"The Pause That Wasn't So Refreshing"

A friend mentioned that his Dad was in the ol’ Canoe Club back in the day and his Navy Vessel had a "Hot seat" which was painted red that the guys with Venereal Disease had to use! It was reserved for them alone!! But I doubt there was any trouble enforcing that rule!!!

At the time, GITMO was mostly being run as a home for the most advanced of the Navy's Damage Control Schools! So ships would come down from various east coast ports, and spent several weeks, getting the rust blown off on firefighting, and more advanced techniques!!!

At some point during his father's tour, a small destroyer (I suspect a WWII-era DE, with an average complement on the order of 180 men) came down for the damage control training, but ended up having a major medical casualty! A large percentage of the crew (His Dad had told him between a third and a half) were suffering from VD!! Interviews with the crew were going nowhere, so they couldn't identify any kind of common vector for the epidemic, and the hospital personnel were starting to suspect rampant homosexuality at the root of what had happened!!!

Finally one of the sailors involved mentioned…

"Well, there was this girl at the USO, I'm sure I couldn't have gotten it from her, she's a nice girl, but she should be told to get tested."

From the details from his dad’s recollections, she appeared too had been a very active and enthusiastic sixteen or seventeen year old! And she alone had been the source of the epidemic that swept through the entire ship!!!