David Husted - U.S. Navy

THE LAST LAUGH

By David J. Husted (Paco)

Military men know there are situations that require more than a little ingenuity to be resolved.  I’ll try to explain what I mean by telling you about an incident that occurred one evening on my watch.

In 1969, I was a 3rd class machinist mate assigned to the air conditioning shop on an aircraft carrier. We were well on the way to our intended destination which was Vietnam.

My duty as a machinist along with the rest of our team was to repair equipment and maintain seven major air conditioning systems that were used to control the temperatures throughout the vessel. Unfortunately, unit number three had gone down and needed parts. The situation was aggravated by the fact that we were streaming through hot tropical waters and the extra load placed on the six working units caused the overall system to be less efficient.  As a result, the air temperatures alternated somewhere between being comfortable and not so comfortable.

How many of you have heard the expression, if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all?  I say that because when our executive officer called and complained that it was too warm to sleep, I was the one who had to answer the call.  On the one hand, I was already aware of the problem and knew there was nothing I could do.  On the other hand, I knew I was dealing with an officer who was used to getting the results he wanted.

Being between a rock and a hard place, I was desperate for a solution. When I went to his cabin, I quickly located the thermostat in the overhead and noted it was set at 65 degrees. What happened next wasn’t my fault. The devil made me set the thermostat to 80 degrees!  I then called the exec over and showed him that the thermostat was set too high and then set it back to its previous 65-degree position.

After a couple of minutes, he said he thought it was a little cooler and thanked me.  I then went

back to the shop, delivered a detailed report of the incident and was proclaimed ‘Hero of the Day’.

            I’m not going to say I didn’t enjoy the laughter and the pats on the back that I received.  Never-the-less, I am aware that deception has consequences.  Therefore, let me assure everyone that I personally will never be a party to any action, verbal or otherwise, that jeopardizes the successful completion of my units’ mission or increases the level of danger or fatalities for any of our personnel.