OT: Navy Rate Spelling & Microwave Ovens

[Boaz Bezborodko]

>Message: 1
>Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 15:59:42 -0400
>From: Bob Stockler <bob at trebor.iglou.com>
>Subject: Re: OT: Navy Rate Spelling & Microwave Ovens
>To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
>Message-ID: <20061021195942.GA1926 at trebor.iglou.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>Mark Luljak wrote (on Sat, Oct 21, 2006 at 02:44:46PM -0400):
>
>| Y'all catch dis heeyah?  Wayne Smith been jivin' 'bout like:
>| >  
>| > Lots clipped out of WDG's original message below for brevity, when I saw how
>| > he spelled his Uncles Rate in the Navy I nearly spilled my coffee. It is
>| > SEABEE !!! Not CB, laugh. Oh by the way we have a metal shelf/rack in our
>| > late model LG over the counter Microwave oven that seems to work fine. 
>
>Says Robert C. Stockler, Ltjg USNR Retired . . .
>
>  I understood CB to be an abbreviation, but the most glaring
>  error (to me) was saying that that was his Rate in the USN.
>                                             ^^^^
>  Rate is the heirarchy in enlisted service (E1-E9 in my days).
>  Enlisted personnel, Warrent Officers & Officers are the USN.
>                                                  ^^^
>  Seabee is the nickname for The US Naval Construction Force.
>  the motto of which is "With compassion for others we build -
>  we fight for peace with freedom" (http://www.seabee.navy.mil).
>
>
>  
>
CB is an abbreviation.   "Construction Battalions"...CBs...SeaBees.  So
the original use was correct.

And their unofficial motto was "First we dig 'em, then we die in 'em."

During WWII most of the SeaBees were older, experienced construction
workers (average age in their 30s, I believe) the joke was "Be nice to a
SeaBee.  He might be your father."

(Ah, the trivia you acquire when reading just about any WWII history
book you can get your hands on as a kid.)

Boaz