Working the deck wasn't too bad. one of the sounds that was constant during the day was that of troops making rings out of quarters. By striking a quarter on the edge with a stainless steel spoon thousands of times the quarter would eventually flatten out. When the flattened edge seemed about the size of a finger. the flattening process would end and a bayonet was used to drill out the center---voila! a silver ring. The process took weeks but there wasn't much else to do except play Hearts to while away the time.
We were finally issued plastic guns for combat. We couldn't believe that something like this would be our friend and weapon!.After learning assembly and disassembly we were taught how to shoot the thing. The sergeant would line us up at the deck rail and tell us to proceed. When we asked what the target was we were told "It's the ocean-think you can hit it?"