U.S. Navy Base, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands

 

Shake Davis, Chan Dwyer and LCdr. Janet Dewey stood on the edge of the Navy base admin LZ and watched an MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter approach on a low pass over two Los Angeles class fast-attack submarines moored alongside a tender in Apra Harbor. That would be their ride out to the USS Independence steaming somewhere out over the horizon and waiting to receive the final three members of the Operation Pineapple task force.

Recalling the time he’d spent doing underwater launch and recovery drills as a member of a Marine Force Reconnaissance Company, Shake nudged Chan and pointed at one of the boats that was taking on a sling-load of cargo from the tender’s midship crane. “At least we’re not working off a submarine. Closest I ever came to drowning was doing an underway recovery aboard one of those things. It was some kind of malfunction in the forward escape trunk. I swear they had to pump forty gallons of South China Sea out of me on that deal.”

“You’re gonna love the Independence, Shake.” Janet Dewey grabbed at the aluminum case containing her portable sensor kits as the inbound helo began to descend. “I was aboard her for the shakedown cruise late last year when we were evaluating various mission packages the ship might carry. Independence can be rigged for all sorts of close inshore operations. She’s a Marine’s dream and SEALs swear by the concept.”

Shake shouldered his gear and watched the helo settle into ground effect over the center of the landing pad. “Can I ask you a personal question, Commander?”

“You can if you call me Janet.”

“How do you feel about that old Navy thing? You know, calling a ship ‘she’ and all that. I’d have thought the PC Nazis would have put the kibosh on that.”

“She for a ship doesn’t bother me a bit. In fact, I kind of like it; preserves Navy tradition, you know? And tradition says sailors look at their ship like a mother or a lover and that’s why they refer to it in the female gender. I’m good with the mother thing and I think the PC Nazis are afraid to tackle the lover aspect for fear of offending lesbians.”

Shake heard Chan Dwyer’s hoot of laughter over the roar of rotor blades and decided he liked Lieutenant Commander Janet Dewey a lot. If the U.S. Navy had more female officers like her coming up the hawse pipe or out of The Boat School, they’d be OK in the struggle for sea power. That would be a very good thing for his daughter if Tracey decided to continue her military career.