Farewell Gifts

So toward the end of my LAST sea duty tour, the new Star Trek movie was coming out in the theaters, and I was pretty excited to go see it.  I convinced the XO to let us make it a wardroom event, but he said only on one condition.

I had to do whatever he said to do when we were at the movie theater.

Uh oh.

He said it was part of my farewell gift.

Uh oh.  (Farewell gifts for submarine wardrooms are typically embarassing gag gifts.)

He said he checked it out with the Chop, and the Chop said it would be "fine."

Uh oh.  Based on Chop's taste in music and his propensity to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, I'm not sure about his judgement when it comes to off-duty activities.

I agreed though, and off to the movie theater we went for a wardroom viewing of Star Trek. 

I was expecting the worst.  I thought for sure it would be something terribly embarrassing.  The XO walked into the movie theater carrying a small box under his arm.  I thought for sure they were going to make me wear a Star Wars storm trooper helmet or wave a light saber around during the movie or something like that. 

Much to my surprise, it wasn't anywhere NEAR as bad as I thought it would be.  The XO pulled out a yellow Star Trek jersey just like James T. Kirk wears in the movie.  Cue the Monty Python sound bite:

THAT'S EASY!

You want me to wear a Star Trek jersey in the middle of a Star Trek movie with a bunch of other Trekkies?  That's not embarrassing at all.  I fit right in with the rest of the crowd!