Dear Mom,

Well, here I am aboard Seaview. Not a bad gig for my Reserve time. She's more of a pleasure boat than a real sub. I can stretch out my legs and there's no 'hot-bunking'.

Don't get me wrong. They do everything the same way the Navy does, sort of, well, maybe. I mean, you 'sir' the officers, and get chewed out by the Chief if you don't work fast enough.

Anyway, in between watches I'm trying to keep up with my studies and I sure am kidded about trying to get a degree in art history and some of the guys are starting to call me 'prof'. It's all in good fun, so I just let them.

Here's some pictures I've done so far. I hope they don't come off the scotch tape, This first one is of the Captain near the periscope. I had to do this one from memory. I'm not usually in that part of the boat. Sometimes they let us take a peek out of the front porch now and then. That's the Observation Nose that Seaview's so famous for. One of the perks.

The other is of the top three officers aboard.That's the XO on the left, Lt. Cmdr. Morton,Captain Crane, and Admiral Nelson.(The crew calls them the 'Three Musketeers')

I don't do much of anything important, and spend most of my time scrubbing the deck, vents, and any other mundane chores. I guess it's 'cause I'm only one on Active Reserve statu and they can get away with saddling me with them. Oh well. It's only a two week stint.

The Skipper is probably the only man aboard who's actually encouraging my artwork. He even sat for me over some coffee. And does he ever guzzle it down. Has to have a real caffeine fix, that one.

Anyway, he actually suggested to the Admiral that I might do some art for the Institute's Visitor Center. Paid work. I'm not sure what the Admiral thought. Hard to read him. Nice enough though. We'll see.

Well, I gotta close, the mailbag's ready to go, and those chopper pilots are an impatient lot. I'll write again as soon as we get home, and fill you all in on my 'adventure'. Yeah, sure, some adventure. See you soon.

Love,

Tad

I don't remember now what the Skipper was laughing about but it was a nice break.