Surprise Ashore
For a six-week summer training cruise with the U.S. Navy in 1951, several hundred midshipmen from all over the country boarded the Iowa class battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) in Norfolk. Besides the heavy training schedule, the travel and shore leave itinerary included Halifax, New York City, Colon, Panama, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
For all sailors shore leave provides a change of pace from the shipboard routines. For those who are single, shore leave is an exciting opportunity to meet with the ladies, as there were no ladies aboard ship in those days. The midshipmen aboard the Wisconsin consisted of several hundred beginning sophomores and seniors in college and the Naval Academy. Early on in the cruise they were not aware of the heightened sense of competition they provided on shore leave. The regular sailors aboard ship tended to see the midshipmen as an irritating impediment both aboard ship and on shore leave as well.
The senior midshipmen wore uniforms which emulated that of prospective officers, while the underclassmen wore uniforms similar to that of the enlisted men below the Chief Petty Officer levels. The underclassmen were also provided traditional white sailor hats with a one inch wide navy blue strip along the top edge of the rim. This hat is pictured below on a midshipman from this lower class, who should remain nameless.
Throughout the cruise the underclass midshipmen found it increasingly difficult to strike up new relationships with any of the ladies ashore. Eventually it was learned that the regular sailors were spreading rumors ashore about those folks with blue stripes on their white hats.
The rumor was that the blue stripes mark the guys with venereal diseases, known nowdays as STDs. This revelation explained many surprises ashore, and why otherwise eligible ladies on seeing the blue trim would cross the street or scatter like chickens running in all directions.
All is fair in love and war.
