Ensign E & the TR3
A car picture online this morning took me back more than sixty years to my first, best and all-time favorite tour of duty as a Navy officer. My first year was spent in Navy schools, and then, having asked my - "detailer" is the word - to assign me to a destroyer in Newport, Rhode Island, he gave me the closest he had available, a destroyer in Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk is no Newport, but I was pleased; μακάριος is the NT Greek word for it, makarios, blest, content, happy with life as it was dealt to me.
My love of that first sea duty, and the encouragement and imagination it gave me, easily persuaded me to "augment" is another word, from USNR to USN and stay in the Navy that I'd grown to love, when most of the other young officers I knew were getting out upon completing their three year obligation and starting their post-college, post-military obligation life in the civilian world. Some back to college for masters degrees, some to law school.
My good friend and destroyer shipmate with whom I'd shared a stateroom, Ensign and then LTJG Don Senese, a Harvard graduate with a BA in Russian language and history, was stunned and uncomprehending on hearing that I was transferring to Regular Navy when he so despised the same ship, sea duty and Navy time that we were sharing from age 22 to 24. An Episcopalian from a Boston family whose parish had not coffee hour on Sundays, but Bloody Mary and Mimosa Hour, and then they went home for martinis before Sunday dinner, Don returned home to Boston and back to Harvard for a masters and eventually PhD in Russian and Soviet history and language. We stayed in touch by mail a few years, especially about our Saturday sailing days on Guantanamo Bay with a tub of iced Heineken, and about the Ron Añejo we had enjoyed evenings in the O Club, Añejo and soda, and had bought at 70¢ a bottle and brought back our allowance to continue at home our happy Cuban adventure. Don wrote me later that in Boston the Añejo had somehow lost its sunshine. He went on faculty with a university in British Columbia, became a professor there, wrote a book on an aspect of Russian history, and raised a family with his second wife. I googled Don awhile back and found his 2017 obituary.
The Navy junior officers I knew and served with, I think most went back home to settle down and live their lives in the city or town where they had grown up. Looking back at my own life, if I were starting over I'd manage my Navy career differently, or go to law school at Florida, which briefly I had in mind, or go on to theological seminary, which I'd had in mind since age ten; but in any event I'd return home to Panama City at a younger age than 63, as I did on retiring from parish ministry near the end of 1998. Eighteen years growing up in Panama City, and then twenty years or more in life's seniority, is not enough, and life itself doesn't hold enough years for me to live on StAndrewsBay.
But my original thought. I wandered, and the reminiscence was perfect for a rainy morning, but the car that stirred my thought, the Triumph TR3.
One of the officers in the USS Corry wardroom was a new Naval Academy graduate who, like many who on graduation day either get married in the Academy chapel - - they have to schedule in half hour by half hour, catholic or protestant if it's still that way - - or take delivery of a brand new car that they ordered a few weeks back, incurring their first debt but blinded by the new car shininess and smell. His name was William E. Called Bill, he reported aboard as a new ensign just having acquired a brand new 1958 Chevrolet Impala hardtop coupe, top of the line. He'd ordered it with no extras except V8 and automatic transmission. Not even power steering, which left the car an absolute dog to drive, I drove it once, and it was a dog.
But the memory. Which relates Bill E to the TR3, the car of another officer in the Corry wardroom.
The ship had a brief stint in Portsmouth (VA) Naval Shipyard, and then moved back home to the destroyer-submarine piers at Norfolk Naval Base. All officers had to be on board that day for the ship's movement, but all of our cars were at Portsmouth, so the day before the move we junior officers had moved one car to Norfolk and parked it near our pier. After we'd moved the ship and were tied up at the pier the next afternoon, we stuffed all the junior officers but one into the car we'd brought over early. The but-one was Ensign Wm E, who handed me his car keys and asked me to bring it back. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Portsmouth, I told the other officer how much I admired his spanking new TR3, and that I'd driven an MGA but never a Triumph. He handed me his TR3 keys and took Ensign Wm E's Impala keys, so we swapped cars for the drive back to Norfolk.
Upon arriving back at the ship, he gave Bill his Impala keys, and the ensign went berserk at me for letting someone else drive his car without permission. Maybe I was wrong, but it didn't matter, because Ensign Wm E was the only naval officer I ever knew who fit the Officer Fitness Report image of unsat, which is why I'm being anonymous for him instead of giving his name. As was not all that uncommon with his arrogant ilk, Ensign Wm E held our ship's captain in contempt because he was not a Naval Academy graduate, and that openly, no attempt to hide it. I've told this here before, but one morning our ship's captain had a phone call summoning him to the admiral's office: one of his ship's officers, one Ensign Wm E had the previous evening driven through the main gate, inebriated. When the Marine guard at the gate snapped to attention, and saluted the ensign through the gate saying, "Good evening, Sir," our ensign had returned the salute sloppily with the response, "Good evening, f--ing Jarhead," TWEEEEEETT!!. Pulled over, arrested and taken in custody to the base brig for overnight. The captain was neither pleased nor impressed. In all my Navy years and since, Ensign Wm E, USN, USNA 1958, was the only officer I ever knew who was not automatically promoted from ensign to LT(jg) upon completing 18 months in grade. He left the Navy still an ensign. This morning I found his 2013 obituary, several marriages and dead at 77.
