You can’t berate your shipmates; they didn’t know this would happen. What I couldn’t figure out was, what to tell the brass? What do I tell the CO? The XO? I didn’t know what to say. I settled on telling them the truth. The Communications Office said, “Petty Officer, how did it go up there?” I told him the truth. I said, “Sir, everything was cool.” He said, “Well, great. That’s great.” That was my report. “Everything was cool.” The literal truth. I was on duty in an American warplane listening to modern jazz. What could that be except cool? So that’s what I said. He said to me, “Terrific. That’s great to hear.” What a weird story: to be on a military frequency and hearing, you know, American jazz.
