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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Remember where all it took for you to own the world was Thirty Five unencumbered, unobligated piss against the wind bucks...an AWOL bag packed with three sets of clean skivvies, and a set of civvies....your shaving kit ala D-Bag...six packs of sea stores Luckies...a church key, Zippo and a disgusting subject paperback book? Ah to be eighteen again and not fully tethered to the planet....to be able to pack romance, adventure and long range travel into 72 hours and return ten minutes before Monday morning QUARTERS....missing only your white hat and thirty three of the original paper wampum notes. Dinah Shore used to come on TV and sing.."See the USA in your Chevrolet....". I remember standing in the J-50 third deck shower singing, "See the USA on E-3 pay...." AND DAMMIT WE DID...An AWOL bag was a form of Alladin's magic carpet...Hell a good E-3 could cram enough crap in an AWOL bag to last for a round trip on the Shuttle to Saturn and back.....or to survive a mine collapse for two weeks....or a plane crash in the Andies. We had the bloody world by the tail and could ride Bengal tigers bareback. Great days...DEX |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1835
Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Yeh, Man. I remember many of those weekends. Hell you were FLUSH if ya had $35 Yankee dollars!
Now refresh my memory, Dex. When I was in Norfolk I rode a can and operated out of Key West. When I was in Key West I rode a sub and operated out of...... you gussed it: S**t City. So I never had the convenience of Submarine barracks in Norfolk. I knew D&S piers inside out, but where was Bldg J50? Was it over at NOB? I don't remember any buildings at D&S except the EM Club just inside the gate.
Steamboat sends |
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WWII Sub Vet
Posts: 135
| Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Dex,
Is that the same thing we called a Ditty Bag in WWll? It would hold enough stuff to last a week if you only changed your skivvys every other day.
 Warshot |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2693
Location: New Jersey | Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Steamboat, J50 was over at NOB, right through Gate2. We had the 3rd floor.
An AWOL bag (navy) was what we called a gym bag (civillian). Carried one home every time I went north. |
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Old Salt
Posts: 431
| Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
You could use a bunk bag for you awol bag just snap the straps together to form a finger distorting handle. And you had a smelly stupid looking bag for free to carry your "off to see the wizard" stuff. Of course it also branded you as one those idiot keep your daughters away from him sub sailors. I actually had a guy with a wife and daughter slow down then speed back up when he saw my Dolphins and Bunk Awol bag. But heck his daughter was too ughly for even a Torpedoman to date. |
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Mess cooking
Posts: 46
| Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Speaking of AWOL bags. I still have the one I bought when I left boot camp back in the summer of 1960. I still use as a tool bag in my car. I wasn't like the rest with the flat cardboard bottom and that's why I got it in the first place.
 (awol bag 1.jpg)
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 awol bag 1.jpg (60KB - 1304 downloads)
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Bunk Bags
WOW....There's an old cobweb coated memory....Those damn green rascals, that were designed to keep safety razors, cans of Gillette FOAMY, loose change, jack knives, church keys, Zippos....cans of Zippo fluid...keys and other assorted pocket crap and shaving gear from ratting around in aluminum bunk and side lockers so big eared Sonarmen couldn't hear you and drop nasty explosive stuff on your roof. It also allowed the animals lined up in the main passageway waiting for the next setting for chow in the AB messdeck to unzip bags flanking the passageway and rifle through you gear...hold things up for the entertainment of your fellow animals..."Hey, get a load of this honey Jack's monkeying around with....Wooooo, whatta el poocho." "HEY Guys...Listen to this..."Oh Darling I miss you so...Will you be home for Christmas? I have a present for you I can only give you in the backseat of your car out at the Route 35 Drive-In."....Or, "Whatta you think Baby Faced Peterson is doing with three packs of Trojans? Maybe he's waterproofing his watch if he misses the last liberty launch and has to swim back." (That was always good for a laugh and additional inappropriate comment." "Hey, you oughtta see all the coins Popeye has in trhis bag.... We gotta tell the tightwad bastard he's buying pizza for the duty section tonight." Nothing was private, sacred, inviolate, or beyond the access of the nosey sonuvabitches you rode with. On a petroleum powered sub, a guy wouldn't be upset if the Yeoman knew the results of your honey's pregnancy test before you did or provided the results of your bride's PAP smear at mail call. And YES...You could crisscross the two center support loops and snap them together to create a piece of readily identifiable deepwater Sampsonite that allowed you to travel hauling something akin to a limp watermellon that every other boatsailor in any other train station, bus station, hitchhiking mob, cab stand or just walking down the sidewalk would recognize and peg you as a boatsailor. DEX |
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Old Salt
Posts: 431
| Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Privacy was as far away from smokeboats as Meg Ryan sans knickers sitting on a sea bag full of gold saying, "Take Me then the gold" It just didnt exsist, if you broke up with Susie Q back home, They knew, Caught the crabs from Thelma, They knew, anything good or bad it was always found out. We were like goldfish in a very small bowl nothing happened with out a shipmate knowing. And for laughs or just for the helluva it, he would tell. It was how we checked each others sanity if sanity was ever possible on board. |
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Crew
Posts: 75
| Subject: RE: $35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
Warshot, it sounds like it would be the same thing. Our ditty bag though was a hank of heavy linen formed into a bag about 12 inches long and 8 inches in diameter (a lot like an averagely endowed submarine sailor, right?) with a draw string at the top. |
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$35, an AWOL bag, a set of Seafarers and a 72
