If you were in America in the 1950s and 60s, and were male, you either got into some sort of military program, the national guard, or an ROTC[*] unit; else you were most likely going to get drafted. I, myself, wanted to go to college. My solution was to try for a Navy ROTC scholarship. I lucked out and passed the written and physical exams and was informed that I was going to be a part of the program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

[*Reserve Officer Training Corps]

I had been in college for a few years when, back home on his family's farm in rural Arkansas, Billy Jones turned 16. Just to protect the identity of any remaining relatives of his, let's just say that it was someplace in that state. At the time, the Navy had a program that was commonly called the 'Kiddie Cruiser' enlistment. Simply put, any time after your seventeenth birthday, you could join the Navy if you had your parents' permission. That enlistment ended with your 21^st birthday.

At the time, young Billy Jones wasn't doing all that well in school. What he did have was a couple of older cousins who were sending back letters from their ship telling him all about the good times that they were having in various foreign ports and how easy it was to pick up girls 'over there.' As it was, his parents, being not very well educated themselves, were receptive when he told them that he wanted to join the Navy.

Sure enough, once school was out for the year and what was only shortly after his 16^th birthday, young Billy got his Mom and Dad in the family pickup and went down to the recruiting office in the county seat. Well, to make the story short, that's how Billy Jones, age 16, got to be Seaman Jones, age 17. It's amazing what a tall boy and an eager Navy recruiter can accomplish.

As things turned out, I graduated from Vanderbilt that June and was assigned to the USS Griffon. The Griffon was a Sumner class destroyer that had seen service in World War II but was already becoming obsolete by the time that Billy and I reported for duty.

***

Background Note: The Allen M. Sumner class was a group of 58 destroyers built by the United States during World War II. Another twelve ships were completed as destroyer minelayers. Often referred to simply as the Sumner class, they were 2,200-ton ships that were characterized by their three 5-inch/38[*] enclosed twin gun mounts, dual rudders, and anti-aircraft weapons. Many continued in service with the U.S. Navy well into the 1970s when a number of them were sold to foreign navies.

[* In Navy usage, 5"/38 means that the gun is five inches of bore diameter and that the barrel is 38 times the diameter in length. Thus, a 5"/38 gun would be almost 16 feet long.]

***

I'll never forget the day that he and I reported for duty. Hey, I knew that I was green, but this kid looked like a walking advertisement for innocence. Even cut short in military style, his auburn hair framed a face that you would not forget. In fact, I would say that his face could only be described as angelic. His deep blue eyes were set in a smiling clear-skinned countenance. While he was close to six feet [1.80 m] tall, he looked like he only weighed about 145 lbs [65 kg]. In fact, my first thought when I saw him at the foot of the gangway, struggling with his sea bag, was Do his ribs show?

However, he hoisted the big bag to his shoulder and came up to the quarterdeck. Once there, he deposited the bag on the deck and saluted the flag, and then the officer of the deck. Then, in a clear tenor voice, he declared, "Sonar seaman apprentice Jones, reporting for duty, sir."

Carrying the heavy sea bag, Billy had not seen me coming up behind him, I stepped up on the quarter deck and saluted the flag and then the officer of the deck just as he had done. Only, I said, "Ensign Wells reporting for duty."

***

As fate would have it, I was the ship's new Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer and young Billy was assigned to my division. 'Division' was the Navy term for it although I only had ten men assigned to me. I'd like to think that I hit it off with them and they with me. Looking back, I would say that we worked well together as a team.

The only thing was that one of the men who was already assigned to the division seemed a little strange to me. Even though Seaman Peter Burton was a good sonar man, he was always bitching about something. While I never heard him say it in my presence, I managed to learn from shipmates that he hated the Navy and would give anything to get out of the Service. At the time, I didn't think much of it. Hey, there are always guys who bitch. Some guys are just made that way. Unless they break the rules or go public with their gripes, there's really nothing much that you can do about it except bring it up during a personnel review.

Burton was from one of the East Coast states. He was about five feet-nine inches [1.75 m] tall and might have weighed 160 lbs [73 kg]. As I recall, he was a little on the stocky side, but that may just have been my perception of him at the time. At any rate, he was one of those guys that you would not have noticed in a crowd. You know, just someone who was there but at the same time was not there. He was someone who just blended in with the crowd.

***

We had a few short cruises that fall and winter, then in the early spring went into the Navy Yard at Portsmouth for an overhaul. If you have never been in the Navy and endured a shipyard overhaul while having to continue living on the ship that's being overhauled, then you have missed out on what one example of Hell really is. Everything is torn up, and strange men are wandering around the ship all day. On top of that, you never know what they will do next. You wake up in the morning to all of that noise, and may come back to your bunk at midday only to find a bulkhead missing or a hole in the deck right in front of where you sleep.

One day after supper, I went down to the sonar 'shack' to see what had been done by the yard 'birds' that day. They were supposed to be installing a new piece of sonar equipment and I wanted to see if they had gotten finished with the job.

As I approached the space where the sonar equipment was kept, I heard what sounded like low moaning coming from behind the closed door. Not sure what was going on in there, I called out in a loud voice, "Who's in there?"

