During my first WestPac cruise, I was assigned to work in the aft superstructure transmitter room with an RM3 by the name of Ned Wicker. Now Ned was a little ecentric in that he was from Green Bay Wisconsin, and had a real problem with authority. Not that he was rebellious, he just made it known that what was generally known as the Navy way, was as far as Ned was concerned, BS!
We worked three watch sections with four watches. If it hadn't been for the fact that one HAD to go topside to get to the aft superstructure, one could go days at a time without ever breaking the skin of the ship.
Now old Ned liked his centerfolds (The Playboy/Penthouse type). So much in fact he had made a flip chart of past centerfolds, sort of like a calendar except without the months.
Whenever he was on watch, Ned would make sure that the collection of beauties was prominently displayed on the bulkhead, directly above the desk in "Mitters". Being an inexperienced RMSN, who was I to complain?
Well, it just so happened that one of Ned's counterparts, an RM2 by the name of Taylor, did not share Ned's enthusiasm for the finer things in life, namely Ned's collection of "nekkid" women. Each and every time Ned and I would follow Taylor's watch, we would find the flipchart summarily deposited in one of the s__t cans somewhere in the compartment.
Now it was a widely known fact that RM2 Taylor had a chronic stomach ulcer and had gotten into the practice of stowing a case of Maalox in "Mitters" from which he would draw whenever his belly began to bother him.
This went on for several weeks. We would start the watch and have to go find the flipchart. One day, I watched as Ned dug the collection out of the circular file, hung it above the desk and then made a bee-line to the case of Maalox. Ned grabbed a full, unopened bottle and headed for the open deck. Making a quick survey as whether anyone from our department was close, Ned promptly heaved the bottle over the starboard side. "Let's see how that Sum B___h likes that" Ned mumbled as he walked by me.
Nothing was said for a few days but after that, the flipchart was never again found in the s__t can. I guess RM2 Taylor weighed the cost of morality versus the cost of Maalox.