The first time I ever laid eyes on her, the USS DAVID R. RAY (DD-971), a Spruance class destroyer, I was in the Philippines, and the ship was going to be pulling up alongside, our submarine tender ship, I was presently on. I was standing outside on deck, leaning against the rails, and I could see two officers standing amidships, watching their destroyer, getting tied up to us.

It looked small, compared to the pamela hupp The two officers who were standing on deck, were smoking big cigars. I later learned it was the CO and XO, who had a love, for cigars.

A couple of months later, I would be transferred to, and stationed on the destroyer, I was looking at right now. When I finally did transfer to the USS DAVID R. RAY, I caught up to the ship, while it was on a WESTPAC, which meant, it was out to sea, in the Pacific, and Indian Ocean. When I did get to the ship, and landed on the helo deck, the XO came out, and met me. He gave me a brand new, USS DAVID R. RAY baseball hat. He turned out to be one of the coolest officers in the Navy, that I worked for.

The USS DAVID R. RAY was a fun ship to be on. It had a little over 300 guys on it, and they called it the Cadillac of ships, because it was designed with the enlisted guys in mind. It had more recreational room on board, than most ships in the Navy. On the ship, most everyone is in a duty section, and when you are out to sea, most guys have to stand a watch, maybe once a day, along with their regular work, they perform each day. We were pretty lucky, when we were out to sea, since we were yeoman, our duty, was to be on call, in case the CO or XO, needed something typed up, or something else performed for them.

One example would be, since our ship is small, we also perform the legal duties on board the ship. On a larger ship, you usually might have a legal department, and even a legal officer, who is an attorney. On the USS DAVID R. RAY, the yeoman's had to take care of all of that. One of my jobs was working at captain's mast, where the captain passes down punishment, to anyone that has been in trouble, for the week, since captains mast, was usually once a week. Captain's mast was usually on Fridays, be it at sea, or in port, for our ship. Most of the offenses, were for drug abuse, drunk and disorderly, and things of that nature.

On this particular Friday, It was my job, to write down the punishment handed out at captain's mast, and make sure it was typed up and all properly done. Well, there must of been 20 different people in the room, when the Captain was chewing out this one guy on the ship, we all knew, who always borrowed money from people, and never seemed to pay it back. It was pretty common for guys to loan money out, they called it "slush" money.

The going rate was usually always 20% interest, on whatever you borrow. There were a few guys, that loaned money out like that, on a regular basis. These days, I guess they call them, check cashing stores now. Anyway, the captain was chewing this one seaman out really big time.

This guy had borrowed money from a lot of people on the ship, and he was in trouble for some other things he had did out in town. The captain was making a list, asking the seaman, "Who else do you owe money to?" The seaman was thinking, and telling the captain, "I owe such and such, this much, and such and such, that much."

When the seaman was done, the captain asked him, "Do you owe anybody else any money?" He thought about it, and he said, "No." The captain stood there for a minute, and everybody was quiet, because he was kinda mad, and he was thinking of what punishment to hand out to the seaman, standing at attention, in front of him. I said, "Excuse me captain, but seaman Alma owes me $25 also, that he never paid me back yet." The captain got so mad. He left the office, captains mast was being held at.

A few minutes later, we all heard the captain on the 1MC, which is the loud speaker system, for the ship. He said, "If seaman Alma, owes anyone on this ship, any money, report to the XO immediately." The captain had Seaman Alma, call his mother, and explain to her, that he owed lots of people money on the ship, and if she could send him any money.

Later, the next day. The XO calls down to the office, from the Squak box, which is a two way communication system with loud speakers. He said to come up to his office. When I got to his office, he handed me $25, and said I was the first person to be paid back. The captain ended up ordering a discharge from the service for Seaman Alma. This guy knew he owed me $25 still, because I was looking at him, and he knew he owed me money, but did not say anything. I knew I would not get my money back, when he told the captain he did not owe anybody else, so I spoke up.

One time, we were out to sea, and everything was going fine, when there was a fire, in one of the compartments. It ended up being a small trash fire. The petty officer of the watch, who is supposed to sound the fire alarm, and announce over the 1MC, that there is a fire, so the guys on the ship, can immediately take care of it. The worse thing that can happen at sea on a ship, is a fire breaking out, or flooding. We are trained non-stop about fighting fires, and the Navy takes it very seriously.

There is no one that is going to come out and put a fire out for you. All the guys on the ship, are trained in fire fighting, in order to qualify for watches, and new pay grades. Well, when someone called the quarterdeck, to report the fire, the petty officer of the watch, who was a Philippino guy, grabbed the 1MC, and he was so excited, he started yelling his announcements out, in Tagalog, his native language.

Well, all the Philippino guys, were running around, and the American guys, did not know what was going on, but we figured it out eventually.