Alaska

Alaska




One perk to military service is being able to catch a transport flight. If you are on leave you can hop a military flight to just about anywhere if they have room to take you.

Dad was in California on leave one day when he and a friend decided to go on a trip. They found a flight going to Alaska. The pilot was happy to take them. He dropped them on a runway in Juno with several bags of mail.

After he flew away, they began to sober up and realized that there were no people around and that they were not dressed for the local weather. It was starting to get dark so they huddled up and stacked the mail bags around them to block the wind. After an hour or so they saw headlights and a jeep drove up. The driver was amazed to find two sailors with the mail bags.

He said, “I don’t know how you boys got here but today is your lucky day. I usually wait until morning to pick up the mail and I don’t think you would have lasted that long.”

Dad replied, “Some dumb Air Force pilot dropped us here and today is your lucky day. We were about to start burning your mail to keep warm.”

The Great Lakes Shuffle

The Great Lakes Shuffle



When dad was a new recruit in the Navy he was sent to a base in Michigan for training. One Friday night a few NCOs came by the barracks and asked if any of the boys knew how to dance. Sensing a night out a number of the young men said that they were good dancers. They were loaded in a truck and driven to the local USO club. When they went inside the place was empty.

One of the officers opened up a box of steel wool and threw some on the floor.

He said, “Alright boys pay attention! You put a ball of steel wool under each foot and twist like this. It’s called the Great Lakes Shuffle. We need this floor shined by tomorrow night because we have a big dance. We’ll stop by afterwards and let you boys know how it went, now get to dancing!”

When in the military, never volunteer for anything.