And They Probably Refer to it as St. Foj

The Ancient Mariner steamed away from Yokosuka yesterday morning after spending most of his weekend chopping celery and slicing sausage. As the USS Blue Ridge slipped away from the pier, half the population of Japan heard the sailor's plaintive cry. "Save some gumbo for me!"

He is embarked on what the Navy refers to as Sea Trials and what we Navy spouses refer to as "Whoa, I foresee a lengthy deployment in the near future!"

Sea Trials are when the ship's crew drills, drills, and then drills some more. Athletes call it practice, actors call it rehearsal. Because the Navy cannot bear to use expressions easily understood by the general population, they have established a Special Task Force on Obfuscating Jargon with a staff of 938 which meets in Hawaii four times a year to coin new expressions for some of the world's oldest and most basic concepts. They got this idea from the computer industry.


Just kidding (at least about the size of the staff).