Page 92 - The Jazzsipper Novel

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THE JAZZ SIPPER

Chapter Ten-----The Cat

Upon the start of the cruise Vance was assigned to what is called Ships
Company. His work detail was working in the aft enlisted mess hall. Vance’s
primary duties were to help with food preparation and maintain the cleanness
of the large dinning enlisted facilities. He was assigned to one of the largest
mess hall crews. Because of the hours they worked while at sea; their primary
hours were 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. But, on most occasions they worked from
Sunup to Sundown, a term that simply referred to when you started work and
when you got off from work.

Crews were also used for the many shipboard Underway replenishments
(unreps), a term used for of all methods of transferring fuel, ammunitions,
supplies and personnel from one ship to another while the vessels are
underway. There were two methods of unreps, one was connected and the
other was vertical. In a connected replenishment two or more ships steam
side-by-side and the hoses and lines were used to transfer fuel, ammunition,
supplies and personnel. Helicopters carried out vertical replenishments with
the ships in close proximity or miles apart depending on the tactical situation
and the amount of cargo to be transferred. It did not matter which one was
happening they were labor intensive and Vance’s crew was always involved
since they ran the largest mess hall and fed the most people.

But, what Vance liked was that everyone in the crew consisted of all the
departments throughout the ship. So, he got to meet everyone. And the
supervisors had a hard time keeping up with their crew. Their crew could
sneak off and get lost anytime. There was a lot of joking around and guys