[Fred Douglass]

...a very good way to show them that they're still MICE is to send an Iowa barreling past. I can state that the Iowas' wakes (albeit evidence of a tremendous waste of energy for you engineering types!) are simply BREATHTAKING.

We were slammin' south of Coooba in the USS Compton [DD705] and saw an Iowa (three-faceted bridge) speeding th'other direction, hull-down on the horizon. Aboot 20 minutes later, our bow slid out of a slight rise in the smooth sea-surface, over a 12-foot-deep chasm, and directly into a man-made tsunami. Blew the bronze covers off the hawse pipes and sent a couple of tons of spray up (and onto) the foredeck.

I was an Ensign (and therefore lower than whale poop to the old salts)---but I saw the black line of that wake coming and warned the hands who were goofing off on the forepeak (sun-tan time!) what was going to happen ("boarding sea", etc.) They all larfed. Well, after calling that "freak wave" I was Neptune himself! None of the deck-level crew saw the Iowa---just us on the bridge. I made the look-outs swear to silence!

Ar-ar-ar.