Sam Smith - Although I can't claim any noble or brave acts during my service in the Coast Guard, I enjoyed it muchly in part because the Hooligan Navy, as it was then called, didn't fit the normal military standards.For example, one of my tours was as operations officer (third in command) aboard a cutter out of Bristol Rhode Island. Our duties included tending buoys and heavy weather search & rescue. Our captain was Jack Flynn, a mustang, which is to say he had formerly been an enlisted man and had applied to the Coast Guard Academy while serving in the Army. He was short, Irish and in amazing shape given his drinking habits. I got along with him well, even to the point of earning the right to wear a totally non-regulation LL Bean one-piece hunting outfit (see photo) and Sears thermal boots on the bridge in winter. The executive officer didn't think it was such a great idea, but Flynn called it my bunny suit and never objected.
Under normal circumstances, Flynn was reasonable, funny and enjoyable to be around. During Lent, when he gave up booze, he was hell. Nearly everyone on the ship drank, so Flynn only stood out because he was the head drinker. On more than one occasion, the Spar was called out late at night on a heavy weather search and rescue mission with up to two-thirds of the crew having just been pulled from bars. One night, Captain Flynn stumbled aboard as the winds made up to gale force. He stepped up to the radar and pretended he was in an old-fashioned shoe shop checking the x-ray machine. Staring intently at the screen, he mumbled that he needed the next larger size. The exec, Bob Overton, came over to me and said quietly, "Sam, you take it out. I'll keep the skipper busy." And he did, conning the captain out to the outboard wing of the bridge where they traded sea stories as I got the ship underway and headed for sea.
We weren't called the Hooligan Navy for nothing.
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