Marine Detachment

Marine Detachment

A few years back (1979) I was stationed on the 6th Fleet Flag Ship USS Albany CG 10 out of Gaeta Italy. I was just a young Boot then. New to the Detachment and the Corp. My first night out to sea Approx 2200 hours I heard someone yell section fight and the entire birthing compartment erupted into a massive brawl!. About 10 minutes into the section fight someone called attention on deck! The XO of the ship was pulling birthing inspections to insure the compartments were cleaned and all trash had been dumped.

Needless to say the XO was not pleased to see all the Marines standing at attention with blood dripping off of us. As he walked around the area he just shook his head in disgust. When he finished with our compartment he went thru the hatch in the floor going to the next compartment, there was a laundry bag hanging from the hand wheel down to the next compartment. When the XO pushed the laundry bag aside to get down the ladder well a voice from within the bag yelled out (GET YOUR HAND OFF MY A$$) The XO pulled his hand back real quick and looked back into our compartment shaking his head in disgust. We all heard him say in a very clear but low voice (You F#$%^%@ Marines!)

The fight was over then and we all had a great laugh. The next morning at formation it was mentioned that there will be no more body?s in the laundry bags and that section fights were not to be conducted until 2230 or later!

This was one of the many fond memories I have of the detachment. I have attached a small jpeg of a section fight.

Semper FI!
Mark Brooks
Sgt. 1978 / 1981