Stories from Bob's Life

I had been dating Mary Anne for probably a year at that point – and she was still in the Navy.  I was the Assistant Platoon Commander to Stan Holloway at SEAL Team TWO and our platoon was travelling to the Navy SEAL detachment we then had at the Naval Base Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico to do diving, weapons training,, and demolition training on Pineros Island.

In this case, we were hosting and bringing with us the Danish Frogmen (Fromankorpset)  who were visiting us from Denmark for cross training with our SEAL Team.  We wanted to show them a uniquely great time, to be good hosts in hopes that they would reciprocate when SEALs showed up in Kongsore Denmark to train with them, which we did on an almost  annual basis. So Mary Anne, Kathy – a Navy Nurse girlfriend of hers  – and Stan’s wife Paula all got on a space available military flight from Norfolk to Roosevelt Roads so that they could join us on some of our liberty adventures. When Mary arrived we got a cheesy little room in the BOQ at Roosy Roads that smelled like mildew.  The Year was 1978 I believe)

It was customary back then for the NSW Unit in Puerto Rico to schedule a run to St Thomas over a weekend on their Landing Craft Utility (LCU) to give us a chance to do some very cool diving around Sail Rock just outside Charlotte Amalie on our way in to the harbor, where the LCU would dock for the weekend at the Coast Guard base there. Charlotte Amalie is a major tourist destination in the Virgin Island and the main city on St Thomas as well as the capital of US Virgin Islands -so there was plenty for young frogmen to do there on liberty.  UDT and SEALs had been coming there for over a decade and were well known by the locals. The guys in the platoon would stay either on the LCU or at a hotel in town – Mary and I got a nice hotel room  overlooking the harbor, while Stan and Paula stayed at the Best Western-style Inn with the Danes and the other SEALs in our platoon.

That’s the background.

We had had a great dive off Sail Rock on our way into Charlotte Amalie and were in town hitting the bars and tourist places along the waterfront. Mary and I had had a few rum and cokes at some nice casual bars along the water front, were having a very good time and feeling pretty well lubricated when she chose to walk back to our hotel to rest and get ready for the nice dinner we had planned for that evening.  She had made a special reservation at our ritzy hotel restaurant, with a table looking out over the harbor and we were both looking forward to a special romantic evening.  Also I had bought her a nice gold ring in the shape of a dolphin that I was looking forward to giving her at dinner.

Later in the afternoon, after she left to go to the hotel, I chose to wander over to the hotel where Stan and Paula, the Danes and our platoon members were staying. I just wanted to briefly check in with Stan and our platoon, see what was happening before going back to our hotel.  The Best Western-style hotel where they were staying had a pool in the courtyard, and when I arrived, it was surrounded by Danish and American Frogmen having a really good time – and getting pretty drunk.

I recall relaxing on a pool-side chaise lounge and enjoying the show.  One of the Danes brought me an ice-cold rum and coke which I gratefully accepted and drank greedily, as it was hot and humid – It went down well and easily.  Then I was given another rum and coke which again, tasted great. They may have even given me another – I don’t recall.

Because that’s about when for me, the lights went out.  I found out later that my Danish Frogman friends had been giving me rum and cokes made with 151 proof rum which was near double the standard 80 proof rum for a “cuba-libre” .   I next woke up several hours later naked on the floor in a room at that hotel.  Here’s what I was told had happened while I was passed out.

The Danes were having a good time with the very, very drunk, young LTjg (me) who I’m told, was laughing and giggling and playing along (I have no recollection.)  I’m told that after throwing me in the pool a couple of times, they carried me up to the second floor of the hotel and were getting ready to lift and throw me over the railing into the pool. They were all very drunk as well.  Apparently there is no way I would have made it to the pool – as the horizontal distance from the balcony to the pool was about 5 feet.

At that point my boss Stan Holloway came on the scene, saw what was happening, jumped in and stopped it.  Then  (as he related to me,) Stan, who was about 6’4″ and about 240 lbs grabbed Peter Nopenau, the CO of the Danes who was about 5’6″ and about 130 lbs, by the throat, lifted him off the ground and threatened to kill him if he didn’t get his guys under control. I guess that put a damper on the party.  Stan with some help from others got me into a hotel room and put me in a cold shower  to wake me up and make sure I didn’t die.  I woke up naked on the floor in a hotel room with Mary Anne standing over me, fairly distraught, and me slowly coming back to consciousness.

When I failed to show up in our hotel room to go to dinner, Mary Anne had walked down the mountain and over to the hotel where the gang was staying. She ran into Paula Holloway and asked if she’d seen me, that I was late for our dinner date.  Paula’s response, “Oh Mary…..”  Someone Mary to the hotel room where i was lying unconscious, and as I woke up, she helped me get dressed and walked me back up the hill to the hotel. According to her I was still quite drunk, yelling epithets and being obnoxious, but was able to walk and understand generally what was happening.  I also came to realize (with I’m sure a little help from her) that I’d ruined our romantic evening at the hotel restaurant.   Mary went to the Maitre D and apologized for missing our reservation.  He was not happy since at her request, he’d made special plans for us to have a very romantic setting and evening.

It’s about here that my recollections begin,  I recall that I did give Mary Anne the Dolphin ring in our hotel room, and that I somehow got cleaned up and that we did go out to dinner, and that I was indeed very apologetic.  After dinner, I assume I went pretty quickly to bed, and I assume, right to sleep – as a fitting end to our “romantic evening.”

We both believe Stan may have saved my life that afternoon by stopping the Danes from throwing me over the railing, down one story, and onto the concrete.