While serving on HMCS Regina in preparation for deployment to the Persian Gulf in 2003, the frigate’s executive officer (XO) was a francophone with a very strong accent. As XO, he made situation report announcements on the ship’s PA during exercises.
The ship’s waste management room, where plastic was melted down into large pucks, paper was shredded and other garbage was processed or kept until it could be landed, was commonly referred to as “garbage stores.”
During one exercise, the XO confidently announced that the fire in “cabbage stores” was 50 per cent contained. Given the smell that garbage stores often emitted on hot days in the Persian Gulf, we collectively decided that the XO’s name was a suitable substitute and it stuck not only for the rest of the deployment, but for a couple of years afterward.
—Rob (Otis) Bates, retired chief petty officer 2nd class, Medicine Hat, Alta.
Bing (Bing!) Coughlin [The Legionary magazine, September 1946]
Winging it
A young pilot officer went in to report to his commanding officer after returning from a raid.
“Were you nervous during the attack?” the CO asked.
“Who, me?” asked the pilot. “I was cool as a cucumber all the time.”
“Swell,” said the CO, “I thought you might have been a bit nervous when you radioed in that 27,000 enemy bombers were coming in at eight feet.”
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