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Enlightenment Breaks Out on the USS Grand Canyon

By Ken Dalton

By the Fall of 73, the wheels were falling off the Navy just like the other branches of the US Armed Forces. To deal with morale problems and outright revolt in the fleet, the Chief of Naval Operations or CNO gave a directive to commanding officers to hold rap sessions with their crews. So late in 1973, this enlightenment finally made its way to the USS Grand Canyon AR-28, aka the Grande Commode. Just a little background on the Grand Canyon. The GC was a former destroyer tender turned repair ship (no weapons department) with a crew of about one thousand men.

Anyway, at that time there was a lot of chickenshit being directed at enlisted crew members in regards to haircuts and civilian attire when leaving the ship. Also at the same time living conditions were deplorable with the worst thing being a constant shortage of toilet paper.

The day finally arrived for R-2 Division to have it's turn to meet with the "Old Man" and to discuss what was on our minds. Many of the roughly fifty members of R-2 Division were all geared up to tell the old man this and that now that it was our turn. We assembled on the mess decks to meet with Captain Crane and all those guys who were going to be brave with the CO sat there like little puppy dogs. That infuriated me more than all the chickenshit we were living with. So I raised my hand and respectfully identified myself as engine man third class Dalton from the diesel engine repair shop. I then went on with basically as follows; "Captain, I noticed lately there's been a lot of attention focused on our civilian attire and haircuts when leaving the ship but I hope we can get the same attention directed towards living conditions aboard the ship. First, the compartments are not up to par, the food down in the galley is deplorable and most of all, there's an ongoing shortage of toilet paper in the heads."

Well, Master Chief Danny McGuirl and Lieutenant Commander Kirwin almost fell out of their chairs, Captain Crane was tongue tied and everybody else was happy that somebody stood up and said what they were too afraid to say. But I was a short timer and didn't really care since I would be getting out soon.

As a result of this action on my part, the harassment when leaving the ship died down to acceptable levels, there was a commissioned officer eating with the enlisted men at every meal and there was an ample supply of toilet paper in each and every head. In addition, EN3 Dalton was soon kicked out of R-2 Div and given the job of repair department driver, which meant the commanding officer and I were the only two members of the crew who were not in any in port duty sections, worked 0800 to 1600 and had no in port or underway watches.

I guess the most important lesson of this experience is never under estimate the power of one individual to stand up and speak truth to power and make positive changes for everybody.

Ken Dalton is a VVAW member from New Jersey. He served in the US Navy from 1970-74 as an EN2.