That was the second of only two English sports cars I ever drove. Of the two and my memories of the drives, it might be a tossup, though between MGA and TR3, the MG was smoother, while the Triumph had a sports car ride, cost more and had the racing reputation.
RSF&PTL
T+
My love of that first sea duty, and the encouragement and imagination it gave me, easily persuaded me to "augment" is another word, from USNR to USN and stay in the Navy that I'd grown to love, when most of the other young officers I knew were getting out upon completing their three year obligation and starting their post-college, post-military obligation life in the civilian world. Some back to college for masters degrees, some to law school.
My good friend and destroyer shipmate with whom I'd shared a stateroom, Ensign and then LTJG Don Senese, a Harvard graduate with a BA in Russian language and history, was stunned and uncomprehending on hearing that I was transferring to Regular Navy when he so despised the same ship, sea duty and Navy time that we were sharing from age 22 to 24. An Episcopalian from a Boston family whose parish had not coffee hour on Sundays, but Bloody Mary and Mimosa Hour, and then they went home for martinis before Sunday dinner, Don returned home to Boston and back to Harvard for a masters and eventually PhD in Russian and Soviet history and language. We stayed in touch by mail a few years, especially about our Saturday sailing days on Guantanamo Bay with a tub of iced Heineken, and about the Ron Añejo we had enjoyed evenings in the O Club, Añejo and soda, and had bought at 70¢ a bottle and brought back our allowance to continue at home our happy Cuban adventure. Don wrote me later that in Boston the Añejo had somehow lost its sunshine. He went on faculty with a university in British Columbia, became a professor there, wrote a book on an aspect of Russian history, and raised a family with his second wife. I googled Don awhile back and found his 2017 obituary.
The Navy junior officers I knew and served with, I think most went back home to settle down and live their lives in the city or town where they had grown up. Looking back at my own life, if I were starting over I'd manage my Navy career differently, or go to law school at Florida, which briefly I had in mind, or go on to theological seminary, which I'd had in mind since age ten; but in any event I'd return home to Panama City at a younger age than 63, as I did on retiring from parish ministry near the end of 1998. Eighteen years growing up in Panama City, and then twenty years or more in life's seniority, is not enough, and life itself doesn't hold enough years for me to live on StAndrewsBay.
But my original thought. I wandered, and the reminiscence was perfect for a rainy morning, but the car that stirred my thought, the Triumph TR3.
One of the officers in the USS Corry wardroom was a new Naval Academy graduate who, like many who on graduation day either get married in the Academy chapel - - they have to schedule in half hour by half hour, catholic or protestant if it's still that way - - or take delivery of a brand new car that they ordered a few weeks back, incurring their first debt but blinded by the new car shininess and smell. His name was William E. Called Bill, he reported aboard as a new ensign just having acquired a brand new 1958 Chevrolet Impala hardtop coupe, top of the line. He'd ordered it with no extras except V8 and automatic transmission. Not even power steering, which left the car an absolute dog to drive, I drove it once, and it was a dog.
But the memory. Which relates Bill E to the TR3, the car of another officer in the Corry wardroom.
The ship had a brief stint in Portsmouth (VA) Naval Shipyard, and then moved back home to the destroyer-submarine piers at Norfolk Naval Base. All officers had to be on board that day for the ship's movement, but all of our cars were at Portsmouth, so the day before the move we junior officers had moved one car to Norfolk and parked it near our pier. After we'd moved the ship and were tied up at the pier the next afternoon, we stuffed all the junior officers but one into the car we'd brought over early. The but-one was Ensign Wm E, who handed me his car keys and asked me to bring it back. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Portsmouth, I told the other officer how much I admired his spanking new TR3, and that I'd driven an MGA but never a Triumph. He handed me his TR3 keys and took Ensign Wm E's Impala keys, so we swapped cars for the drive back to Norfolk.
Upon arriving back at the ship, he gave Bill his Impala keys, and the ensign went berserk at me for letting someone else drive his car without permission. Maybe I was wrong, but it didn't matter, because Ensign Wm E was the only naval officer I ever knew who fit the Officer Fitness Report image of unsat, which is why I'm being anonymous for him instead of giving his name. As was not all that uncommon with his arrogant ilk, Ensign Wm E held our ship's captain in contempt because he was not a Naval Academy graduate, and that openly, no attempt to hide it. I've told this here before, but one morning our ship's captain had a phone call summoning him to the admiral's office: one of his ship's officers, one Ensign Wm E had the previous evening driven through the main gate, inebriated. When the Marine guard at the gate snapped to attention, and saluted the ensign through the gate saying, "Good evening, Sir," our ensign had returned the salute sloppily with the response, "Good evening, f--ing Jarhead," TWEEEEEETT!!. Pulled over, arrested and taken in custody to the base brig for overnight. The captain was neither pleased nor impressed. In all my Navy years and since, Ensign Wm E, USN, USNA 1958, was the only officer I ever knew who was not automatically promoted from ensign to LT(jg) upon completing 18 months in grade. He left the Navy still an ensign. This morning I found his 2013 obituary, several marriages and dead at 77.
That was the second of only two English sports cars I ever drove. Of the two and my memories of the drives, it might be a tossup, though between MGA and TR3, the MG was smoother, while the Triumph had a sports car ride, cost more and had the racing reputation.
RSF&PTL
T+