Not much happening on COD this July 4th. Cleveland is dead and our visitation is waaaay down. Our contingent of USSVI vets was anywhere but COD (only one comes to do HAM radio stuff and one other shows up to actually give tours)...
But what really gets my panties in a knarly bunch is that our USSVI subvet shipkeeper actaully started bitching at me for talking to visitors aboard the boat at 4:45 (15 minutes before we close)... as he put it "you talk to them and they stay till 5 p.m. and I can't leave early!" W T F
??
The last group of visitors went up the after torpedo room ladder at 4:55 (but that wasn't fast enough for him!)... I suggested that maybe he ought to not wear his subvet vest when he makes statements contrary to the subvet creed of "perpetuating the memory of fallen comrads..." I also suggested that maybe he should go back to work at the postoffice, where apparently is was fine to clock out 15 minutes early. This is SOP for this guy and our director thinks its fine...
I guess he would prefer that any tourguides stop talking to anyone after 4:30 and in fact rush them out of the boat ASAP so he can get on his Chinese-made motor scooter and zip home...
Back in the bad old days (which apparently have in some ways returned) when we had very old WWII vets in the ticket booth, we had one guy who would get on the boats 1MC (via a hookup at the ticket booth) and announce to all that it was 4:30 and they needed to leave the boat!!!
I guess his spirit now lives in the body of a 65-year-old vet from the mid-60s diesel sub service!!!
Happy Fricken Fourth!!!
PF