Steel beach

[Grampa Don]

If you were in the Navy, did you ever stop for a swim and barbecue? We did somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean on the way back from Westpac. It's a unique experience swimming in water over a thousand miles from shore and over a thousand feet deep.

 

[Nathan]

I was in the Army's navy, here is our LCU we pulled up onto a sand bar in the South China Sea, where we sat ,waiting for the tide to go out so we could go around to the stern and inspect our 3 drive screws. We had an oil drum BBQ we'd set up at the front of the well deck. We had a huge chest freezer on the fantail, of course stocked with beer.

 

[Naturally]

A few swim calls on different ships. A gunners mate always stationed as lookout in case of sharks ... and I felt safe.

Maybe I shouldn't have felt safe though. We were dead in the water for several hours off the coast of Panama once.
While we didn't have a swim call, a few guys were fishing off the fantail.
One of the guys hooked into a beautiful Swordfish and fought the fish for close to seemed like an hour.
About the time the guy got the fish up to the side of the ship, the Captain said, "Cut the line. We have to get back underway right now to stay on schedule."
A gunners mate was quickly summoned to dispatch the fiercely fighting fish.
The fish was right beside the ship, the gunners mate aimed his rifle straight down on the fish.
He missed the fish with five shots. Water plays tricks on bullets and visual perception.
Still the guy was able to land the fish, get a picture taken of him and his fish and have a mess cook fix it up.
They had to get permission from Doc to use the galley. Medical always inspected any food coming onboard. I think Doc just wanted some Swordfish

Don't have any steel beach stories but there were several. At least one on each deployment.