SSRN
SEAVIEW
Dear Mom,
Well,
here I am aboard Seaview. Not a bad gig for my Reserve time. She's more of a
pleasure boat than a real sub. I can stretch out my legs and there's no 'hot‑bunking'.
Don't
get me wrong. They do everything the same way the Navy does, sort of, well,
maybe. I mean, you 'sir' the officers, and get chewed out by the Chief if you
don't work fast enough.
Anyway,
in between watches I'm trying to keep up with my studies and I sure am kidded
about trying to get a degree in art history and some of the guys are starting
to call me 'prof'. It's all in good fun, so I just let them.
I taped
a couple of pictures that I've done aboard.
This first one is of the Captain in
the control room, near the periscope. I'm
not usually in that part of the boat. Sometimes they let us take a peek out of
the front porch now and then. That's the Observation Nose that Seaview’s so
famous for. One of the perks.The next one is of the ‘Three Musketeers’ as we call the XO, Captain, and Admiral. The third
is is a portrait of the Skipper. He’s probably the
only man aboard who's actually encouraging my artwork. He even sat for me over
some coffee. And does he ever guzzle it down. Has to have a
real caffeine fix, that one. I don’t remember now what joke it was that
had him laughing. Anyway, he actually suggested to the
Admiral that I might do some art for the Institute's
I don't
do much of anything important, and spend most of my time scrubbing the deck,
vents, and any other mundane chores. I guess it's 'cause I'm only one on Active
Reserve status and they can get away with it. Oh well. It's only a two week
stint. I gotta close now, the mailbag's ready to go, and those chopper pilots
are an impatient lot. I'll write again as soon as we get home and fill you all
in on my 'adventure'. Yeah, sure, ‘some’ adventure. See you soon.
Love, Brad