So I do this thing every month of two where I end up on Ebay and I search for trinkets related to old ships I've been on. Most of it is always the same stuff; just cheap stickers that can be printed on demand or ball caps that have, and probably will continue to, sat in a warehouse until they dissolve into dust. The only people who buy this kind of tchotchke are retirees who want to wear something to the store or slap a "I served" type of sticker on their truck. So I scroll through these things, it never changes much so I can scroll through a whole page in a few seconds, just looking for anything new.
So that's what I was doing the other night and something caught my eye. It was a coffee mug, which isn't uncommon to see on there. This one is unique though. It is used and old. Most of these things are reproductions, again just something for old vets to reminisce over. This mug is different. It has a few small chips in it, the ship's logo is faded, and it has a Master Chief emblem on one side. Which is interesting because you have to understand a bit about the Navy to really grasp how much a Master Chief, especially 20+ years ago, cherished their mug. They had a special hook on the wall in the mess for them. You couldn't wash them with soap and water. Just touching it for a junior sailor felt like you were doing something wrong and you would get yelled at.
Here it is now, scrubbed of the immortal coffee stain. At one time it meant so much to the owner and was symbolic to hundreds if not thousands of Sailors who saw the owner ducking through the passageways on the ship, not spilling a single drop of coffee. It would have been there on the desk while someone was getting yelled at, complimented, or maybe topped up and offered to someone else during a confidential conversation where someone was seeking advice with a real-life serious problem like a marriage falling apart. It would have been stolen during chief's initiation and held hostage in jest. When this nameless Master Chief finally left the command, it would have been the last thing to leave the ship. Picked up off it's specific hook in the mess and carried off the ship. It would have been kept in a cabinet at home, maybe with a few more mugs that carried so much history.
To me this mug also symbolizes the "Old" Navy, and reminds me how much I looked up to leaders and salty old chiefs. So maybe a time of innocence, for me. Maybe it's that people don't drink as much coffee, or we're genuinely too busy to carry a mug every where... maybe Chiefs still have these mugs, I just can't remember the last time I said "Hey, that's chief's mug. I wouldn't touch that if I were you."
