Steve
and Rick Woolf had both gone to the University of Miami to get their MBAs
in 1967. They had then both joined the Navy and gone together to the Navy
Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI and Navy Supply School in Athens,
GA. After their first shipboard tours, Rick & Steve lost touch
with each other for...
...almost
30 years. After finally re-establishing contact, Rick & Paula flew
from Florida to see us in San Diego for a couple of days. Rick's FIRST
priority before going sight-seeing was to buy a NAVY T-SHIRT and we all
went for a brief stop at the Navy Exchange.
After
30 years, Steve had forgotten Rick's unique ability for instantaneous,
dynamic decision-making and we were incredibly impressed by his closely
examining almost every single color and style of Navy Logo T-shirt carried
in the NEX before Paula FINALLY assisted Rick in narrowing his choices
and making his selection.
It
was refreshing to see that neither time nor experience had deterred Rick's
commitment to THOROUGHLY examining COUNTLESS alternative possibilities
before plunking down his $6.50 for that particular treasured T-Shirt.
(Actually, we were quite impressed with how Paula was able to subtlety
drag Rick to the Cashier!) <grin>
After
finally extracting Rick from the NEX, we headed off to visit a Soviet-era
"Foxtrot" class diesel-electric submarine at the Maritime Museum.
This sub had been commissioned in 1974 and had been towed to San Diego
a few months ago
[SEE ADDITIONAL PHOTOS at bottom of page].
This
class sub is essentially a slightly larger and more powerful version of
the WWII German U-Boat that was used by the Russians until the mid-1990's.
It had a crew of 78, carried torpedoes (both nuclear and conventional)
as well as mines, and could dive to almost 1,000 feet.
In
Steve's humble opinion, this 300 foot 1,952 ton boat is pretty crude by
US Navy standards (particularly in regard to creature comforts like the
absence of any capability to produce FRESH WATER for the crew!), but,
as is typical of Soviet Cold War technology, it was designed for FUNCTION
rather than COMFORT.
This
photo of the six forward torpedo tubes (with the propellers of one torpedo
visible in the one open tube) shows one of the larger areas of the submarine.
Lena
is doing her best to look interested and impressed with being able to
finally visit a Soviet sub in this photo! (However, Lena could
not understand why the 'long cylinder thingie' could not be stored somewhere
else in order to give people more room to work and play.)
This
sign gives one a pretty good inclination as to how primitive life on these
subs could be. (If the crew had NOT gotten 'throw away underwear,' I'm
sure CROTCH ROT would have been a serious problem!)
Rick,
of course, had to get things down to the basics and wanted to try out
one of the 3 heads on the sub. Unfortunately, he saw that there was NO
TOILET PAPER (and no readily-available 'throw away underwear')!
Unlike
hatches on US ships (which are much narrower), these on the Soviet sub
were more than two feet thick. Unless one is rather agile and used to
traversing these obstacles, Steve could see how it would be fairly easy
to emasculate oneself trying to race from one end of the sub to the other.
After
leaving the sub, we boarded the H.M.S. SURPRISE. This is a magnificent
replica of an 18th century Royal Navy Frigate used in 20 Century Fox's
film "MASTER AND COMMANDER: The Far Side of the World." The
Surprise is a 179 foot full rigged 500 ton ship that carries 24 cannon.
Having
seen "MASTER AND COMMANDER," it is incredible how BIG the SURPRISE
appeared in the movie...and how TINY it actually is! However, we saw exhibits
featuring artifacts, costumes, weapons, and props used in the film (as
well as a recreation of the gun deck).
Rick
& Lena demonstrate their willingness to take control, grab the wheel,
and get underway.
This
photo shows a few of SURPRISES' gun ports open with several of her 24
cannon wheeled into firing position. (Aft of SURPRISE is the Soviet Foxtrot
sub.)
Another
feature attraction at the Maritime Museum is the STAR OF INDIA, an 1863
merchant sailing ship that is now the world's oldest active ship. At 212
feet (280 feet with spars) and 1300 gross tons, she dwarfs the smaller
SURPRISE and Soviet sub.
As
we were departing the STAR OF INDIA on an unusually-clear day for San
Diego, we enjoyed this beautiful sunset on San Diego Bay (with Coronado
and NAS North Island in the background).
In
his earlier days in OCS and Supply School, Rick always had a somewhat
unique ability to exhibit what Steve calls a smile like "a possum
eating shit." It was encouraging to see after all these years that
during diner at The Fish Market along San Diego's waterfront, Rick STILL
sports that 'go, get 'em' look! <grin>
Other
than buying a T-shirt, Rick's major goal in San Diego was to see the ZOO.
Fortunately, we had a day when it was supposed to rain...and didn't. So,
there were NO CROWDS and it was possible to actually see the animals instead
of the taller people standing in front of you. This is the entrance to
the...
...San
Diego Zoo. Steve is wearing his Australian Outback hat and doing his 'Gungda
Din' impersonation. Rick, of course, is sporting his USS PLATTE (AO-24)
ballcap from his Vietnam-era ship (the Navy's oldest OILER at that time)
to compliment his Navy T-shirt.
Of
course, anyone visiting the San Diego Zoo simply has to see its feature
attraction: THE PANDAS. Normally, the only photos a visitor gets are of
one of the black and white animals SLEEPING inside the Panda enclosure.
This trip promised to be no exception: The sucker was in the same place
we had seen him last year!
So, based on several previous visits, Steve was firmly convinced that...UNLESS
pandas were like his cat (which SLEEPS 23 hours/day)...there was the real
possibility that the Zoo had only a STUFFED Panda on display in the trees...
...
within the enclosure and that there were NO LIVE PANDAS (except, maybe,
in China). However, with a little patience and a lot of luck, Steve...
...finally
got this ACTION SHOT of a Panda which was breathing and in MOTION! Therefore,
I guess that the Zoo DOES have LIVE Pandas on public display.
The
San Diego Zoo is rather large and it IS possible to lose one's
way walking through the hills and thickly-wooded area. Rick scratched
his head and tried drawing on those celestial navigation courses he'd
tried to learn back in OCS so as to find our way; Steve asked a Zoo GUIDE
for DIRECTIONS!
Another
favorite display is the FLAMINGOS and ducks which Lena and Paula checked
out during our visit.
Steve
and Rick stop to discuss and resolve some of the political and economic
problems facing the world. They had previously shared many of the same
basic philosophies, economic approaches, and priorities in life during
their earlier years...and happily discovered that things had NOT really
changed much in 30 years!
Lena
simply could not resist shooting this photo of Steve & Rick sitting
under the appropriately-titled green umbrella. All kidding aside, Steve
was REALLY HAPPY to see Rick and Paula again and to find out that they
were the same wonderful people he had known back in the late 1960's....and
Lena was equally thrilled to meet them for the first time.
In
fact, instead of taking Rick & Paula to his usual low-end hamburger
joint for chow, he treated them to an upscale gourmet PIZZA & CHICKEN
dinner. Needless to say, we very much look forward to visiting them in
Florida and/or taking a cruise with them to some exotic (and erotic?)
ports!
