I’m sure some of our veterans will want to chime in, but who here has read a military log book? I recall being on 24 hour guard duty at a group headquarters and being bored out of my mind (an occupational hazard associated with guard duty) where I proceeded to read each and every entry of the several hundred page log book. 99% of its contents were the same phrases repeated over and over and over and over and over and over…again. “07:35 - went to chow hall for breakfast. Food was adequate quantity and quality” “10:22 - Sgt. Thompson requests key to map room.” “10:28 - Sgt Thompson returns key” “13:11 - Lt. Jones requests key to map room.” “13:24 - Lt Jones returns key.”
I had to pore over 100 pages of repetitive entries until coming across a mildly interesting entry that read something like: “21:05 - detected scent of smoke. Left Cpl Bellamy in charge of post to investigate. Dumpster in rear parking lot discovered on fire. Emergency Services contacted at 21:09.” “21:22 - Emergency Services arrives to extinguish fire.” “21:57- Emergency Services departs.”
Anyone seen any interesting log book entries?
I’ve was Navy in the latter half of the 80s. The Load Dispatches Log was for important things concerning power distribution and watch standers at the 8 switchboards. It was also a freeform journals usually written for humor. It was not that military by any means. My favorite was the account of the car accident that happened back in port.
One of our E6s got distracted by a girl in Imperial Beach walking by in a bikini and ended up rear ending the car in front. Thankfully it was the car of one of my friends, an E4.
Everything was settled very amiably as the driver of the front car said he was also distracted and understood.
None of the other stories have lasted with me.
Maybe it’s a difference between the cultures in the different branches, but I was in the USMC throughout much of the 1980’s and there’s no way anyone would have attempted to interject humor into an official log book - at least not without consequences. The thing that strikes me about the log book entries I saw is how they were utterly devoid of any emotion; good, bad or otherwise.
These log books may not have been all that official. They never left the division. When I was the Supply PO (for the division) for a while, I had to keep a very dry log of stuff but when full that logbook when to the CHENG’s office. The Load Dispatcher Logs accumulated in the bottom drawer of the Load Dispatchers Desk in DC Central.
Our Safety Shop Log was strictly entries. Equipment, Person, Division, Date Checked, Passed or Fail.
Back in 1988 when mrAru was doing the ER rotation for his EMS training, he stood midwatch. Apparently the tradition in the Navy is for the midnight log posting to be done in verse. He riffed on Drunken Sailor, all I can remember offhand right now was his report of the treatment of a sailor with a sucking chest wound - something like
What do you do with a sucking chest wound
What do you do with a sucking chest wound
What do you do with a sucking chest wound
Early in the morning
Dress it with petro gauze-O
Early in the morning
or something like that. I remember him singing it to me a couple times over the years …
I understand that there have been some very interesting log postings over the decades, apparently nuke school had some at prototype =)
I remember reading a WWII pilot’s logbook that had an entry that essentially recorded his first threesome. I wish I could remember the wording he used, it was quite funny.
Although, sometimes the flattest description of an event can be funny just for its utter detachment.
Maybe the most famous logbook ever …
Grace Hopper was troubleshooting the Mark II Aiken Relay computer in 1947 and found a moth keeping a mechanical switch from closing. Moth and notes went into the logbook. Said Logbook is now at the Smithsonian.
Better details in this article.
So maybe the Navy does take its log books a little less seriously than the other services. 