Steve and I were shipmates (actually boatmates because we both served on the LCU-1481 the LCUs were called U boats) in Vietnam. We kept in touch after the service and I am happy to say that he and I were friends for 31 years. This is how I met Steve.

About 0845 a young sailor (he looked like he was only 15, a real baby-faced guy) in civvies (civilian clothes) came walking down the pier. He had on a yellow windbreaker, tan shorts, white tennis shoes, and a panama hat. As he got closer, I could see that there was a beer can and can opener on the front of the hat. He was smiling, almost laughing when he walked up to me and asked if we were the boat crew for LCU-1481. I said yes and he went into a long narrative about why he was late (something about helping one of the base officers find his daughter in town). Our OIC Carl asked him what his name was and he said Steve Nelting. Carl asked again, “Did you say Neltang?” Steve said to Carl, “Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz? Well when the Witch gets water thrown on her she says, ‘I’m melting, melting’ so just remember that and replace the M with N and you have Nelting.”

I got a closer look at his hat and it had a boldface card that read, In case of Emergency Open Beer. I started to laugh and Steve asked why I was laughing and I told him it was his hat. He got a big grin and said that he always kept a spare life preserving beer handy. We had a good laugh and talked for a little while longer. I found out that the real reason he was late was because he had spent the night on the beach with some of the Officer’s kids at a kegger. He said he always ran around with the teenagers on the base. Most of his friends were 14 to 16 years old. Steve was a month younger than me so he was only 18. He had a lot of stories about the fun he had been having, I never found out where he had been assigned before that day. I didn’t have a lot of friends up until then, so I was glad that he wasn’t one of those regular Navy guys who hated reservists.

Stephen J Nelting