Surprise

In my life, some strange things have happen to me. Two things that stand out in my memory are as follows.

My ship was entering San Juan, Purto Rico. As luck would have it I had the first in port watch. I was to be the messenger of the watch. I had to stand at the quarterdeck and when the OOD, Officer Of the Deck, need to get a message to someone I was the one to go find them and give them the message and report back. This was not always the easiest thing to do as the ship was large and the men were not always at their work station or quarters.

This day was like most other when we enter port, I was in my best whites and when the word was passed that the OOD was transfering his station to the quarterdeck I had the watch. (duty) The dock hands were still tying off lines and one was stringing a phone line over. Just as he finished with the phone, it rang. As messenger if was my duty to answer the phone so I did. "Quarterdeck, USS Canberra, Seaman Rivera". the party at the end of line then shocked the deck from under me. He said " I am looking for Lee Rivera, a crew member on your ship. Could you get him for me?" Now what are the odds that out of a crew of 1200 people, the one answering the only land line to the ship would be me? And the odds of my having the duty that day at that time? So I told him I was the one he was seeking. He acted if that is what he expected. No surprise in his voice just an invitation to join has family for dinner the next day. I had no idea who he was or how he got my name but I said OK, he said he would pick me up at the gate at 7PM next evening.

It turned out he was a preacher and he picked me up, took me to his home up in the hills. He had a great view of the ocean and he had a female member of his church to keep me company. We took a walk around and after eating we watched a little TV and later he took my back to the base. Never did find out how he got my name or why he called. I think now someone was watching out for me and didn't want me to get in trouble that day.

Another time, we had pulled into Tripoli, Libya. To tell the truth, i didn't like going ashore in Arab countries. To different from what I am use to. so I stayed aboard. I had been there before and couldn't recall anything I wanted to see or do again in Libya. I was up in on the 05 lever (fifth story of the ship) relaxing with my buddies, we were listening to records and drinking coffee. It was were we worked and was air conditioned. Navy didn't care if we were hot, but the computers had to be kept cool. So the phone rang and it was for me. I took the call and the office was telling me I had company waiting to see me. Well, I didn't know anyone in Libya so I thought they were putting me on, seeing if they could get me to walk down to the office. So I said, OK, I'll be right down. Well after a few mins they called again and said if I was not coming down the visitor was going to leave. Well, I went down, expected to be laughed at, and to my surprise, my brother in law was there. He had gotten hurt at his base in Turkey but they didn't have a hospital so they few him to Tripoli. He had read in the base paper that my ship was coming into port so he thought he would come see me. Well, I took him down to my compartment that I shared with 35 other sailors and changed into the liberty uniform. We then went back to the air base where he was and hung out there. Life has always had surprises for me.