Massachusetts Maritime Academy - Muster Yearbook (Buzzards Bay, MA)

Page 31 text:

And so after waiting two years that fateful day arrived. We were upper jobs. That glorious title, with all it implies. We were given a weeks rest so that we would be more readily able to assume our proper roles. Oh, what a sorry bedraggled bunch of youngies! Did we ever look that bad? Well we ' ll straighten them out quick enough — Hey you! Straighten up! Square those corners! Stop chewing gum! Say! do you want to go home this weekend? This was it now we were on the top of the heap. Full of ambition and all eager to see how readily we would straighten the place out. We had our work cut out for us too. The upper jobs graduating had made a mess out of underclass discipline and left bad feelings between both the officers and midshipmen. Bob Shephard, our Battalion Commander, single handedly, for he got not an overly amount of help, pretty well straightened things out for us though and life settled down to a semblance of normalcy again. We got the first good news of the semester then too, all upper jobs were to get long weekends every week and Mr. Wikander replaced Mr. Hodgson. Being upper jobs can be a lot of work at times, all those long afternoon maintenance periods, but we managed to liven things up a bit here and there and the boys found a substitute for Joe ' s. So all in all the first weeks passed by very quickly. The Ring Dance came along in November. It was quite a party. We had

Page 30 text:

Duplicating our success of the previous year, we again tied up to an empty dock upon returning from Europe. But the word soon got around that the Cape Cod Casanovas were back from the hinterlands, and a goodly number of parents, as well as several lovlies were on hand to greet their boys when liberty finally went. With the possible exception of the duty section, everyone appeared happy. Once the semester started, we were again deluged with the subjcts — so many that several of the boys had to take off their shoes just to count the number. We found that the Naval Science Department still had a Gunnery course, and we still had to take it. The engineers had a really rough schedule, while the deckies had to play You Bet Your Weekend. Hurley — Rule 16. We also soon discovered that we had instructors of our own, as several of us were seen to wander out of the starboard shaft alley as if in a hypnotic trance, after a session with Prof. Doucet. The Baseball squad was a good reason to be really proud of our school, as they went out and brought us back a championship for the first half- season. A rowing squad made a brief but glorious appearance, when the engineers showed everyone that they, too, could heave those oars. Through the eiforts of Mr. Connors the intra-mural golf program was well rounded out.

Page 32 text:

been planning for this one for quite some time and really did it up brown. Things were coming in thick and fast because the next weekend we walloped Maine Maritime to put the clincher on the first winning football season in our History. It was a nice way to end our year. We went on leave for Christmas three weeks later and celebrated the occasion with a grand big Christmas dollar party at the Pine. Things were really clicking. No-one failed the midterms, so we went to Boston in high spirits. After one of the greatest cruises ever, the Bay seemed somewhat barren but now we were back to study. This was the semester we ' d really give the books hell. We settled back to our last months rather anxiously, graduation to be the 15th of August. Everyone ' s aboard for good now, no time for the Pine. Mr. Burke has told us jobs won ' t be plentiful this year so that puts us on the edge of our seats. And then the Navy reports they can only take us if we ' re going to be drafted. These will be our last weeks together. We ' ve had fun while we ' ve been together and now since we ' re a nomadic group probably most of us will never see one another very often after the 15th. So here ' s to the good times we have had and to the friends we ' ve made and to good luck and good fortune in the paths we may follow down through the years.