(Country bandwidth issues precluded transfer of this USN shot from USS Midway’s (CV-41) CVIC in 1980. It is the Emergency Action Message Team who wore the lanyard and carried the pouch, 24 hours a day 365 days per year. It has been in a pouch of its own the last thirty years or so, carefully tucked in the bottom of a cardboard box. From right to left- is Eddie Chow, Steve Oka, “Andrew” don’t-call-me-Andy McMullan, Vic in lanyard, and two guys whose fragmentary DNI may still be contained in the pores of the lanyard or pouch).

The story of it? We were moving some old boxes in the attempt to down-size a bit. One of them came open in the process, and there was a Midway-era relic of some significance to the CVIC/Air Wing team. We wore it for 24 hour hour duty-days, and it stayed on with us everywhere. It contained the combination to the EAM safe. We used the term “emergency action” to describe what was in the pouch. It was a combination to a safe secured at eye level in an office cleared for storage of classified material. It was one of two required to gain access to the safe, which contained acess to other codes that could cause the ship to go to General Quarters, with Marines and ordnance-handlers moving stuff around and eventually to the flight deck. It was an exacting procedure, and was expected to be treated appropriately.

The duty of carrying the thing wasn’t that hard, since normal activity was infrequent. The issue was that training and proficiency was conducted in some city a dozen time-zones away, so depending on what ocean you happened to be in, the call from Main Communications would occur during sleep periods, and a small huddle of sleepy people around a safe on a wall in an interior compartment beneath the flat dark deck.

The original lanyard and pouch (above) contained the code word for access to EAM action messages and alerts. It was a two-man process to ensure any time the safe was opened there was a record and witness. This one was worn on human necks for more than a year, and the disintegration is due to the friction of the naugahyde and the human epidermus. Due to wear, it was retired in the spring of 1980.

If there was any confusion, or if found without designated bearer, this is the instruction on who to call in the event of an emergency. To take action:

– Vic

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