Fred Massicotte ex-
MM2 in August of '58
THIS ONE SCARED THE HELL OUTTA ME!
May, 1959. We were anchored out near the entrance to the bay with our relief
carrier, USS HORNET tied up at the pier with the senior admiral. It was just
after taps and I was down in aft O2 writing a letter when over the 1MC comes "general
quarters, man your battle stations" with absolutely no emphasis. I
didn't move.
A couple minutes later it repeated. I still didn't move. Then the chief who had that spot as a GQ station came thru the scuttle and while he was giving me the business, a genuine 100% full force G.Q. was sounded. I bailed out for ice machines thinking it was another PEARL HARBOR!! Later with the phones on I found out that there was an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands and a tidal wave was expected to be heading in our direction. All we were going to do was take "THE LADY" out to sea with the duty section. I wasn't the only one who thought he'd have to be changing his skivvies that night.
One other hairy one was when we were returning to Long Beach from either 'Frisco
or Seattle
and just as we were about to go through the break-water in Long Beach sonar
picked up a Russian sub. Everyone was at Quarters for entering port.
We could see everyone on the pier waiting when suddenly "THE LADY" turned seaward and all 125,000 shaft horsepower were brought to bear.
We chased that sub all the way to Hawaii's waters and lost it.
FIRST TIME EVER
DISOBEYING ORDERS
After completing refresher training at GITMO, in early 1969, The YORKTOWN made
liberty calls in the Virgin Islands. One of the great benefits there was tax
free liquor. Everyone who had a secure place to stash booze snuck a few bottles
aboard to take home. In St. Thomas,
I decided, "what harm is there in it, everyone else was doing it." So
I bought a couple of bottles of my favorite booze, "Seagram Seven".
I then an early lunch at the foot of a famous elevator that rose to the top of a
mountain. The bartender looked familiar and turned out to a movie extra from
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TV series Rawhide and John Wayne movies. He told me he lived
with four gorgeous ladies up in the mountains. He was going off work at noon and
invited me to join him for what he called "games and 3pm dinner".
Being single, it sounded like good fun to me.
At the time there was racial unrest on the island and we had been ordered to
return to the ship by sundown, around 8 pm. We drank up one of my bottles and I
lost track of time. All of a sudden, I realized the sun was gone and I was an
hour away from the landing point for shore parties. We raced down the mountain
in the dark in his jeep because there were no street lights. In town, the USO
was located adjacent to the liberty launch spot. To avoid getting caught
bringing it aboard, I donated all my liquor to the USO as a good will gesture
from our ship.
Then I joined about 40 others on the liberty launch. As we boarded The YORKTOWN,
the enlisted were sent to Master-at-Arms. The officers were told to report to
the XO's cabin. All the other officers were drunk and staggered in a line to the
XO's cabin. I fell in behind, in last place. My stateroom was down a passageway
adjacent to the XO's cabin and as we approached, I slipped down to my room and
went to bed.
The next morning, there was a message over the I-MC, "LTjg Potts, report to
the XO's cabin" I figured I was going to be in hack forever (restricted to
either my cabin or the ship) and made my way to his cabin. This was our last day
at St. Thomas.
To
my surprise, he told me he was busy and had promised his wife to buy perfume.
Since I was in the duty section and had to be aboard all day, he figured I would
appreciate another chance to go ashore and buy the perfume for him. He had no
idea how happy I was to follow those orders.
MISSING ORDERS
EUROPEAN CRUISE
Shortly before The YORKTOWN was to depart on our 1969 Northern European cruise
from Norfolk, orders were received in the communications center for early outs
due to downsizing of the Viet Nam campaign. One particular officer's name
was on the list for early out when the message was "received" in the
comm center.
Strangely enough, after we returned from the cruise, the name of one of our
communications watch officers who made the cruise was on the original list. No
one ever figured
out why his name was not on the list that went to the Personnel Office,
especially since it was rumored that he was the watch officer when the message
came in.
Ensign, Ltjg Dale Potts
TWO LOW/HIGHLIGHTS OF 1969 CRUISE
Junior Officers (who were not career Navy men) wanted to get out of the Navy as much as us enlisted guys. So I actually got an "early out" as the Yorktown was in Boston for de commissioning. The big day finally came. Even though I had a raging temperature, a ruby red face and had mononucleosis, the Navy doctor gave me a physical and said I was fit to leave.
When the big day came I was given my discharge orders and
they were given to me in the tell-tale white envelope that all sailors know
contain discharge papers. 
A Lt. jg that I chummed with saw me with the big white envelope
and came over to whine. "You really getting out
today..." "What makes you think you deserve an early
out..." 
He was so
jealous he grabbed my big white envelope with my discharge orders and took out
his pen and wrote "very good" underlined it, initialed it, then
said, "Oh yeah, one more thing" and then he drew a star on my
envelope. In his jealous fit, he said "good luck", tossed
my discharge back to me over his shoulder and stomped off in a huff.
Hey, I'm a civilian today and you're still a Lt. jg.
I outrank you.
