The best CPO I ever worked under
Does anyone out there in the big cyber world remember Brick Bradford? Brick was the best Chief I worked under in pussers. I will never forget the afternoon he walked down to 3 bravo mess and asked for a volunteer to do Shorty Barratt's watch as Shorty was suffering "sea sickness" I watched all the cooks in the mess put their eyes down as I volunteered. (To this day I dont know why I did it) Well I did Shorties watch and Brick was so pleased as he said I had saved him from "an embarrasing situation." Now for the best part, we were at sea the time I did Shorties watch and when we got to Fiji I was duty watch, I will never forget the morning I was getting ready to do my watch and Shorty was dressing to go ashore then who should appear but Brick Bradford who informed Shorty that he would be doing my next TWO Duty watches! First Day Steppers, Magic! Thankyou Brick.

Gee barry its hard to pick out one good one overt a 20 year stretch So many come to mind .I got on pretty well with all my chiefs and on the whole There are some that i would rather forget but they are in the minority .Yes Brick was good as were many of them .But there were also some fair and just ones You know fair bastards and just c****s Im tipping all the good ones will be at the reunion .

Best CPOCK
Well not really, WOCK Nifty Neville (he was serving at Nirmba at the time, I believe) in 1986 did the Coonawarra Admiral's Inspection as the Cook Expert. Well what a devvo!! He organised a great BBQ at Kakadu thanks to shopping Navy. And apparently he was involved with the Grice Racing V8 Team at some level?? First Post with the Cookie Boys Lindsay LAKE Former CPOWTR5 03Apr70 to 15Jul05

Thats right , Nifty was the Pits team manager . Nifty was still Nifty in 82 when Stalwart got back from up-top , amazing how many cheffies neded to bring in a new VCR for the Chief Also had the best 'Last night Out' piss-up in the bakery that I've ever been part of . About 0030 , Nifty sent half a dozen to bed because "Your doing breakfast " , think I crawled into my farter at 0600 , kinda missed 'All Hands ' for the ceremonial entrance to GID . But then again I'd done it before.

CPOCK Leukawitz (Cannot spell for s***) was a top hand, firm but fair and gave me a great resume when I left pussers. Two POCKs I worked for that were great was Lindsay Smith and Gordon Brimlow. One day I was assigned to the senior sailors galley on the Vampire and Gordon was the POCK in charge. He said "Son, you are second duty, what is your plan in getting scran out?" I replied "Plan?" and he said "Even a single cell organism has a plan of what it is going to do when it wakes up in the morning, what is yours?" Never forget that, I still laugh. When I was working in the wardroon galley on the Vampire, there was a dinner for the local mayor, we were up in north Queensland at the time, could have been Rockhampton or Mackay. So, cranking out the scran with a couple of other hands when this garbage bin full of grog is dragged into the kitchen compliments of the grunters (top blokes on the Vamps). After clearing up from scran we proceeded to sit un the uppers just outside the galley demolishing the bin of grog. POCK Smith (smoo) told me I did not have to do breakfast in the morning and that the duty beagle will do the scran (only a couple of duty watch for breakfast after these gigs). So I of course stepped. Next morning I am getting a bollocking from the Chief cook and he was threatening to run me in. Smoo stepped up and smoothed the waters though I had to forfeit an off day (at sea luckily). Btw, still on the Vamps. The Mayor of Mackay held a reception in town for the ships crew. So there I am in the process of getting slaughtered and chatting up the Mayor's wife (as you do). lo and behold the XO sides up to me an 'offers' to put me in a taxi to the ship. I of course complied and as soon as the taxi was around the corner we changed course. Never heard a word more about it but did get the odd smirk or sideways glance when returning the keys to the bridge after locking the kitchen.

I wonder how many thousands of Navy Personnel served on Vampire from 59 to 84 when she paid off?? literally thousands I am guessing.

Chief Cooks,what a breed,had some you would`nt piss on if they were on fire,but,a few that were ok,Brian reagan on the flat top and at cerberus,nice bloke and very easy to work for ,Tassie boylan(think that was his surname)wardroom at the tross,very rarely gave his troops grief,did come up with some very strange recipes that we had to try out on the poor unsuspecting fly boy officers,speaking of fly boy officers they always made sure the duty cooks had plenty of liquid amber to get through a duty watch,I know they were naval officers ,but,they were different,great bunch of blokes,

Bob you sound as though you must have spent too much time with Birdies. My daughter just did the Helo course at the 'Tross and I warned her that Birdies were a different breed. Well she met them. Guys who had been in 15 + years and never been to sea!!! They should convert all Birdies into the RAAF!!

Lucky Lukaswitz as an AB was part of Derwents crew on our 68/69 run uptop. Others were Jack Steyne , Chockers Roberts , Young Rubes Tony Johnson , Nick Tubecki and Moi . No wonder I drink!!!

Not only do us guys in Pussers get divorced more than our civvy mates but I think that we die on average earlier as well???

we worked hard and played hard in those days and its catching up with a lot of us now Gee i cant remember all the chiefs or woS i servrved under must be hundreds And plenty of POck I would be writing here all day But plenty of good hands among them .

I met a few good cheif cooks in the Navy CPOCK (now WOCK) Bohm was a character. CPOCK (now WOCK) Green was ok. There was a cpock Becker at Cerberus who was a great guy to work under and he sure was fit....

Bucket Bohm is these days living outside of Cerberus in his own home doing Reserve service to pay his way. He went from a 3 badge LSCK in 93 to WOCK in 2004. Not a bad effort.