JACKPOT! Then I Was Robbed!

Sometimes when you play a slot machine you can actually win! Most times, they just slowly take your money not unlike the process of boiling a frog. Very slowly over time the water , or in this case the slot machine, slowly warms (takes your money) up until the frog is now dinner (you are now broke).

After graduating Boot Camp and completing all of my training, I was assigned to my first Fleet Command, the VS-30 Diamond Cutters.  They were stationed at Cecil Field FL, but when I got there to check in, they had left for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea.  The Navy shipped me and a few others who had checked in recently, to Philadelphia to catch a flight overseas to Rota Spain.

A Great Man

Back when I first joined the Navy, my uncle Richard gave me some great and useful advice.  My uncle Richard was a great man and I always respected him.  He could fix anything and was one of my childhood heroes.  We always liked going to his house in Greenwood Nebraska.  I have many fond memories of those visits.  Uncle Richard was a veteran of the Air Force and served during the Korean War.  The advice he told me was to take a $20 bill and fold it up small and “hide” it somewhere in my wallet where it wouldn’t be easily noticed.  I took his advice and it helped immensely after I got robbed.

Welcome to Rota Spain

When we got to Rota, we were told it would be a few days before we would fly out to the ship, so they put us in an open bay barracks and gave us a chow pass.  We could sleep and eat for free, but it wasn’t luxury living.  Open bay barracks have zero privacy and everything is out in the open.  I was a trusting young man so I wasn’t too concerned.  After we got settled in the barracks, we all went to the enlisted club.  The club was where most young sailors hung out because it had cheap drinks and there wasn’t anything else to do.  They also had slot machines there!

The VERY FIRST time I ever played a slot machine was in the club at Rota.  I changed two dollar bills for a roll of nickels and waited for a machine to open up.  After about 5 minutes I found one open and sat down.  I am NOT kidding when I tell you this; the very first nickel played in my very first slot machine gave a 777 JACKPOT!!!  I won $20!  Taking $10 of that, I put it in my wallet vowing to stop playing if I had to open my wallet again for the evening. 

After playing slots for a while and drinking for a while, I headed back to the barracks.  I don’t remember exactly how much I had in my wallet, but it was not very much more than the $10 I had stashed in there.  There might have been maybe $35 or $40 total, not counting the hidden bill which I had forgotten about.

I Was ROBBED!

Admittedly, I was not very sober when I got back to the barracks.  I undressed and just shoved all my clothes under my bunk and fell fast asleep.  When I woke up in the morning the first thing I noticed was that my pants were out on the floor and my wallet was laying on top.  When I checked, I found all my money gone.  Now I had zero money to get me thru the next 4 or 5 days until we flew out to the ship.  I was pretty pissed off, but realized I had no one but myself to blame.  I should have stuffed all my clothes in my seabag and locked it.

Fortunately, I remember uncle Richard’s sage advice and searched for my hidden treasure.  Sure enough there it was tucked away where the thief did not see it.  Now I at least had enough to buy a paperback and a soda to pass the time away.  Never again did I trust a shipmate in the barracks or berthing area.  Everything got locked up, every time.