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Pedro |
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COMSUBBBS Posts: 2974 Location: Liverpool, England | Subject: Post Cold War Barter in USSR Got this dit from a skimmer at an RNA Dinner the other week and thought it might amuse some of you. HMS Fearless docked at Sevastopol only a couple of weeks after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. It was an awesome run ashore, beer, wine, vodka all at stupidly low prices; such was the state of the bankrupt rouble economy that a pair of pretty fit looking hookers could be hired for £5 (approx $7). The Cold War had been won, the USSR was crumbling and the Russians hadn’t yet grasped the concept of capitalism, so it was good times all round. The only down side was as we were the first British warship to visit the place the ship was packed to over-flowing full of senior brass and other very important diplomatic people. Since this was an important historic moment and to ensure the ships crew did not mar the occasion with any incidents of drunkenness, we were only allowed "Cinderella" leave and had to go ashore in uniform. So it was dress blues for the sailors and Lovett greens for the Marines and everyone back aboard by midnight. It all went well for the first few hours but things gradually started to get out of hand. The Russians didn't have a lot of money so would try and sell us anything and everything that wasn’t nailed or welded down. That quaint little ceremony called “Sunset” that Jack does at the end of each day was particularly amusing because five minutes after it ended we'd have a long line of Russian sailors forming up to sell us their ships flags. The same went for items of Soviet sailors uniforms and I think most of the ships company bought something as a souvenir. With so much brass hanging around and vodka flowing freely in the wardroom there was a constant stream of high ranking naval officers getting piped on and off the ship for most of the afternoon and the evening. The poor gang plank sentries and the OOW etc were getting run ragged with the comings and goings of so many senior naval personnel of both navies. One morning at 0100 hours a Russian Admiral comes sauntering towards the ship wearing the full Montezuma of big hat, chest full of medals and gold braid, the full regalia. The gang plank sentries obviously got a bit worried and decided that full naval protocol should be observed and called out the watch who formed a guard of honour. The half-asleep OOW and the ranking CPO dusted themselves down and got ready to have the Admiral piped board. Well, the Admiral was struggling with the gang plank, managing only one step forward and two backwards. An RN Commander returning aboard even raced to assist the tipsy Admiral to negotiate the gang plank. He finally made it to the top to be met by crisp salutes and piping and the presenting of arms by the guard. As he staggered his way through the guard of honour he finally spoke. In a loud Cockney accent he thanked the lads for turning out but insisted there really had been no need to go to all that trouble for him. The stoker was put under arrest and sent straight down to the cells. He'd bought the uniform in the bar off some now redundant Admiral who thought he may as well make some money by selling it. Jack was so proud of his new rig he decided to wear it back aboard and had even bartered his own uniform away in part exchange. Pedro  | ||
| Ed668 |
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| dex armstrong |
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COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | |||
| GaryKC |
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COMSUBBBS Posts: 3666 Location: Kansas City Missouri | Subject: RE: Post Cold War Barter in USSR (realhousewivesdon.jpg) Attachments ----------------  realhousewivesdon.jpg (57KB - 429 downloads) | ||
| dex armstrong |
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COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | |||
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