{"id":3821,"date":"2021-03-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azadkinsiii.com\/blog\/?p=3821"},"modified":"2021-10-05T11:03:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T15:03:28","slug":"75-work-hard-play-hard-liberty-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azadkinsiii.com\/blog\/75-work-hard-play-hard-liberty-call\/","title":{"rendered":"#75\u2014Work Hard, Play Hard: Liberty Call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trivia Questions (Answers @ end)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Who said, \u201cSome people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world. A veteran doesn’t have that problem.\u201d<\/em>?<\/li>
  2. In what movie (series) did we hear (and who said it), \u201cIt requires the best of us\u2026 from all of us.\u201d<\/em>?<\/li>
  3. In what song (and who sang it) did we hear the following?
    Pretty woman, walking down the street<\/em>
    Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet<\/em>
    Pretty woman<\/em>
    I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth<\/em>
    No one could look as good as you<\/em><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n
    <\/div>
    Blog #75 (Audio)<\/div><\/div>
    <\/div>

    Listen to the audio of this blog, read by Andy Adkins. Click the \u201cAudio<\/strong><\/em>\u201d button below.<\/p>\n<\/div>

    Published: <\/span>October 5, 2021<\/span><\/div>
    <\/div>Audio by Andy Adkins<\/a><\/div><\/form><\/span>0<\/span> Downloads<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>
    <\/div>\n\n\n
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    The “Definition” of Port Liberty<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    From The Bluejacket\u2019s Manual<\/em><\/strong>, 18th<\/sup> Edition issued to me during Boot Camp (Orlando RTC, July 1973):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is well to note and remember the old saying, \u201cLiberty is a privilege\u2014not a right.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The days of your Navy career will not form an unbroken series of on-duty days. Rather, they will be broken up from time to time by leave and liberty. The shorter periods are liberty. The longer periods are leave. Both are controlled by your commanding officer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Liberty is authorized absence from your ship or station for a period of up to 48 hours and is not chargeable as leave. Most liberties in the Navy consist of leaving the ship or station around 1630 and returning before 0730 or 0800 the next morning. The normal 48-hour liberty that is granted for weekends may be extended to 72 hours if the period includes a national holiday. At a few stations in the U.S. that are far from any city, there are 96-hour liberty periods.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Disembark<\/a>
    Sailors disembark the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) in March 2006. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Second Class David P. Coleman
    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Well\u2026 that\u2019s what the BJM states. That looks good on paper, but in reality, I think every duty station and commanding officer interpret liberty their own way. And\u2026 that\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In reality, at least from my experience, liberty was a most welcomed tradition, especially after being at sea for several weeks, working long hours on the flight deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I know everyone\u2019s got their own opinion, but in my four short years (\u201973-77), I associated liberty in the Navy with a ship pulling into a foreign port after being at sea for a period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    NAS Agana, Guam<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    My first duty station was NAS Agana Guam<\/a><\/strong>. I was in Crash & Rescue<\/strong> and we worked 24 hours on and 24 off for my entire 15 months on the island. I didn\u2019t really consider my time off as liberty; probably similar to most land-based duty stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yeah\u2026 we \u201cworked\u201d hard–if you consider sitting in a crash truck with 3-4 other crew between parallel runways for two, 4-hour shifts waiting for an aircraft to crash hard work. I just don\u2019t see it. No complaints by any means; it was just a different type of assignment. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I loved my time on Guam, both on duty and off duty. And there were times when the adrenaline rush<\/a> was high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While we didn\u2019t necessary \u201cwork hard,\u201d I can tell you that when we got together for section picnics at the beach, we \u201cplayed hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Shipboard Liberty<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    USS Kitty Hawk<\/em> (CV-63), was a different story. I worked on the flight deck in the V-1 Division\/Crash<\/strong>. When at sea, we worked hard and endured long hours of flight operations. It was common in the 70s for flight ops<\/a> to begin at 1000 and cycle through midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And since I worked in Crash (we only had 14 total <\/em>crash crew members), we had to maintain 11 men on the flight deck during flight ops. That left 3 for the night shift. I didn\u2019t like working night shift duty, though I took my share. It was just too boring for me. I\u2019d rather be in the middle of the action, even if the day shift hours were longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While docked at North Island (San Diego), I think it was just considered off duty. Those that lived off the ship went home after a full day\u2019s work. Those that lived on the ship and left, \u201cPermission to leave the ship, sir,\u201d just played hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But when aboard Kitty Hawk<\/em> during a Westpac cruise (for me, Westpac \u201975<\/strong>), hitting a port would be considered \u201cliberty call.