(I spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy and I will not bore you with all of it, I just want to share a few views with you from time to time on some of the ways I saw things).

My next ship I reported to as an E-5 was to the U.S.S. Thach (FFG-43) This ship was designated as a Guided Missile Fast Frigate and was of the “Perry” class. These ships were designed to be high speed, powered by two DC-10 aircraft engines, with a missile launcher on the front, and a Italian made gun mount in the middle that fired 70 pound projectiles at a rate of 80 per minute.

I was on this ship when trouble was kicking up in the Gulf, before the first Gulf war, back when the U.S.S. Stark (FFG-31) was hit by two Exocet missiles, fired by Iraq, and killing 37 men onboard, our trouble then was coming from Iran.

After the Thach I reported to the U.S.S. Sides (FFG-14) as an E-6, yes and a middle Rack, life is good.

On Sides we escorted and boarded vessels going into and out of the gulf during the first gulf war. I left that ship as an E-7 (Chief Petty officer) and was reassigned to Counter Narcotics duty out of Rodman Panama. I spent the remainder of my career working with the DEA and U.S. Coast Guard hunting down and eliminating drug traffickers in Columbia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. We covered all territory from Cuba and Puerto Rico across to Brazil and from Peru to Guatemala.

The U.S. had hundreds of planes, ships, and personnel involved in the war on drugs and during just one all out crack down, (no pun intended) that lasted 76 days, American forces seized and or destroyed over 30,663 lbs. of pure uncut cocaine and 4,150 lbs. of marijuana and this happens all day, all week, and all year.

My job varied depending on the mission, but it was always defense of the crew. We did it all from boarding vessels and searching them, to chasing down mules, and destroying grow fields and manufacturing hubs. Here is one mission:

We were patrolling off Columbia, we had Intel that there was a mother ship about 100 miles off the coast, (mother ships are loaded with small boats going back and forth to it, then off the coast of Mexico or the U.S. they unload the same way). We were tagged with catching a small boat. After a while of floating and waiting, a forty foot fishing boat went by us sitting low in the water and was flying a Brazilian flag.

We check all registries with the U.S. State Department. The name of this ship came back flagged out of Columbia, so the chase was on!

The ship we were on was much bigger and faster then the fishing boat, and after several attempts to tell the fishing boat over the radio to, “stop and prepare to be boarded by U.S. Forces, operating in international waters.” The boat did not comply, so I was given the order to fire a volley over there Bow (front) using a .50 caliber machine gun with a tracer round every fifth round, (tracer is a pyro technic flare that looks like a streak of bright light as it travels with all the other rounds).

The boat still did not comply, so the crew manned the fire nozzles and sprayed water at their pilot house, (control) the idea here is to blind them as well as fill the ship with water and maybe flood the engines. No luck.

Next step was for me and two other gunners to fire .50 caliber machine gun rounds into their engine compartment, we fired until black smoke came out of their boat. They stopped.

Now we were going to board them, after we asked them to move their crew to the front of the boat. We went aboard and searched the entire ship and found nothing, but also found nothing to explain why the ship was sitting so heavy in the water.

Next step bring the Hull Techs over, these are the guys that tear things up, and weld them back together again, they were tasked with finding hiding places, (false walls, trap doors, etc….). True to their nature they found a false fuel tank and cut it open. Inside was over 5,000 pounds of cocaine, the biggest bust ever at the time, (this record did not last very long).

Because there was not much humor in this story here is a little tidbit: We chased this little outboard engine type boat, once caught we found about 7 pounds of cocaine. This was too little to turn in, so we decided to pack it in empty ammo cans and sink them.

Breaking the bags open so they would fit in the cans, let a little “Dust blow” and get on our skin and in our face, none of us ever did coke so we had no idea that the feeling we were getting was not the waves moving the ship. So, a bit stoned we went to the back of the ship and threw the cans over. They did not sink, “oh crap,” we laughed, though no one else found it amusing. My solution was to fire rounds from M-14 rifles at them… so there we are, all three of us, just a bit high, shooting at little green cans in the water.

All three of us are expert marksman, and the cans are all about 30 feet away, and we are blasting the hell out of the ocean, I think we hit 1 out of every 20 rounds fired. They finally sank, and we went to sick bay, where it was entered into our permanent record that we were exposed to cocaine in the line of duty……….

This concludes the series on the Navy, I hope you enjoyed it.

More to come next time….

Hints, tips, and whatever:

An Arab student sends an e-mail to his dad, saying:

Dear Dad

America is wonderful, people are nice and I really like it here, but Dad, I am a bit ashamed to arrive at my college with my pure-gold Ferrari 599GTB, when all my teachers and many fellow students travel by train.

Your son, Nasser

The next day, Nasser gets a reply to his e-mail from his dad:

My dear loving son

Twenty million US Dollars has just been transferred to your account. Please stop embarrassing us. Go and get yourself a train too.

Useless Virgo Facts:

THE YEAR IS 1909

The year is 1909.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1909:

************ ********* ************

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

Fuel for a car was sold in drug stores only.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average US wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as ‘substandard.’

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

The Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and Influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars ….

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school..

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.

Back then pharmacists said, ‘Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health’ ( Shocking? DUH! )

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

I am now going to forward this to someone else without typing it myself. From there, it will be sent to others all over the WORLD – all in a matter of seconds! Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.