News From Fort Schuyler

September 6, 1998 - Volume 2, No. 40

FISH STORY FOR ICHTHYOPHILE AND ICHTHYOPHOBE ALIKE - The note about dormitory regulations for pets in the last issue of NFFS brought an immediate response from DAN WINTERS, Class of 1986, who posted the following e-mail message on September 4.

"The subject of fish in the dorms is one close to my own heart. As a Second Classman in 1984-85, JOEY OWENS, Class of 1986, had two fish, an Oscar appropriately named "Oscar", and a Jack Dempsey "Jack". Both of them started out quite small, and in their initial stages of development, Jack occasionally kicked a little "tail" in the tank. Joey was faced with giving one of the fish up for adoption or else "Jack" was going to have to the tank all to himself anyway. (It proved to be quite entertaining for several of us to visit Joey's room over in the "New" dorms to watch the in tank fighting.... we were really bored sometimes...)"

"Anyway, I volunteered to take "Jack" off of Joey's hands and the two fish existed in separate dorms for the remainder of the year. During Summer Sea Term, I talked my girlfriend at the time into caring for "Jack" and his new tank-mate "Jake" over the summer and in my first class year room B-101 was feared by every Staff Duty Officer - in fact LCDR BOB OEHRLEIN once said that he was afraid to go into my room to see what would appear next. At one time my roommate, TIM ANDERSON, and I had a 30 gal, a 20 gal, 2 - 15 gal, and a 10 gal tank set up in there raising Jack and Jake, my own Oscars (Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid) many hundreds of feeder gold fish (By now the Oscars and Jack would go thru about 10 at a feeding,) several crayfish (appropriately named Rocky I, Rocky II, Rocky III, etc.) and a turtle named "Trigger".

"Every once in a while someone would escape from a tank and as long as we got them back in the water on time everything was okay. However, several of the crayfish didn't make it, so Tim took to posing them with pincers open in the window for a few days (while they aired out). Once thoroughly de-smelled, they make entertaining if not somewhat morbid display pieces in the room."

"Trigger became a great mystery and a nuisance when he disappeared. He had obviously expired much to the dismay of several of my dorm-mates, and for days his presence, while undiscovered did not go unnoticed. We searched high and low for poor Trigger, but alas, months later at graduation, his presence was still unknown."

"It was only in July 1997, a full year after graduation, as a Navy Ensign reporting to Virginia Beach and the USS FAIRFAX COUNTY that the mystery of "Trigger" was at last solved. I was checking out of the Budget Inn in Norfolk when he suddenly fell out of a small carry bag that I had that last year in school. Seems Trigger had crawled into the bag and gone to a final, deep and solemn sleep... So in the spirit of the many "Rocky" statuettes that we had back in B-101, I set the perfectly preserved "Trigger" on the top of the TV in the hotel room as a show piece for anyone following in my path."

"One final note. During "Primal Scream" week of the first semester of my first class year (Primal Scream was held every night at 2300 hrs during finals weeks) some as yet unidentified cadet dropped a fish tank from the 7th floor of the "E&F" Dorm. Admiral Miller decided at that time to ban all fish tanks on campus. Not knowing what to do with my numerous tanks, I drafted a letter to the Admiral explaining how soothing the sound of bubbles in the tanks were and how much having the fish as companions helped in dealing with the day-to-day rigors at the Dome. He agreed and decided to allow fish tanks once again, setting the limit at 30 gallons. Those of us with multiple tanks were allowed to keep them until the end of the year, but the next year, cadets were limited to one tank per year....."

"And that is the story of Oscar, Jack, Jake, Butch Cassidy, Sundance, the many Rockies, the Mysterious Trigger, and the Fish Tanks at Maritime College."