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ready, Willing & Able…<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Imagine this\u2026 you\u2019ve been at sea with 5,500 other men (we didn\u2019t have women aboard in the 70s) from various backgrounds, crammed in a ship, and working 12- to 18-hour days for three weeks. You\u2019ve had no beer and you haven\u2019t seen a girl during that entire time, unless you received a photo from your honey in the mail (we didn\u2019t have email back then, either).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now imagine, 5,000 (some sailors remained aboard for duty) of your closest friends all lined up ready to disembark the ship onto a pier\u2014long lines and the old saying, \u201cHurry up and wait!<\/a>\u201d comes to mind. But you don\u2019t think about that. All I thought about at the time was to stand on dry land, drink beer, listen to some great music, eat all I wanted, and then stumble back to the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yeah\u2026 you remember those<\/em> times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PI (The Philippines)<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019ve written about our port calls before in PI<\/a>, Hong Kong<\/a>, and Japan<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Philippines<\/a>
    Philippines Jeepney
    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    PI was our overseas home port (forward deployment), meaning we\u2019d be at sea for a while\u2014usually several weeks at a time\u2014then return to PI for a week or so. Most of the time, we\u2019d operate in the South China Sea conducting naval training exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Apparently, just before entering port for the first <\/em>time, every department head gave a lecture on V.D. and what to do to help protect yourself. I mean, I was 20 years old and had already been in the Navy for 2 years; what more did I need to know? I\u2019ll spare you the details, but Bos\u2019n Robuck<\/strong> (the Crash Officer) gave us \u201cthe lecture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Big Willie<\/strong>, the Assistant Crash LPO, was also one who\u2019d been to PI before and knew something else: many times we\u2019d pull into PI a day or two before payday and many sailors didn\u2019t have any money to go ashore. Need money? See Big Willie\u2014$20 now, $40 payback on payday. Yeah, Big Willie knew how to work the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This was<\/em> in the mid-70s\u2014we had to keep in mind that PI was under martial law and there was a strict (\u201cyou could be shot\u201d) curfew at midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Out of all the things I remember about my first <\/em>port liberty in PI, those were it. All the rest of those early days in PI, I\u2026 forgot\u2014I claim CRS (Can\u2019t Remember Stuff).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hong Kong Liberty<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    When we left PI for Hong Kong, it rained for four days straight. I\u2019m not talking about little Seattle-type drizzle. I\u2019m talking about a continuous, big frog-strangler torrential rain like we had in Florida. It was miserable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The old man (Kitty Hawk\u2019s<\/em> CO) had scheduled a white\u2019s inspection on the flight deck. That made a lot of standard Navy issue sense\u2014forty-plus knot winds and rainstorms. He finally decided instead of a ship-wide white\u2019s inspection, each division would hold their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We arrived in Hong Kong in the middle of August. At that time, Hong Kong was still under British rule in the 70s\u2014it\u2019s a lot different now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We didn\u2019t have a pier to pull up alongside like in PI or Hawaii. Instead, we anchored out in the harbor near Green Island and took ferries from Kitty Hawk<\/em> to Hong Kong. We also had \u201cmax liberty,\u201d meaning we only needed to be on the ship if we had duty. I had duty the first day in port, so I didn\u2019t make it into Hong Kong that first day, but I did make a few bucks: “Borrow $20 today, payback $40 on payday.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But the following day, I took full advantage of my liberty. However, instead of bar hopping, like I did in PI, several of us went on a couple of tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hong Kong: Aberdeen<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    \"Hong<\/a>
    Hong Kong – Aberdeen (1975)
    Steve Cummings
