A Little Shipboard Humor - Operation Crossroads 75 Years Ago

Members of the USS Fall River (CA-131) Sixth Division, 1946 (Author Collection)

Here’s how one bluejacket described the shipboard routines on the USS Fall River en route to Bikini in April 1946…

Dear Ma,

I joined the Navy because I admired the way the ships were kept so clean and tidy. This week, I learned who keeps them so clean and tidy.

– Love, Junior

The Navy standardized everything on all ships as much as possible so you didn’t have to learn a new set of routines, regulations, and a different organization every time you moved from one division, department, or ship to another. Shipboard routines were different in war and in peace, in port and at sea, and to some extent on weekdays versus Sundays and holidays. There was a chart for the Daily Routine at Sea. There was the Plan of the Day (POD) for departures from the Daily Routine at Sea. The charts for a Daily Routine at Sea and a Plan of the Day are reproduced in Operation Crossroads, Lest We Forget! (see below for link to book).