My pal Marc had to chime in about Sydney- a town several colleagues waxed enthusiastic about. There is a reason for that, just as there is a reason the story today is late. This will address this. Marc recalls:
(USS Independence underway out of Japan, 1992).
“We took Indy-maru (CV-62) down to Sydney in 1992 for the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea celebration after the adventure in the Persian Gulf and Desert Storm. The Pacific and Indian Oceans are big places – and OZ is a big country. It took us a couple of weeks to steam down to Sydney from Yoko as we had to head east past Guam before heading south.
I told you about my other experiences in Perth and this was the first port call in that great country that I was able to take my wife to, eschewing the considerable charms of Australian women that I had come to enjoy as a bachelor. Unlike the Europeans, the Australians have never forgotten the sacrifices of the US Navy that we endured to thwart the Japanese invasion of Port Moresby – the loss of the first Lady Lex (CV-2) and severe damage to the Yorktown (CV-5) and her miracle recovery over a weekend in Pearl which enabled her to lend the weight of her air wing to the decisive victory at Midway.

(USS Yorktown underway, 1943. Photo USN).
The Japs lost the services of their flat-tops Shinkaku and Zuikaku which deprived the Kido Butai of much of its striking power, ensuring relative parity of the fleets at that critical junction in the history of naval warfare, for which our beloved Midway Maru was named.
Imagine what that was like – Hornet (CV-12) had been sortied to conduct the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Frank Jack Fletcher had taken Lexington and Yorktown with him to the Coral Sea, and Enterprise (CV-6) got stuck with guarding the home islands, and Midway was brewing. I know that Mac Showers was there at Station HYPO, cracking the Jap codes and watching all of this unfold along with all of the Ultra and Magic intercepts coming into JICPOA and trying to sort it all out – wow. The power and fear of the carriers of that vintage and their impact was awesome.
It was there in Sydney Harbor that I scored my second stateroom qual, after achieving that a few months before during the final dependent’s day cruise on Midway before we went to Pearl to do the turnover. We actually did a practice strike on Midway during the transit where we played the role of the Japanese Navy and it was great fun to write up the scenario – of course, the good guys won.
Let’s get back to Sydney. My wife and I took the ferry on a nice day (albeit the Australian winter) over to a great seafood restaurant called Doyle’s which was on a promontory on the south side of Sydney Harbor, where we enjoyed a magnificent lunch of lobster and other wonderful creations from the kitchen of Alice Doyle, the daughter of the founder of that incredible place. She served us herself, and I still have her autographed cookbook – a great and gracious lady. after lunch, we took the ferry ride further to Bondi Beach where we marveled at the parrots and parakeets that were flying between the trees and outdoor bars. I thought then that Australia was what America could have been.
To lure a carrier down to Sydney for the 50th Anniversary, the Australians had proffered a massive ball – more than 5000 people, along with their Prime Minister and then SECDEF Dick Cheney as guest speakers. I had my mess dress that I had commissioned from a tailor in Korea, Mr. Lim’s, outside the gate in Osan.
My wife had no dress but we found one that could be quickly tailored to her proportions in a small boutique down the street from the Marriott where we were staying. It was black and stunning, a lot like the sleeveless and shoulder strap-less one that Rita Hayworth wore in her signature film “Gilda” where she performed her famous strip tease.
When asked what had held the dress up, Rita had told reporters “two things” – my wife (still) lacks nothing in that category. She’s a tall, blonde Swedish heritage ballet dancer, and still dances and teaches dance classes almost every day, wherever we have been, be it Camp Zama, Atsugi, Newport, San Diego, DC, Key West, and Annapolis, which is nice. She is a beautiful and talented dancer and once I had seen her on the stage, I could not take my eyes off of her. She’s that damn good.
The deal with the Aussies was that we would host the military happy hour on the Indy and then take buses to the main event. So there we were on the hangar deck of Indy, having drinks at the reception. it was lively at first but I started to get a little bored so asked my wife if she would like to see my stateroom. She gave me at first a “why the hell would I want to do that?” look until she realized my bad intent. Then she smiled. I took her by the hand and led her forward to an accom ladder up forward that led to the 0-2 level.
The deal you have with your roommate is that, when you were “entertaining a young lady in your stateroom” that you would hang an empty coat hanger on the door handle outside as a signal. My roommate at that time is now the current superintendent of the Naval Academy. His wife, Linda, was not in town. I hung the coat hanger, and was in like Flint.
We descended about 30 minutes later and caught one of he buses to the party. And what a party it was. The Aussies know how to put on a show and there was not a dry eye there after all of the speakers were done. Freaking amazing.

The ball itself started out with a memorial ceremony during which the Aussies rolled out the bell salvaged from the HMAS Canberra (sunk in the Sunda Strait) and used it to toll for the dead. There was a Glenn Miller-type tribute band that played ‘30s and ‘40s Big Band music. The multiple dance floors were crowded and almost impossible to mount – we found a place to swing in one of the aisles and soon were joined by others who didn’t want to attempt the dance floors. With so many people moving energetically powered by copious amounts of alcohol, the ball room rapidly heated up and people were sweating profusely, despite the fact that outside it was fall Down Under.
Cheney was accompanied by his wife, Dr. Lynn and the Aussies almost made her a bigger deal than him. He gave a good address, but we bailed early due to the crowds and grabbed a cab back to our hotel.
When we left Sydney, we went further south to the Tasman Channel (sorry boys, no Hobart for you) and then steamed the length of Australia past Perth and up towards Diego Garcia and our on-station date in the Persian Gulf. I looked at it on a chart and it was something like 14,000 nm, more than half way around the world.
When you remember what we used to carry around in the magazines, carriers were pretty awesome in a Dr. Strangelove kind of way.
Sydney lives on in our memory. It is a wonderful city in a wonderful country, and a wonderful people. Way back when, they know we Navy guys moved heaven and earth to protect their way and enjoyment of life and they will never forget it. In many ways, we are closer to them than the Brits or Canadians.
And Mac Showers, our career mentor and National Treasure got to see it all, and then some.
There are more stories in the naked city. Stay tuned.”
Copyright 2014 Vic and Marc
www.vicsocotra.com
twitter: @jayare303