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Coffee: The life blood of the US Navy....

Navy Chief

Navy Chief

Senior Member
Back in 1972, I first learned to drink coffee when I was on watch with a AD2 named Russell Doane.

I had not been in the Navy for very long. In fact, I think less than 6 months. PO2 Doane was an "old salt". He had scores of sea stories to tell, and I was thrilled to hear them all.

Being on watch, for the most part, is extremely dull. It was hard to stay awake, especially on the Mid-Watch.

So PO2 Doane taught me how to drink coffee. Coffee not only helped me be more alert for standing watch, but so I could enjoy his stories!

I drank coffee throughout my Navy career. It was, and is the way I start my day.

A sad note. PO2 Doane talked frequently about the beauty of Whidbey Island, and planned to retire and move back there. It wasn't until 1994 that I finally had the opportunity to get stationed there. I tried to locate PO2 Doane, and was about to give up trying, when a grocery story clerk told me she knew him, but he had (along with his son) been killed in a motorcyle accident a few years earlier. So sad.

But I often think of AD2 Russell Doane, as I enjoy my morning coffee. He was a real character.

http://www.koffeekorner.com/brewing_coffee_in_the_navy.htm

When Navy coffee's thick and black,
It guards against a heart attack,
And if it's strong enough, I'm sure
It functions as a cancer cure.
But best of all, it makes the days
Pass quickly in a caffeine haze.

Sailors have never lacked for opinions on how to make Good Coffee as found at Seabee Cook.com:
A seaman working in the boatswain’s locker reports he was upbraided unmercifully by the chief boatswain’s mate for washing the coffee pot. "Never wash it, just rinse it gently!" the chief roared. Scouring a pot to its bare metal is more sacrilegious to a joe pot artist that scraping a pipe bowl is to a lifelong briar puffer.


​

Navy Chief
 
Interesting reflections NC. Thanks for sharing them.

As a life-long coffee drinker myself, I can relate. Unfortunately, the Army java was much less available to me in my short stint, and the available caffein in Vietnam left a lot to be desired. For some reason, the floating grease in the cauldron just had a different taste. :-/
 
Thanks for sharing that, Chief. I'm sorry to hear your friend and his son were so tragically killed. Just so you know, (Heh,heh!) the Navy doesn't hold the monopoly on creating coffee addicts. When I was in basic, I pulled CQ runner for one of our Drill Sergeants, a tough old guy who jumped with 101st Airborne at Normandy and Holland. I was reminded a lot of him by Sam Elliott's (sp?) portrayal of SGM Plumley in the movie "We Were Soldiers." I was scared to death of this guy because he could literally PT us to our knees. He showed up, and told me he had two rules.
Rule one was to never let the coffee run out, and rule two was to read as many magazines overnight as I could. In the end, he was one of the best DI's I had, and hearing him relate stories from his younger days in the Airborne, or "the Paratroopers", as the common term was then, helped me to see what a dedicated man he was. I still think of him every time I make a pot of coffee.
 
Almost 65 years ago the Navy introduced me to good rich coffee, drunk black. From that time, till now, it's the only liquid that ever pass my lips. I can't stand water, Coke & Pepsi makes me puke, and fruit juices are for vegetarians.
My wife says that's where I got my sunny disposition. Just don't wash my coffee mug.
 
I drank coffee even more infrequently than I drink alcohol. The last time I drank coffee, Deb and I went with her sister and brother-in-law to church choir practice (they were in the choir). Tina fired up the big silver coffee maker and made her super dark, super strong motor oil substitute. I drank two styrofoam GLASSES of that stuff....not the little classes normal people use for coffee, but the big glasses people use for milk shakes. I was "filled with the spirit" you could say. A couple hours later, I thought I was having a heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism all at the same time. My hands, feet, legs and face went numb, my chest was tight and breathing was a bit difficult. My heart was racing and I felt very disconnected (the best way I can describe the feeling). Off to the ER we went and spent 4 hours on a heart monitor, having blood taken and tested, 3 sets of chest x-rays. All tests came back fine, the docs said that my heart was in great shape. They asked if I had done anything out of the ordinary that evening, and I told them about drinking those two large glasses of coffee. They said that caffine, in such a large amount, for a person who rarely drinks coffee, will definitely make a person feel like I was feeling. He advised to drink lots of water, and to stay away from Tina's coffee.

OBIO
 
I learned to drink coffe when I worked as a night manager (grave yard shift) in one of our facility. I did coffee for a year, to keep me up the whole shift. My daughter was still a baby then, a year old. I willl crave for coffee and i can't start my day without one! I even have to drive to a local Starbucks just to be filled!

And man, how i enjoyed that....

My coffee mug is metallic blue (no pink version yet) with silver on the inside, and yes I washed it clean everyday.
 
Whoa, Obio! That's scary! I was not able to drink coffee for quite a while, but for different reasons being my stomach. But thanks to the magic purple pill, Nexium, I can once again drink the nectar. But it still has it's deleterious effects; that being dental problems. But darnit, I can't give up everything!

Here's another sea story:

When I was with VFA-83, one of the young folks working for me in the OPS Dept. was a AT3 named Jobob Daigle. He was from Lake Charles, LA, and a real sharp sailor. He was tasked with making the Ready Room coffee one day, so he decided to brew some "Community Coffee", with chicory, that he'd received from home.

