RECOLLECTION

Jack Sloan 1987

“SWANSON HAD GOOD MORNING COFFEE!”

The Swanson was moored alongside a pier in New York just prior to sailing for the Panama Canal Zone enroute to the South Pacific. I was on watch on the Quarter Deck the evening prior to sailing. At approximately sunset two armed Shore Patrol delivered several young sailors with their sea bags.

These were young men who had been incarcerated in the Naval Disciplinary Facility on Pier #92. Mainly their offenses had been going AWOL. I was logging each sailor in when I looked up at one sailor, and just for conversation, I asked:

“Are you going AWOL again?” He looked me straight in the eye and with a half smile he said:

“Well – tell you what Chief – I will stick around until tomorrow morning and if I like your morning coffee, then I may stay a while!”

We sailed the next morning for the South Pacific via Panama. He could have jumped ship in the Panama Canal Zone but he stayed with the ship. Any time I would pass him on the ship, I would ask:

“Hows the morning coffee?” and he would smile and answer to the effect:

“I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“Honesty is the best policy”.

Cervantes (1547-1616)