In some ways, growing a ponytail after I retired has made sure that I'm never tempted to dress up in my uniform again.
haha! Yeah, when I got out after six years, I did the same thing! I refused to get a haircut for nearly 2 years, and wore a ponytail. It was my was of re-establishing my autonomy after 6 years of people telling me to cut my hair (I was always stretching the bounds of Navy regs on the hair!). 30 years on now, I sure miss that ponytail, or rather, my hair!!!
When we'd get underway for a 90-day patrol, we'd cut our hair really short (some would even shave their heads) and then hope that it didn't grow out too fast. (Submarines don't have assigned barbers. You usually have one guy who knows how to cut hair, and he's not very interested.) Beards were Navy regulation until the 1980s but even after that reg changed, during patrol you could also make a small donation to the crew's recreation committee and grow a beard (although it had to fit inside the rubber seal of a gas mask). You had to shave at the end of the patrol (before the bridge hatch was opened). When you got back to port you were expected to find time within the next 72 hours to get a haircut from the nearest barber or else the XO would make it your new priority. So I was "trained" pretty early that the uniform regs were more for the taxpayers than for the troops, and I never took the hair parts very seriously.
When I retired I realized that for over 40 years people had been deciding how long my hair could be, so my last haircut was 30 April 2002. The ponytail is about a foot long (depends on humidity & curl) but after five years it stopped growing longer. Maybe that's related to the length/weight of the individual hairs versus strength, or maybe I lose a little every time I get thrashed by a wave. It sheds a lot. I've read that guys shed more hair than women but we don't notice because our hair is usually shorter.
I was ready to cut it off about five years ago when I my spouse informed me that she finds it tremendously attractive. So I guess I've reverted to letting people tell me how long my hair is going to be, but this time it's worth it!
wow, this thread got me thinking about the Old Man, so I Googled him. He passed away in 2008 at the ridiculously young age of 66 from pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer. Damn.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/pjcoadyjr.htm
This is happening way too often to military retirees in their 50s and mid-60s. I wonder if we've figured out all of the hazardous materials that we've been exposed to, or if it's just all those years of tobacco.
haha! Funny about the wife and your hair!
Yeah, I know I was exposed to lots of shit when I was on a ship. I especially remember being in dry dock in San Pedro, CA for a major overhaul, and they were chipping and grinding and laying down epoxy and such -- while we continued to live on the ship! I wrote a letter to the aforementioned C.O., telling him that I thought it was pretty egregious that the finest all-volunteer force in the world was being forced to live under worse conditions than the muggers, thieves and rapists populating our nation's prisons -- and you know what? Sonofabitch, it worked! The Old Man moved us all off the ship and into barracks on the base for the duration of the overhaul! Also, re: smoking. When we commissioned the good ship U.S.S. Antietam (CG-54) in 1987, smoking was allowed everywhere on the ship. Guys would wake up in the berthing compartments and light up before their fucking feet hit the deck. I HATED it! So I bitched about it to the Captain (same guy). Not two months later, smoking was banned on the entire ship save for two designated areas -- the fantail, and one lounge area. Man, what a difference it made in the quality of life on board. Probably two significant reasons (among many others) why I really loved that Old Man.
But hell yeah, I often wonder about the shit I was exposed to not only on the ship, but in the shipyard when they were building her and I was on board doing QA stuff every day for 10 months. But then again, that shit probably pales in comparison to what I was exposed to at "Ground Zero" on 9/11 and thereafter. Ugh.
