Fools Gold (2)

Somehow he never doubted that his ship would come in, someday. But he never stopped working to find a way to earn the next dollar in the meantime.

Prayers worked in the hay fields, when it was hot. The prayer for a breath of a cool breeze brought one. Sometimes a rain dance brought clouds then rain. Too much dancing sometimes brought too much rain. So much so that the tight-lipped, serious foreman--old Jack Irving--said, "We got to get this hay in. No more dancing."

First month on a nuclear fast attack submarine--just trying to learn the job and feeling overwhelmed--did what he was told. When the chief of the boat told him to, "Read the SSORM," he did. He sat down and at the end of the afternoon had it pretty much committed to memory, before replacing in its slot between the diner-like seats of the crew's mess.

The SSORM was the Standard Ships Organization and Regulations Manual. It was the boat's bible and described who did what when.

The next morning, when alarms went off, he didn't stop to wonder if it was a drill. The book had described what should happen in any event. He was programmed.

"Intruders in the torpedo room."

He knew the *could* have nuclear warheads, nobody had filled him otherwise. In a moment, he was down in the torpedo room, had the attacker in a full nelson, and was banging the offender's head against a torpedo. Looking up he saw an officer, wide-eyed, with a card hanging from a breast pocket saying, "Observer."

It was the boat's second in command who asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm the security response team," he had replied, quoting the SSORM.

The XO had perhaps not read that part of the manual himself, had no idea who this was never having seen him before, and wondered perhaps whether word of the drill might not have gotten to the base where they were tied up.

Thus he made the acquaintance of the XO, the torpedo gang-including Chief Torpedoman Hentz who had been a true hero swimming through a hurricane to save a downed B-52 crew--and a (now) slightly bruised Weapons Officer, Mr. Ritchie.

The XO's report described Jerry as the single casualty of the drill. It seemed unfair, but there was enough embarrassment to go around nobody wanted to discuss it further. So, he had been through the drill of getting killed on a submarine. A short time later he went through another drill to find out what it was like to be a millionaire.