Chapter 2

Transiting from Hawaii to their next port of call, Yokosuka, Japan, the battle group ran exercises and rendezvoused with a Navy tanker, to take on fuel. Even refueling was an training exercise, giving any new crewmembers the training required to refuel at sea. For Eddie, he spent his days making rounds of his division’s equipment spaces, interfacing with each of the half dozen technicians under his leadership. He still practiced his sojourn to the weather decks at dusk, to commune with the sea and gather his thoughts. Among those thoughts were his tentative plans to apply for ‘transfer to the Fleet Reserve’, which was the formal way of saying ‘retire’. He would have his twenty years’ active duty completed six months after the ship’s return to home port. Did he want to get out of the Navy? His selection to Senior Chief, with the pay hike and added responsibility would make it a hard decision, but the Selection Board had not met yet.

What was out there for him, and his family? While he was on Instructor Duty, he attended a Job Fair, and was heartened by interest expressed by various aerospace companies. Although he hadn’t earned a degree, some stated they would accept his twenty years electronics training, especially with his instructor time, and his leadership experience as the equivalent to a BS in Electrical Engineering. That was attractive to him, though most of the companies were out of Silicon Valley, and he wasn’t keen on living in that area. A couple, however, had been from outside of California. He’d collected several business cards from the headhunters, and was still sitting on the bubble, as to whether he should pack it in, or stay for thirty years. Of course, his thoughts weren’t all about work.

Given his active libido, he first thought about his daughters. Beyond that, he wondered what he would find in the various ports of call his ship would sail into. Would it be like his Med cruises? In the Med, he’d encountered European women of various nationalities, although he’d never had sex with a Muslim woman, which is a subject for another time. In WestPac, the indigenous women he would meet would ostensibly be predominately Asian, or possibly Polynesian, but there were also Americans who worked in the Pacific Theater. Eddie had nothing against Asians; he’d just never had sex with one. But he was looking forward to the experience, and chuckled, remembering the old joke about Asian women having pussy lips that were slanted ninety degrees from occidental women!

Yokosuka, Japan is a major Japanese seaport. Countless ships sail in and out each day. There are shipyards, and wharfs for loading and unloading the myriad imports and exports which keep the Japanese economy strong. Within Yokosuka, the Navy maintains a large base, inviting hundreds of sailors to spend money they earned while at sea. The Naval Station could only provide some of the commodities a sailor was looking to purchase. Most foreign ports visited by U.S. Navy ships like to provide services which can separate the military member from his pay. Yokosuka was no different and there’s an area just outside the main gate of the base. Eddie had heard of several names for such areas, but in Yokosuka, they call it ‘The Honcho’, or just ‘The Honch’. Because of Eddie’s aversion to employing hookers, he didn’t plan on visiting The Honch. That was until a fellow chief educated him. Yes, you could find hookers, but the many bars along The Honch employed B-girls, or bar girls. They ostensibly were not hookers. Their job was to provide companionship to the lonely sailors, get them to drink as many of their high-priced drinks as they could, and of course, get them to buy the girl a drink of ‘champagne’ at exorbitant prices. Eddie had seen the same thing in the Med, and Caribbean. Most likely that champagne was ginger ale, or tinted lemon-lime soda, or just soda water. Of course, the sailor was never allowed to taste his hostesses drink. That bit of information still did not engender a desire for Eddie to visit the busy street one block off the main street running past the main gate. That major street was National Route 16, a very busy thoroughfare.

The ‘educational’ chief was Ron Singleton, an engineering chief who worked below decks maintaining the equipment which propelled the ship, provided water and electricity, and warmth to the spaces aboard ship. Engineering personnel were called ‘Snipes’, and Eddie’s group of electronics personnel were called ‘Twidgets’. On board all Navy ships, there tends to be animosity between the two groups, but they come together in a pinch. Of course, the chiefs formed a much tighter, cohesive force, maybe because they slept in the same berthing area, where the snipes and twidgets of lower grades slept separately. Ron had been stationed in Yokosuka and transferred to sea just last year. While in Yokosuka, he had met and developed a relationship with a B-girl he just called Yuki. They were working up to getting married, but his impending transfer and the government red tape, both U.S. and Japanese had been so slow, he was transferred before they could finalize the paperwork. Both had been devastated, and they had continued to follow the paper trail from their respective ends. Both had anticipated his ship’s arrival in Japan, and now he was spending every minute with her that he could. Ron had even requested leave while the ship was in port, using his daytime hours to haunt the U.S. and Japanese government offices along with Yuki. She had to work each evening, and you could find Ron at her bar, just hanging out and spending his money to keep her at his table.