!!! We let him know this is how COMBAT Aviators do it, and besides, if
the Navy didn't like it, who was going to fly their little ol' airplanes off
this boat to get their butts shot at?

After awhile, most had enough "medicine" to feel brave, so someone shouted, "Let's give XO a REAL welcome." One Ltjg reached into XO's kahki shirt and grabbed his T shirt and ripped it off. Another reached into his trou,
grabbed his skivvies and ripped them off. He said "That HURT and Now I'm
REALLY PI••ED." One Lt. said "Not as Pi••ed as you are going to be", and
everyone dumped their drinks on him. He SLAMMED the door on the way out, truly ANGRY, with everyone laughing at him.

Next day I was duty officer, so was in the ready room early. CO was there
too, reading overnight messages when the XO walked in. XO said, "Skipper, I have to talk to you about those Junior Officers, and what they did last night." (CO wasn't at the party)

Skipper smiled and said, "Oh, yes....aren't they the best damn bunch of guys you've ever seen? I've never worked with a finer group in my life".

XO was dumbfounded. He looked so helpless, then scowled at me as I tried to keep my big smirk down to a grin. But he never another word about us JO's.


XO became an excellent team member. After our return to the states we were named Best Navy Fighter Squadron, and the next 'Nam cruise, when the XO had become CO, VF 96 had the first two U.S. "Aces" of the war, and had become the Navy's top MIG killing squadron, and was again named Best in the Navy for the second year.

All due, of course, to our impressionable indoctrination and conversion of an
East Coast Puke into a real COMBAT aviator.

Nope, he was just caught drinking. Can you imagine getting tossed off a ship for drinking! Damb they could have tossed most of the air group. The skipper of the ship was an East Coast puke; so was the skipper of the squadron. God bless him, the guy likely lived because he was tossed off that tub.

I hated it when those East Coast pukes came West.

One I had an new XO and he wanted us to take swords on the cruise. Also he wanted us to become qualified underway. After all the other shi! that we had to do, we really had time to get qualifed as boat handlers underway . . . and, "oh, yeah, XO that is exactly what I want to do!" Turns out, of course, that he was trying to impress the skipper of the tub.

Well, I did not do it. He told me that my refusal would reflect on my next fit-rep. I told him " . . . that the only way he could hurt me with that fit-rep was to wrap it around a brick and hit me in the head with it." I still made LCDR . . . the world, including me most of all was shocked!

The selection board may have cut me some slack thinking of me being an F-8 driver forced into an F-4 world . . . go figure.

lb wrote:
<<>>

See there, no parity! You fly-boys could be blatant about stuff and get away with it. Us Blackshoes had to be much more clandestine to achieve results. We all had different methods of getting hooch back aboard the ship, but the officer's brow definately made it a "head-nod". One of our on-line periods got extended and we were out to sea for 50+ days. Almost everyone ran out, and those that still had some were hoarding it. After that, all 6 of us JO's in the bunkroom we called "The Animal Farm" swore we'd never run out again. We almost had a continual parade going back and forth on the last day in port. You had to have the biggest Golf Bag ever made, but only about 3 clubs in it. One guy actually bought a set of beat-up clubs, cut the shafts off and perched the heads all where they belonged. Of course, the bags were filled with hooch and heavier than hades. Heck, I must have played 72 holes of ~golf~ one day (nine holes at a time!). Now that took care of the hard stuff, but what about beer? Well, I had bought the super-duper stereo at the time, and HUGE Wharfdale Speakers. The empty boxes made really nice crates to smuggle cases upon case of San Miguel back aboard. I can't help but think that we were out-done by guys in the deck divisions. They probably had pallets of beer painted gray and labeled something like "hold-back bolts" or something like that and had the cranes bring them aboard.

Geez, I sure miss the Nav!

Raz

None of what LB speaks of ever happened on a ship or squadron that I was in. We had to keep it very low profile. We never invited a senior officer to any of our 'parties' much less tore their shirts off. But we heard about it happening elsewhere!

Yeah, John, that is what I did, I led a sheltered life at sea.

Did we have coming off the line parties? We did. Did some get really drunk and stupid, they did. Did we invite the XO to the parties, never.

Did we sneak booze aboard the ship in speaker boxes and Noritake boxes, of course. Did we go public with it so that everyone saw it, we did not. That was not good form with the troops.

But assulting an XO? Now that is an interesting gig! As close as I came to that was that I seriously considered tossing an XO over the side on dark a$$ed night on a stand down when he ambled up to me in the catwalk.

But I let it go . . .