There was a rumbling noise beyond the door and then it opened slowly to reveal Jones and Burton. Jones was shirtless and looked shamefaced at me. Only the fact that the berthing area for the sonar men was nearby made me not wonder why he was shirtless. I must admit that, at the time, I was more interested in seeing if my suspicion was correct; yes, I could count all of Billy's ribs without even trying. He was just that thin.

Burton, on the other hand, gave me a defiant look like he was pissed. It was like I was interrupting something personal between the two of them. I guess I was naïve, but, at the time, I didn't realize what was happening behind that closed door.

***

Two days later, another seaman, a kid named Parker from the Engineering gang, went to the Executive Officer and turned himself in saying that he had participated in a homosexual act. In those days, both the active and the passive parties to a homosexual act were dismissed from the service. When questioned by Commander Crocker, the 'exec,' he named my man, Burton, as the man who had sucked his dick.

Well, one thing led to another and both men were put on 'Cinderella Liberty' pending their separation from the Service. That meant that they could go ashore but had to be back onboard the ship by midnight or they would be in even more trouble than they already were.

The next night Burton went ashore and found the nearest bar where he proceeded to drink himself silly. Coming back to the ship drunk, he realized that it was after midnight. The challenge was how to get back on the ship without being seen.

***

The next morning, Seaman Burton was not there at morning muster. It was soon apparent that he was nowhere to be found onboard. Neither did he turn up the next day nor the day after. It quickly became apparent that he was AWOL from the ship.

On the third day, his body floated up beside the ship. He had drowned in the cold spring waters of the Elizabeth River. Strangely enough, a search of pier-side turned up his jumper and shoes behind a dumpster on the pier near the ship.

Since homosexual activity was a crime as far as the Navy was concerned, the question was whether the drowning was accidental or was Burton murdered? That quickly became the big issue onboard our ship no matter how much they tried to play it down at the time.

ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence] personnel descended on the ship and quizzed anybody who knew Burton. As it was, both Billy Jones and I were among the last people to see him alive on the day that he disappeared and were among those who were questioned.

[Note: ONI later became the NIS (Naval Investigative Service), the forerunner of the current NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service.)]

Finally, they somehow determined that Burton had returned to the ship after midnight and, not wanting to get into more trouble, must have decided to swim over to the stern of the ship. There, he evidently thought that he could climb up one of the ship's stern-guards and thus elude the officer of the deck on the quarterdeck. Unfortunately, he failed to take into account the fact that it was early spring and the water in the river was still cold. Most likely, once he was in the water, he had had a cramp and gone under only to drown.

***

It was only when I learned what had happened to Burton that I realized that he must have been the ship's blow job artist. No wonder Jones and he were fumbling around that evening in the sonar shack. Jones was getting a blow job from Burton and I was too naïve to see what was happening with two of my men, even when it was right in front of my face!

I wanted to know for sure just what the Hell had been going on in that Sonar space the night that I came in and found Jones and Burton there. So, the next day, I called Billy into my stateroom for an off-the-record interview. After all, I had no way of proving anything had happened and with Burton dead, anything that I said would be my word against his.

I had Billy take a chair and, as I recall, the interview went something like this:

I said, "When I found Burton and you the other night in the sonar shack, you were getting a blow job from him. Isn't that true? I can't prove it and anything that you tell me now is just between you and me."

Billy looked sheepishly at me and then at the deck. He fidgeted for a minute or two before looking up at me and replying, "Yes sir, Mr. Wells. That's what was happening when you came in on us the other night. I had never had sex with anyone before that night. I had only jerked myself off. I just wanted sex and Burton was more than willing. I never thought he would turn up dead after Parker and he did it."

"Tell me just exactly what he did to you," I ordered in a low voice.

"I had been cleaning up after the yard birds, once they had finished working for the day, and I had gotten grease on my shirt. I took it off and was wiping the grease off when Peter came into the sonar shack. He looked at me like he wanted me. I swear that I had never done it with nobody before, but I knew what that kind of look meant. I had seen it before back home when I was in high school. I knew what he wanted.

"I don't know what came over me. I just stood there as he came over to me and ran his hand down my chest. I remember him saying, 'Nice.' Then he played with my nipples; I could feel my dick getting hard in my dungarees. With one hand he undid my pants while with the other he continued to rub one of my nipples. I could feel his hand slip down into my skivvies. I remember gasping when his hand grabbed my dick and started sliding up and down. The next thing I knew, my pants and skivvies were down around my knees and he was sucking on my dick. I had never felt nothing like that before; it felt so good. It was then that you came up outside the door and hollered out, 'Who's in there?' That's why I was shirtless when you came through the door and why Burton was pissed that you had interrupted his fun."

I sat there stunned but not surprised. I must admit that my own dick was hard, but I restrained myself. I had no intention of getting kicked out of the Navy for a minute of fun.

I remember thanking Billy for being honest and telling him that what he had told me would stay between the two of us.

Well, that was the last of it. Billy Jones made Sonar Man 3^rd class before his enlistment was up. The last I heard, he had gone back to Arkansas and the family farm. He married some girl from his home town. They had three kids and a good life. That blow job in the Navy must have indeed been a one-time thing.

I finished my tour of duty after serving on a second ship, and went to work for the electric company in my own home town.

When I think back to those days, I shake my head and tell myself how different things would be if all of this had happened in today's world where being gay was not the big deal that it was in those days. Heck, Peter Burton would probably be alive today.

The End