Alan Baker Lt 63-67
Yes, the inventory shrink was significant. It always amazed me that those large #10 cans of pineapple and cases of steaks would evaporate as they went below decks!! I'm sure the chief's
mess was the home for the steaks.
We had an fixed $ amount per person for food each day. We had no idea
really how much food we had used, so we took physical inventories (you
know -- beginning balance + receipts - ending balance = value consumed ).
We would take the inventories about 30 days before the end of the quarter
and then figure out what we had to do to meet the daily average food cost.
That's why menus, especially in port, got fat and thin during the quarter.
I always allowed for a 10% "shrinkage" in food receipts, based on a wild
ass guess. Tom Henry was the one who gave me that idea.
As I got smarter, I would load up on repair parts that we did not need,
but someone else (like the Division commander on a Cruiser would likely
need. Then, we could trade a $1000 magnetron tube for better (?) movies or
those darn special menthol cigarettes than the Captain smoked. One time, As
I remember it, we were steaming north to that yard visit in some good sized
seas and the forward gun mount started to peel back from the deck and tons
of water flooded the forward spaces, including where we kept all the rice,
beans and spaghetti. I remember the dumpster on the forward deck that was
absolutely full of the wet stuff!!
Thanks for the come-backs and the chance to relive some of this.
Alan Baker Ltjg
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