European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 4, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Keeping up with Dallas in the Middle of the med duty on a combat ship does not in the least resemble a cruise on a luxury liner. The guided missile destroyer Sellers for example is 350 Leet of gun Totin steel. No swimming pools Here. No promenade decks or Cabin boys but shipboard duty in t All Drudgery either. In act ships have quite a few creature comforts. Those comforts Aren t always As posh As the Back Home version but. In the Middle of the Ocean they have to make do most ships have stores. Small ships have walk up windows where sailors buy soap film oreo cookies and other things to make life liable. Some of the new aircraft carriers have walk in stores with larger selections ships have disbursing offices and the Crew gets paid every 15 Days whether the ship is next to the pier where Crew members can spend the Money or in the Middle of the Ocean where they can t. Most ships have several dining establishments but sailors Are limited to where they eat in accordance with their rank. For officers there s the wardroom senior enlisted sailors the chiefs eat in the chiefs mess which is said to have the Best cuisine on the ship. First class Petty officers have their mess known As the lifer locker and the rest of the Crew chows on the mess decks. College professors Are often guests aboard ships on Long cruises. They teach math business or English courses anything the ship can get a dozen or so sailors interested in. Ships also carry career Counselor and some have chaplains on Board. The most obvious chunk of americana on a combat ship overseas is the television station. The Navy started installing to systems on ships in the Early 1970s. Since then they be revised the shipboard systems several times making them Small enough to fit in spaces most of us would consider fit to be closets television systems Are now being installed on submarines the naval vessels with the least amount of spare room the ship s programming Day usually begins about the time the Crew knocks off work 5 . Or so and stays on until about 10 . Ships receive the same programs other armed forces radio and television system stations receive plus a selection of films for the Navy s Cache. All the films Are shuffled from ship to ship in sequence with any Luck so sailors can keep up with dates even in the Middle of the med. . Larry usog. M instructor aboard teaches an English composition class to sailors on the ship s mess deck. Naval mailman Crew s link with Home Petty officer 3 c. Joe Dziewik was hanging out on he signal Bridge of the guided missile destroyer Sellers waiting or general quarters to be Bonge throughout the ship minding his business when another Sailor grabbed him by the the Collar sneered and said if i Don t get mail today i m Gonna kill  the threat was Idle mostly and Dziewik is used to hearing it. As the Only postal clerk on a ship of 350 men. Dziewik is a real popular Guy. He s the Crew s link with Home. Dziewik usually knows where the ship s mail is and How it s going to get to the Sellers. He receives daily messages saying so Many pounds have been shipped ahead to this or that place for eventual shipment to the Sellers somehow. The most common Way is by Helo Dziewik said. Supply ships which often transport supplies to combat ships via helicopters usually bring along a mail delivery but there Are other ways. Some refuelling ships tie bags of mail onto the end of a fuel nozzle before sliding the nozzle on a steel wire to the Sellers where it slams into a receptor. Dziewik said the Impact of the nozzle usually scatters the bags All Over the deck but the mail does gel on Board. Belter Hope there s no cookies in those bags he said when the ship s in a port that in t near a Navy base Dziewik has to drive to the Airport and find his Crew s mail he said the ship once went 10 Days at sea without mail but that s unusual. Four to six Days is the Norm. Still slip ups do occur and they can be pretty traumatic on a ship. A lot of wives and girlfriends write every Day and they number the letters he said. He said lost mail Means the sequence becomes a mess and the sailors have a Hole in the lives of their loved ones. The chaplain on the ship worries about that too. I m probably the Only Guy on the ship who dreads mail  said chaplain it Robert Lewis. The worst is that letter that says come Home or else. By the time a Guy gets that letter it nay be two weeks old a lot of times and the crisis May be Over. But that Guy does t know that. It raises More problems than it provides  Dziewik does t Deal in the Crew s problems although he is occasionally the object of their appreciation for mail. A Guy will get a care package in. And hell give me some of it like i had something to do with getting it to him he said. I just do my  but he appreciates the bits of Mother s love his shipmates give him even if it is a bit crumbled. Cookies get the worst of it he said. But i la Lake them  . Page 16 the stars and stripes tie Sellers Lone postal clerk Petty officer 3.c. Joe Dziewik. In is closet sized office. Tuesday november 4,1986