Friday January 14, 2005 – Having Any Woman He Wanted

Friday January 14, 2005 – Having Any Woman He Wanted

Evening meal was the major gathering time for us enlisted men. Butch would have cleared all the dishes away and everyone would be sitting around the mess hall drinking coffee and smoking. We all smoked. Marlboro was my brand, though the older guys teased those of us who smoked filtered cigarettes. I didn’t mind; I was the Marlboro man. Some evenings saw large gatherings of eight or more all talking about a memorable drinking party the group had before boarding ship, trading tales of mama-san and the best bar girl they had met, talking about the women in their lives back home. The best gatherings were those with Doc holding forth. Others in attendance would include Ernie, Manny, Cue, and Ken. Occasionally Gus, Bud, Hank, and Jake would join. After dinner on Monday evening our first night out, all those mentioned were assembled comparing tales about the drinking party they all attended at some time during Sunday evening. I had missed the festivities.

During the day on Sunday, the group had agreed to meet at the ship’s hangout bar, where Mama-san and the hostesses knew most of the crew. With few exceptions everyone who showed up at the bar was intent on getting drunk beyond remembering and the hostesses were only too happy to help them achieve their oblivion. Once each individual had reached their desired drunken state or spent their limit on booze, they had returned to the ship—everyone that is except Doc and Manny who had closed the place. The group now assembled was eager to hear what happened after they had left. The evening had begun with tension between Doc and Mama-San, who was older than the hostess at her bar, but an attractive, desirable woman in her own right. She was particularly covetous of her hostesses and did not approve of them having dates with the bar’s clients after closing. Doc and Mama-san were kindred spirits and often engaged one another in conversation or exchange of jokes and jibes.

Doc was drinking but was less concerned with getting drunk than finding a companion to spend this last evening in port with. When he entered the bar, he had noticed a new hostess and had asked Mama-san her name. Mama-san had told Doc her name Keiko and said that Keiko was Mama-san’s girl but could be Doc’s hostess for the evening expecting Doc to honor her request to keep his hands off. For Doc, the warning had exactly the opposite result. Learning that someone else had put a claim on Keiko only made her more desirable and he was determined to win her over before the evening was out.

Doc was in his late thirties, still handsome with his sandy-auburn hair that seemed slightly more red in the Pan-like goatee of his. He was a man of unlimited sexual appetite to hear him talk. On one occasion, he had been out with the pregnant wife of another sailor he knew. She had accompanied him to the enlisted men’s club on the Norfolk Navy Base offering to introduce him to a young woman who might spend the evening with. Unfortunately, there were no women in the club that evening and when Doc took his companion home, she invited him to her bed for the night. Doc often boasted that he wanted to be killed in bed by an enraged husband and he had numerous tales detailing last minute escapes from near death. On this particular evening, the husband was well out at sea and not due back before his child would be born. Doc was married but his wife was not with him at the time.

Being in Japan, sailors seldom find themselves in the company of American women except in the enlisted men’s club with the wives of other sailors. Doc had regaled us with his escapade in the club at Yokosuka a few months later. He had met a sailor and his wife and engaged them both in conversation. Doc had the same charismatic charm on men as he had on women. Men liked to be around him, listening to his stories, hanging on his every word. By the end of the evening, Doc was about to say his goodbyes and return to the ship, when the husband invited Doc to spend the evening at their quarters on base. Doc agreed and accompanied them to their house where he spent the night on their couch. When the husband left for his watch the following morning, the wife invited Doc into the still warm bed vacated by her husband. How much of this was male boasting is hard to tell, but seeing Doc’s affect on a woman it’s easy to imagine the tales are true.

This evenings tale was in the same vein as most of Doc’s others. He had begun buying drinks with the young hostess that Mama-san had warned Doc not to touch. As the evening wore on and midnight approached—closing time for all the bars throughout Japan back then, Doc had begun getting very familiar with the young hostess and she had found herself returning his affection. She would resist only when she caught the stern gaze of Mama-san directing her to behave. At one point during the evening, the young woman had forgotten herself and allowed Doc to engage in some rather heavy petting—this all the while the rest of the party were laughing and joking among themselves with their hostesses. Mama-san became so enraged at Doc’s advances that she approached the two of them and upbraided them both. While Doc smiled nonplussed, drew on his cigarette and sipped his drink, the young hostess was torn between her physical attraction to Doc and the strong reprimand from Mama-san. Doc knew he had won, when the young woman refused Mama-san's order to leave him and find another companion.

As midnight made its appearance and all the bars on Honcho Street began playing “Auld Lang Syne”, Doc, the smitten hostess, and Manny exited the bar. As Manny began making his way back to the base, Doc called after and invited him to join the two of them. As Manny slept off his drunk on the floor near their bed, Doc and the young hostess engaged in carnal lust. That was the story according to Doc. Manny was too drunk to remember what happened. He only remembered waking Monday morning and cabbing back to the base with Doc.

For a 19-year-old-going-on-twenty kid like me, Doc was the Alpha male incarnate. However, I could not reconcile the happy-go-lucky tales of female conquests with the reality I had experienced in all my relationships with women. Watching Doc was like watching a movie where the hero gets to sleep with whom he wants with no consequences, no emotional toll to be extracted for his indulgences, a free ride for the hero, But that was at the beginning of my adventure when all I was seeing was the outward appearance of all those aboard. Over time, new pieces of information would be added to Doc’s narrative that would begin to fill in the pieces omitted from his commentary. Eventually, a far more poignant picture would emerge. Like Doc’s life, my months at sea which began with an idyllic, benign ocean welcoming me would turn stormy and frightening at times making the beauty all that more beautiful.