In The Navy (FT “A” School), Part 2

I remember realizing I had not seen the Ocean in person yet and just started walking one day. It was bitterly cold, but I still decided that I would cross the river and go see the ocean on the New London side (I will provide a map later if you care to see that). It was a long cold walk, but I didn’t really have anything else to do that day. It gave me a chance to see the area from ground level. I was all the way across New London when out of the blue I heard a car honk its horn and it was a guy I knew from Sub School. He was cool with the idea of going down to the beach and made the short drive down there. I think it was “Ocean Beach Park”. The Ocean was frothy and the wind was hideous. Sea foam was spilling into the air on the wind and floating all over. It was sunny, but that provided no warmth. I walked up to the breakers and looked out at the cold Atlantic one on one, for the very first time.

My friend was apartment shopping in New London, so I offered to tag along as it beat the concept of walking back to base. The first place we went to was decrepit and we didn’t stay long. The next place was right up the street. It looked nice enough, but smelled moldy. I sat on the arm rest of a couch while he got the short tour. I was sitting there for maybe 30 seconds before I noticed a small sting on my hand and looked down to see a small black speck bounce off me into the air. I looked down at my legs and noticed what had to be hundreds and hundreds of tiny black specks, moving. Flea infestation! I jumped up, grabbed my buddy by the arm and dragged him out of there. Just writing this has me itching…

I stood outside and shook my whole body off. I took off my coat off and shook it for a long time. I got down to my bare feet and shook out my shoes and socks, with my bare feet on the cold concrete sidewalk. It was disgusting. We went back to base and I took a long shower, but didn’t see any more fleas. Maybe it was the cold outside that drove them off of me?

I actually stayed away from New London for a while after that episode. It creeped me out completely.

Changing gears now…

Another thing about joining the Sub force is medical related. This probably all happened in Sub School, but I just thought of it now. You have to go through a battery of sight and hearing tests that were new to me. The vision test was not too different from the one you get for glasses, but it was new to me. The hearing one was kind of neat. You get placed in a sound proof booth and they play different tones into this stereo headset you have to wear. The do left and right randomly changing the tones up and down each time. You have to raise the corresponding hand when you hear each tone. It goes really high and low, it’s a very extensive test. I must have been borderline, because I had to do it twice.

If you fail either the vision or hearing test, then “see you later”. You are sent off to a shore job or a Sub Tender.

This next bit is a little gross, so if you are squeamish, please read on…

The next thing they do is remove those pesky old wisdom teeth, REGARDLESS OF THEIR CONDITION. The dentist who did me was actually sad and called over the Chief dentist to look. He was arguing that my wisdom teeth were completely crowned and had come in better than most regular molars on the average person. The concern was a wisdom tooth getting infected while someone is out on a run and a Sub having to surface to get the guy home. It’s an understandable concern, and I hear it used to happen fairly frequently.

I had all four pulled in one sitting. I was given some Novocain and out came the plyers. I felt the physical grinding as each tooth was wobbled side to side to break it loose (crunching all the way) and then the pop as it was pulled out. It didn’t hurt till later that night. I spit blood all night and woke up shortly after getting to sleep to throw up because of all of the blood I had swallowed. I felt like a vampire gone wrong.