The Chief’s Anchor

We electricians got collectively chewed out one day because our chief (aka "The Weasel") left his hat on the E-div locker in middle level and someone had turned his hat insignia (a gold anchor with a chrome "USN" over it) upside down. Apparently he'd been walking around with it upside down for days before one of the other chiefs had pity and told him. Like I've said before, he wasn't a bad guy, he was just oblivious to what was going on around him.

Of course, after that, messing with the chief's hat became one of our favorite past times. Even though he never quite figured out that the simplest thing would have been to just stop leaving it lying around, he did get pretty good at noticing when his pin was on the wrong side or stuck on sideways. But we had to wait until we pulled into the PI for the best hat prank of all time.

Now, there's a lot to be said about Subic, but most of it is not exactly safe for work. One thing I can say is that they had some of the world's best craftsmen right outside the gate who could make anything your heart desired, often for less than one girl's bar fine (the standard for comparison shopping). Several people had a full set of custom-tailored uniforms, fully embroidered (back when most people just hand-stenciled their stuff), made up while we were there. They also made custom-fit furniture and jewelry, T-shirt silk screening, westpac jackets... you name it.

Well, we had a custom chief's anchor made up for our chief's hat, only with "FTN" instead of "USN" (we used my initials, since it was my idea). The finished product looked so authentic even we couldn't tell the difference from a few feet away. We made the swap the next morning, and the only hard part was keeping a straight face when you were talking to him outside.

The prank went on for almost a week before someone who cared (the COB, in this case) noticed it and made him take it off. Which was a shame, because I had "eight days, six hours" in the pool we'd started on how long it would be before we got caught. There were no hard feelings; Weasel was actually kind of proud of the pin and sent it home in a jewelry box. We still have fond memories of this little gag; if you go down on the boat, you'll occasionally see "FTN" written on some out of the way surface in tribute to the Great Pin Swap.

At least, I think it's in tribute...