March 06, 2006
Sea Sickness
The entire ship smelled like fermenting jet fuel. Steve said it smelled the same as it did in 1972 while stationed on her in Vietnam. The flourcent lights lit up the metal and paint as we wandered through the USS Midway with our heads tucked in our shoulders. Steve is a retired captain in the Navy. He served as a doctor in the service for over 20 years. He hadn't been back on the ship since then, and now it is decommissioned and turned into museum docked a few miles away from his home in San Diego.
We began to decend the black metal staircase from the mess hall into the sick ward.
The tour of the ship conjured up stories of men over board, liberty leave, the evacuation on board the ship during the fall of Saigon (more stories came out later that night after the 4th of 5th bottle of wine later that day).
The historical photos and anecdotes at every turn painted pictures of hard working men and high moral. The self guided audio tour narrated facts and figures as we walked about the 1001 foot long ship. Intrigued and impressed, i turned to steve:
"What the most common illness you came across on this ship?" i asked him.
"Gonorrhea." he replied gazing across cafeteria, then walked down the stairs.