    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Steve Cummings<\/strong>, who had just been promoted to a third class petty officer and went from a Blue Shirt to a Yellow Shirt director, Smitty<\/strong> (another good friend and Yellow Shirt), and I found an all-day tour that took us up to Victoria Park, the highest mountain in Hong Kong, to have a grand overlook of the Hong Kong harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Kitty Hawk<\/em> was certainly the biggest ship in the harbor, and she was\u2026 beautiful. It\u2019s rare when we could see her from this vantage point, but she really felt like home and I was proud to be a part of her crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We also toured a few other places, stopping at the Tai Pak Restaurant, a floating restaurant with exquisite d\u00e9cor. We received a full six-course meal that was absolutely fantastic. I don\u2019t know what I ate, and I learned a while back in PI to never<\/em> ask what I was eating as long as it was good. Best of all, beer was free with dinner, but water cost about three HK dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Japan Liberty<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    After Hong Kong, we began our longest time at sea without hitting a port\u2014about five weeks. I know some of you will scoff at that (\u201cthat\u2019s all? 5 weeks?\u201d), but that\u2019s what it was for us during Westpac \u201975. Our transit to Japan found us at the edge of a typhoon. I wrote about that earlier<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Westpac<\/a>
    Westpac ’75 – Tokyo
    Gary Borne, Tom Watson, Jim King, Buddy Laney, Gary DeSaunier
    (Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    As we pulled into the harbor, it was a bright clear day, a \u201cChampagne Day,\u201d as my mom used to call it. We could easily see snow-capped Mt. Fuji off in the distance. Similar to Hong Kong, we had \u201cmax liberty\u201d during our 6-day stay in Yokosuka, Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And\u2026 we were ready for liberty. Several of us took a bullet train up to Tokyo for the day. More sight-seeing, which I very much appreciated. I knew we\u2019d hit the bars at some point, but while in Japan, I\u2019m grateful I saw more than just the inside of a bar. Not that I drank that<\/em> much, but I was\u2026 Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The bars in Japan were something else, cleaner than in PI or Hong Kong. But I simply could not drink the beer, it was so bad. However, we found a wonderful place that served great corn dogs and ice cream, something that the crash crew craved. We frequented that cozy little spot several times\u2014no beer, though, at least not for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    COVID Times \u201cLiberty Call\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    I know I\u2019m stretching it here, but bear with me. I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not the only one who feels this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Like many others, we\u2019ve been living in \u201cpandemic mode\u201d for a year. \u201cNot a fan,\u201d as my daughter-in-law commonly calls it. But we\u2019re enduring the best we can with what we have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My wife & I are at \u201cthat age\u201d where we\u2019re in the high-risk category, even though we\u2019re both healthy. But we just hit the magic retirement age, so we try to be more cautious, especially during these challenging times. Since we\u2019re retired and usually homebodies anyway, it hasn\u2019t been as difficult for us to adjust as for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having said that, two things recently occurred that I want to share. First, we both got our second vaccine shot. Second, we just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary last week. And\u2026 we celebrated\u2026 in style. We met after I left the Navy\u2026 in a karate class, of all places. \u201cShe threw me and I fell for her,\u201d is our standard line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We\u2019d talked about traveling to a foreign destination (not Guam, mind you), but somewhere overseas to celebrate. We knew that wasn\u2019t going to happen, at least not this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A Reason<\/strong> to Celebrate!<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Instead, we made plans to celebrate with some long-time friends, who have been married 39 years and their anniversary is a day later than ours. We\u2019d celebrated many anniversaries together over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But this year\u2026 this year felt different. This year, when we walked through the restaurant, sat down, and removed our masks, it was a freedom\u2026 a liberty call<\/em> if you will\u2026 that in a way, reminded me of those first few steps on solid ground after being aboard Kitty Hawk<\/em> for several weeks at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s hard to describe but it felt like a great relief after being \u201ccooped up\u201d for a year. Although, we\u2019d picked up takeout dinners several times and even ventured to eat at a restaurant on their outdoor patio, but this was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This was almost<\/em>\u2026 normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In these challenging times of COVID, I continuously look for \u201cnuggets of normalcy,\u201d as I like to call them. And believe me when I tell you, last week\u2019s outing for us\u2026 celebrating our 40th anniversary was way more than celebrating an anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It was a \u201cbig nugget\u201d of normalcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Stay safe, my friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Until we meet again,<\/em>
    Andy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"NEVER<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (\u201973-77) and the author of several books. His newest novel, NEVER FORGET<\/strong>, is the story of A Vietnam Veteran\u2019s Journey for Redemption & Forgiveness<\/em>. NEVER FORGET is FREE (eBook, PDF) for all veterans. Download your FREE copy HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Previous posts mentioned in this blog:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n