You Naval Aviation types will appreciate this....

[Navy Chief]

I have a retired Navy buddy I stay in contact with. He was my LPO when I was with VQ-1 at NAS Whidbey Island, WA.

He was, and IS just like Radar O'reilly, when it comes to scrounging and getting things. Whenever our division needed anything, be it furniture, lockers; anything.......HE could get it. The only catch was, I never asked him where he got the stuff. Probably for the best that I didn't know!

Anyway, he called me today, and asked if I wanted a Ready Room chair. YES! I've always wanted one of those. It will look great in my Living Room!!!

Navy Chief

[Willy]

That'd be great to put a laptop on.

[Daveroo]

OMG i want one....geeeeeze....why does everyone else have all the really cool friends?..my contacts are people who can get me things like a straight claw hammer.......whoopie

[TARPSBird]

NC,
I'd like to have a Ready Room chair myself - nice for TV watching.
Guys like your buddy help to keep the Navy running when it would otherwise be bogged down in administrative BS. On my first cruise we had a warrant officer who could get anything, and never a paper trail. We had some maintenance spaces that lacked a/c and he came up with three big floor fans out of some supply building at NAS Alameda. We just loaded 'em on the duty truck and headed back to the ship. :icon_lol:

[strikehawk]

I grew up hearing about all the comshaw my dad used to do when he was in the fleet. I think his two best transactions were somehow "acquiring" a replacement RADAR set for I think the USS Interdicter. Actually he he stole it from a mothballed boat, and he's passed on now so what can they do about? The second transaction was trading 3/4's of a canned ham from the mess decks for something and after a couple of days trading something else and getting the ham back, though slightly smaller.

The best I could ever do was taking a working party to the NAR Training spaces at the VP-65 hangar at Pt. Mugu and rremoving a stack of room dividers that were slated to be thrown out and after asking for them being told NO. Anyway my guys cleared that place in five minutes, took them upstairs and set up our skipper with his semi-private office. Me and an Airman were taking the last piece out when I bumped into the NAR CO. The Capatain asked what I was doing and I replied "Stealing sir". Then I told him why and thinking I just got my Crow last month and now it's going away, he replied that he was happy the younger Petty Officers were showing initiative again.

I found out after I retired the reason I went on some really good Dets was that I was the units "emergency supply system". If it was something obscure or hard to find or it was after hours, chances were that I knew someone that had one or they knew where one could be found. The old joke " I'm Italian, I know someone in ( name line of work) applies to Sailors too.

For you younger gents, If you acquire something for personal gain you're a thief. If you aquire something to help your unit achieve it's goals or make life a little easier, you're looking out for your shipmates. And NEVER, EVER, let anyone know where it came from.:monkies:

[Willy]

I made a coke cooler for the engine room out of an old metal box with a lid and some copper tubing that was laying around unused. The Captain found it during a space inspection and I ended up having to make one for each of the other engine rooms as well. It would cool down a case of soda in less than an hour.

[Navy Chief]

The secret, I found, to successful "acquisitions" was to act as though you had permission to take the items, and no one would say anything............

NC

[N2056]

Remember...

It is always easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission! ;)

[Navy Chief]

On one particular occasion, I told my LPO we needed some lockers for the Line Division personnel, and asked if he would check DRMO. i went on leave a couple days later. When I got back, I noticed the change room was filled with lockers, and all in unusually good condition, considering they had come from salvage (or so I thought). What I couldn't figure out, was why each locker had unusual names on them; none of which were folks who were attached to the Line Div. Well, as things turned out, my LPO had "acquired" all the lockers from the pilots locker room of a sister squadron that was on deployment, PLUS the plush leather couch from their Ready Room, and even their CO's wooden bookcase!!! I could envision myself being busted as a result of all this, but I was wrong. No one ever asked where we got it all. And even our Commanding Officer commented during an inspection once how nice the Line Shack looked.......

Navy Chief

[Piglet]

That guy in the pic, with his feet up on the stool, seems to not be paying attention. Does he know that there will a pop quiz later?