The Midway Islands were small potatoes. Sand Island was about 1400 Acres at low tide and Eastern Island about 400 Acres also at low tide.
Essentially you couldn't pass gas without someone knowing about it. But it seemed only when I had OOD (Officer of the Day) duty that the really weird stuff would happen. Then too being the most junior officer on the whole island it seemed like my turn at OOD always fell on a weekend or holiday. I noted this and mentioned it to my superior who looked at me and said are you complaining. Sir, No Sir! Just an observation.
One Sunday afternoon I got a call about a domestic disturbance in the dependent housing area involving two females. Now I keep repeating there were only 6 single women, but there were a lot of other women who were dependents. That number was in the hundreds. It seemed like two women (wives of enlisted personnel) were physically fighting. I had the Master at Arms accompany me to the housing area.
Sure, enough the two women were having at it with fists and hair pulling. I had them disengage long enough to have them explain what is up. It seems one of the women borrowed a suitcase of the other woman to use on a family leave off the island. The owner claims the suitcase was returned in a damaged state and wanted compensation. Then they started at it again and the borrower said I received the suitcase like that.
The owner said that is not my suitcase. The borrower rips off her shirt saying you think I am hiding it here... there was nothing to hide and there she was bare chested. Here I am a 21-year-old Ensign, and such a situation was never in my training. Adapt, Improvise and Overcome
The Master at Arms looked at me with a look of what are going to do now Ensign Juliano. Thinking quickly, I said STOP. Here is the deal... I am going to give you 3 minutes to resolve this and if you can't, both of you will be arrested. I had the power to do that. I also said the resolution is final as if you go at it again, I would have you thrown off the island. (I was not really sure I could do that, but it sounded official). They stopped and hugged each other and started crying and I heard I am sorry from both of them. I suggested the semi-naked woman get a shirt on and left.
The Master at Arms as we were leaving asked me how in the hell did you think of that? I simply said I was the authority and I could arrest them and likely get them thrown off the Island. It took me an hour to write the after-action report for the official log. When I turned over the watch, my replacement asked if anything unusual happened and I said a naked woman and left without saying anything more. Only on Midway.
The OOD had many duties aside from breaking up female cat fights. The Navy takes great pains to ensure their personnel are properly fed with high quality meals. Thus, one duty is for the OOD is to make a physical inspection of the cooking operations and mess hall area as well as eat a meal in the general mess. I took this responsibility very seriously and even filled out the comment sheet at the OOD table. The food operation at the general mess was impressive and I became good friends with the Mess Officer.
The staff of the general mess checked the watch bill and always enjoyed receiving my reports on the mess. After about three times, the general mess Chief In Charge suggested I stop by the mess after my last physical drive around the base (11PM) ... to observe the preparations for breakfast. I did that and as I was leaving was handed a bag of two fresh glazed donuts. Boy did those taste good before I went to bed! Thereafter my final stop on the OOD base tour was the General Mess. (They always had donuts for me.) No question the Navy did take care of the men!
I mentioned that I became friends with the Mess Officer. The Navy compartmentalizes and the General Mess had several vehicles to deliver food to the Aircraft crews and to the Mike Boat that made trips over to Eastern Island. By now I was the Transportation Officer in charge of all vehicles on the island including maintenance and repair... and had a budget for that except the Mess Hall had a separate budget. The main delivery truck had a problem with its transmission and was inoperative. The Mess Officer asked for some help as he needed to make the deliveries with that truck.
I gathered the shop staff and asked if I could get some volunteers to work after hours to repair that important vehicle. Can Do and it was done, after all these were Navy Seabees! The Mess Officer asked how he could "scratch my back". I said have the truck show up at the garage during the week with two dozen donuts at 10AM. My crew had custom donut service 5 days a week. Nothing illegal here as they were enlisted personnel having fresh donuts from the General Mess. A Win and Win. Later on, I used a variation of the donut example in one of my civilian jobs.
Them that know can make things go.
73's
Pete N6QW
