0800 arrived, colors were sounded, the flag hoisted and the post was relieved by a new detail of Marines (while the guard was changed all the Marines passed where I was braced at ATTENTION, saw my foot wear and had a good snicker).  I saw the new duty officer meet briefly/privately with the old duty officer before he came over to me.  He looked me over and with a grim grin, said 'Sailor, you are out of uniform!'  Then he added, as it was past 0800...'You are AWOL too!'  He opined that, I should not be allowed onto the base unless I was in custody of the MP's...ending with, 'Just what do you think of that!'  I responded that I had arrived 15 minutes before 0800 and was standing ON the base already.  I was getting a little angry at this point, so I told him how it appeared to me that the real reason I wasn't already aboard my ship was that I was being detained so every Marine around could get a good laugh at my foot wear.  A few minutes later (after receiving a harsh verbal warning from him to go directly back to my ship and HE was definitely not interested in (my opinion ) I was released.  I went to the waiting taxi (I wish I could say I rushed to it, but it is impossible to hurry wearing those darn slippers) and off I went. 

At that time the USS Ernest G. Small was moored in a "nest" of four destroyers at a long pier.  The ships were moored two by two with my home being outboard, meaning I had to cross one other destroyer to get aboard her. 

When I arrived at the pier, all the ships' crews were standing to Morning Quarters (I figure around 1,000 men all-in-all).  Here I came, obviously late for Quarters, walking down the pier 'ker-slop...ker-slop...ker-slop' the sound echoing from my slippers with every step I took.  As I strode towards my home, I began to see ranks of sailors nudging each other, pointing at me, then down at my feet...as waves of laughter began traveling around all those ships. 

I arrived at the inboard destroyer and requested permission to cross over to my ship.  The OOD denied it, as...you guessed it...he pointed out 'You are out of uniform!'  I had to go over the whole sordid story again.  Finally, he relented and allowed me permission to "cross over."  I finally got to my ship, only to have to go through the whole 'You are out of uniform AND late' questioning routine all over again!  I mean, I had just gone through the same thing, not 30 feet away from the OOD on The Small (who witnessed the entire process with some interest) so, why do it all over again?  Oh well, I reckoned it wasn't a good time to point it out to him, so I told him all that had happened...one more time (I was getting pretty good at it by now).   

He ordered me to immediately report to Fox Division, which was standing (as I recall) at Quarters, on the 01 level forward, by mount 52.  I did and...got to explain why I was out of uniform and late to my Division Officer.  He didn't chew me out, indicated he understood, and agreed I had done the best I could under the circumstances.  At last, I thought, it had finally ended OK (although being laughed at by 1,000 men...more or less...is pretty bad for one's ego).  Then too, the one person who wasn't "Present or Accounted For' at Quarters that morning was me and now I was both!  The next thing to do was change my clothes, 'turn to' and just be thankful I'd made it home!!!