Well our squadron skipper came in a little while later (CDR. "Dizzy" Gillespie). He poured himself a cup of coffee, took a sip, and spit it out immediately, and started yelling, "What the f...... is this?" Jobob wasn't in the RR at that moment, but I was, and I caught holy heck! I ended up making a new pot of coffee, and then had a "discussion" with PO Daigle later!

NC
 
I am glad to hear that Helldiver, I'm the same way. it hasn't seemed to harm you over the years! This am I got up about 3:45. Today the wife beat me to the coffee beans. Dang,the early hours used to be my quiet time. Once she gets a couple of coffees into her, she starts talking, none stop.
 
mariereid said:
I am glad to hear that Helldiver, I'm the same way. it hasn't seemed to harm you over the years! This am I got up about 3:45. Today the wife beat me to the coffee beans. Dang,the early hours used to be my quiet time. Once she gets a couple of coffees into her, she starts talking, none stop.
Click to expand...

My ex was the same way, but with Diet Mountain Dew. She was (still is) so addicted to it, that if she ran out, I didn't do ANYTHING until I went out to get her one to hold her over for the day......

It was mostly a case of "self preservation", you might say.

NC
 
DSWO, in boot camp you are separated from the outside world, no news, sports, etc... The Drill Sergeant showed up with a briefcase full of magazines like Time, Newsweek, Outdoor Life, Guns and Ammo, and the like. The golden rule was that as the CQ's runner, I had to be awake and alert to carry out his orders throughout the night, and to periodically check on the guards. That stack of magazines, and lots of coffee made it much easier to stay awake.. :applause:
 
Just about every sailor in the Navy has had to make coffee in one of these (see pic) at some time or another. Good old West Bend 100-cup urn. We had one in the Photo Intel shop and as the Night Check intel guy it was my solemn duty to get a fresh pot brewed before the pilots came in to brief for the first launch. If the "fire warning light" (coffee ready) wasn't lit when they came in I heard about it. :icon_lol:
 
I too lived on coffee and cigarettes while in the Navy. The Navy has it's own grind of the stuff or at least they used to. I remember upon making Third Class my LPO , AO1 Gary Thompson, gave me my own personalized coffee cup. On one side it had my name on the other the AO wings and the ledgend "Slither and Slime Coffee Service". I had the thing for many years but somehow it went missing, I have the feeling my ex took it out of spite. I now have a mug with the First Class crow on it thanks to my late father.

My Father being a Navy man and a Chief to boot, drank as much coffee and I did with soft drinks. He also had had a tendancy to ask the waitress in any restraunt we went to for the oldest coffee they had. He and I both agreed that if can't stand a spoon in it or pour it like tar, it's not real coffe.

One last thing, betting for a cup of coffee was not unusual when I was in the Navy. On a reserve DET to Moffet Field one time my LPO, AO1 Thompson and I were getting bored watchin our VP-19 "hosts" load ordnance for a MINEX. So we go to their LPO, an AO1 by the name of Drum, and ask to join in. He asked where our crew was and Thompson points to me, himself and AOAN Kapanowski. Drum said we needed five to make a load crew, Thompson replied the give me your two worst trouble makers and we'll share the SATS loader. Then Thompson says "to make it interesting, last crew finished buys coffee, I'll have mine black, Jones takes his black with four sugars." We won.
 
TARPSBird: I remember that. I was taught to put in a pinch of salt. To this day, I do not know why, but I still put in a pinch, anyway. I made the coffee for about 4 months, waiting for my posting to a ship.
 
mariereid said:
I am glad to hear that Helldiver, I'm the same way. it hasn't seemed to harm you over the years! This am I got up about 3:45. Today the wife beat me to the coffee beans. Dang,the early hours used to be my quiet time. Once she gets a couple of coffees into her, she starts talking, none stop.
Click to expand...

Oh Rick,

Is there an off button to that? :icon_lol:

I love my early morning, quiet, just give me a good 30 minutes to an hour quiet time... Time for my Daily Bread... then I can start my day with a non stop talk, it's just me and my little girl... (so no man in the house complaining about our yaking!) We start the day with I dreamt of this last night.... and we will go on and on and on.... laughing...

I drink tea now, Chinese tea, from my little tea pot. I consume tea till my day is over!
 
Ok, I think it’s funny that people say they “learned how to” or “were taught to” drink coffee. I hear that a lot, so I’m sure it’s me who is the odd man out on this. All my coffee drinking skills were “self-taught”, you might say. Like most military people, that’s where it started for me. When I was on ships, working 12+ hours a day, seven days a week, with I drank coffee all day every day. Almost never had an empty cup. These days I have 3 – 6 cups a day, then stop.
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Oh, and you civilians out there might be amused (or disgusted) to hear of a navy custom when it comes to coffee. “Real” navy coffee drinkers do not ever wash their coffee cup. Ever. It’s sort of like those cast iron frying pans that you’re not supposed to use soap on or you’ll ruin the “seasoning”… So the coffee cup is layered in dark brown crud, built up over years of “seasoning”. This custom I never did quite buy into. I still wash my coffee cups. Imagine that!
 
Yep, I always wash mine too. But I have worked for old crusty CPOs who never would. I made the mistake of washing a cup for one who was on leave; thinking I was doing a good thing. Boy, did I catch it when he came back off of leave!!!! Up one side, and down the other..........

NC
 
mariereid said:
TARPSBird: I remember that. I was taught to put in a pinch of salt. To this day, I do not know why, but I still put in a pinch, anyway. I made the coffee for about 4 months, waiting for my posting to a ship.
Click to expand...

The salt helps if your coffee is a bit bitter, it mellows it a little.
 
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