Best Moment Six months prior to transfer back to the "real world" a "sweet and innocent" 19-year old Filipino Ship Repair Facility Apprentice worker (Madelyn Borja) came on board the GRAYBACK to put some tile in the Wardroom. I had a touch of temporary insanity, allowing myself to be captured, married Mady, and brought my newly acquired "Philippine Souvenir" back to "reality" in the good old USA! We had a beautiful wedding in Mady's home town San Felipe, Zambales, Philippines. The Commanding Officer of GRAYBACK Jim Carroll and his wife Joan acted as my parents during the ceremony and about 15 other GRAYBACK Officers and enlisted men attended the wedding.
Worst Moment I never had a "worse moment" on the GRAYBACK. It was the best tour I had in the Navy and the only place I was stationed that proved to be better than all the wonderful stories I had heard about the liberty there. Really enjoyed traveling to other ports around WESTPAC on GRAYBACK.
Chain of Command To provide an example of how great our Chain of Command was, we requested permission to have a "Filipino Sweetie Cruise" instead of a dependents cruise because the majority of our officers and men were single and only a few of our crew members were married. Not sure how he did it, but our CO announced later that he received approval to have a "GRAYBACK Sweetie Cruise." We ended up taking our Philippine National Girlfriends at sea on GRAYBACK for a trip overnight to Manila, stayed there for the weekend, and returned with us overnight again to Subic Bay. What a fantastic trip that was!!!
Other Memories In February 1977, USS GRAYBACK (SS 574) home ported in Subic Bay, Philippines needed a leading yeoman. Being the patriotic shipmate that I was, and considering that I was a "single chief" and didn't want to have to place this burden on my married constituents, I volunteered to undertake that tremendous burden to represent his country in the Philippines for a 15-month tour. Not wanting anyone else to have to bear the heavy responsibilities I was faced with on that tour in WESTPAC, I also agreed to keep extending and stayed there for 3 1/2 years. When I first arrived in the Philippines, every night that I went out in Olongapo on liberty I became more convinced that "I had died and gone to Heaven!" Every bar, nightclub and restaurant you went to there were beautiful young Filipino girls. There was no doubt that the only reason they were there was "to make us sailors happy" and they were extremely good at accomplishing that task.
I was advanced to YNCS(SS) in 1980 just prior to transfer to SUBASE Kings Bay, Georgia.
