Yep. Became a Shellback January 22nd, 1987. Fortunately, I didn't have to pick the cherry. One of the best days of my life.
oh yes it was quite the time we had
we did it on a old FF steam powered frigate. USS Elmer Montgomery FF1082 Nov 91
still have my card in the wallet
the days leading up to the actual arrival of neptune was fraught with sneaky jokes and pranks on the unlucky shellbacks
we trapped our supervisor on top of the helicopter for hours ... well, duct taped to a blade
best memory was around 4 am or so
us wogs were on the forecastle deck near the big gun
they turned on the water wash down nozzles to rid the deck of us scully stinking wogs, COLD as a well diggers boots
i was looking up at the bridge and all the sudden there was a huge commotion and people were being moved about
then over the intercom we hear....WE HAVE the BRIDGE ...revolt and prepare to come about and then the ship lurched hard as they spun the wheel to steer away from the line.
then we hear ABORT ABORT and muffled noises
and ship came back on course
it was funny as everything, this big navy ship doing zig zags in the southern Atlantic at 4 in the morning
shellback day was no doubt one of the best days at sea we ever had.
the rest is secret
