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Chief Harrel TWENTY-NINE YEARS AT SEA --- Chief Electrician’s Mate Pershing Harrell, on duty as Junior Officer of the Deck, has been on continous sea duty for 29 years. Excerpts from 29 Years of Sea Duty in Today’s Navy section of ALL HANDS for June, 1970: "The next time you bemoan the fact that your orders for a shore billet haven’t come through and you feel you’ve been on sea duty long enough, consider the case of Chief Electricians’s Mate Pershing Herrell. He’s been on continuous sea duty for 29 years; 28 of those years have been on destroyers. Chief Herrell must like destroyers. He’s only been assigned to six of them --- but the tours have been, to make an understatement, "extended ones. " For example, one tour on the Agerholm (DD 826) lasted 11 years. And for the past 10 years, he’s been on board Buck (DD 761). Chief Herrell started his destroyer career in February 1941, on the destroyer Leary (DD 58). He was still on board Leary when the ship was sunk on Christmas Eve, 1943, while searching for U-boats in the mid-Atlantic. Chief Herrell was one of 56 survivors who spent five and a half hours in 46-degree water before being picked up. For the rest of World War II, Chief Herrell was assigned to the destroyer Waldron (DD 699) in the Pacific, as a unit of Admiral "Bull" Halsey’s Third Fleet, participating in nearly every major Pacific campaign and the strikes against the Japanese Mainland. After the war, Chief Herrell had tours on board the amphibious ship Lioba (AF 36) and President Jackson (AP 18), and destroyers Hank (DD 702), Mansfield (DD 728), and Agerholm. He recalls seeing Korea five times form Agerholm, and Vietnam four times from Buck. The chief plans one more deployment on Buck before he retires next February. He will make his home in San Diego."

And the longest continuous sea duty on one ship ..... From the Naval Historical Center’s Online Library of selected images: USS Wyoming (AG-17). Chief Gunner's Mate Eugene Metzel, USN, who has served 24 years on board Wyoming, looks at the bronze plaque commemorating her First World War service with the Grand Fleet. Photographed in 1945. Chief Metzel is wearing the World War II era service dress grey uniform. For more on the Wyoming, see: http://www.history.navy.mil/ph...2.htm

JESS PARKER, RDCS, USN RET. AGE 73, BREMERTON, WA. Never mind that polite stuff. Fall in, shut up and listen. See what happens when your third book comes on line. Yeah, Shimates, it has happened. My third book, Black Ops, is on line for advance sales. I don't have any copies yet. The official release date is July 4, 2005. Make sure you flags are waving on the 4th of July. Nahhhhh, I wouldn't try connecting the two occasions. Jess User Biography I joined the Navy in 1948 and retired in 1970 as RDCS. It was a great journey on six tin cans and 1 reefer. I retired fully in 1991, and declared my self a writer. That came to fruition in 2001, when my first book, Detachment X-Ray, was published. My second book has been released and is available to the reading public. Covert Avengers is a sequel to Detachment X-Ray. I have made Detachment X-Ray and Covert Avengers available to the Goat Locker for sales. If you order, mention seeing in in the Goat Locker and I will split my proceeds to help maintain our great site. See me on the Plank Owner Pages. A contribution to the Greg Peterman will get you on the Plank Owner pages. The Double Star does a great job for the Goat Locker, Your contribution will help in the maintenance of this great site. RDCS Jess Parker, USN Retired. Congrats to Jess . Congrats, and good luck on the sales, Jess.; Dick H Congrats Jess on the book and hope the sales are high shipmate! ; Nancy O. Congratulations on the third book, all the best and Bravo Zulu. ;Mac Congrats Jess!!! BTW...probably a stupid question, but what genre are your books?..... Also, how did you get your start.....I have one manuscript about 75% complete, and not sure how to go once I am finished....; MNCMeer MNCMeer, My books are in the thriller genre. It took me six years to write the first book. Then I received 184 rejection from agents and publishers. One day out of the blue I received a request to send the manuscript for consideration. I now have three books published by Publish America of Baltimore at no cost to me. Good Luck. Jess

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep. 2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite. 3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant. 4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can,to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft room. 5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way. 6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan. 7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late. 8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it. 9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies. 10.) Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy. 11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence. 12.) Super glue is forever. 13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water. 14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O. 15.) VCR's do not eject "PB & J" sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do. 16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes. 17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving. 18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is. 19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens. 20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time. 21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy. 22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy. 23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy. 24.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid. 25.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends,with or without kids.