News From Fort Schuyler

September 13, 1999 - Volume 3, No. 41

TOILETS ON THE SOLENT - "My all-time favorite GEORGE RISER story is from my Mug Cruise, in 1961," writes MIKE QUINTO, Class of 1964. "From Southampton, there were three different groups taking overnight tours of London. I, along with classmate DAVID CHRISTIANSEN and the rest of our group, were on the pier for personnel inspection by the Officer of the Deck - Mr. Riser."

"Now something Dave knew from the stories told by the group that came back from the first tour group was that British toilet paper was ... stiff, to put it gently. It wasn't quite SaranWrap, but you get the picture. Since Dave was much smarter than the average "Bear," he packed a roll of good old US toilet paper in his AWOL bag for the trip to London."

"Unfortunately, the zipper on Dave's AWOL bag was broken. To make matters worse, the roll of toilet paper had been packed last. Yep, Mr. Riser spotted the toilet paper and went into orbit. He yanked the roll out of Dave's bag and asked, in a loud and demanding tone, ‘WHAT'S THIS ? ? ?'" "Dave quietly - Dave was always quiet - replied, ‘Why, Mr. Riser, I believe that's toilet paper.' Bad answer. Mr. Riser again did his imitation of a nuclear depth charge, throwing the toilet paper down. All of us lost control as the toilet paper bounced down the pier, leaving a wide, white strip as it did. We boarded the bus to swearing and screaming as only George Riser could perform it.

‘Too long to be a great story, but I can't tell you how many times I've laughed over it in the 38 years since it happened."

MORRO CASTLE MOVIE - "It was ‘Day of Disaster: The MORRO CASTLE,'" writes JOHN O'SULLIVAN, Class of 1984. "The most notable actor in it was John Goodman as the radio operator, whom the film suggested had started the fire. PETE AMOROSO [Class of 1985] had the only speaking part for the Domers, playing the guy who discovers the fire, after which he gets on the horn and says ‘Bridge.' ALLISON ROSS [Class of 1984] was seen in a few scenes as a passenger, and I spotted TOM MACKIE [Class of 1983] and TOM MUNSTER [Class of 1983] as crewmen.

The filming was part of Schuyler lore by the time ROBERT BLOCHLINGER, Class 1986, arrived on campus for indoctrination. "I remember the movie as well - some of the Cadets in the movie were IDOs for our class ....so they were '84. If memory serves me (and it's the right movie) we joked with one of the IDOs because he had a line "Fire in the bosun's locker."

FILMING AT THE FORT - The filming "Day of Disaster" continues a long tradition of movie-making at Schuyler. In the Twenties, the picturesque ruins of Fort Schuyler were often visited by film-makers. For example, the Fort apparently did duty as both a castle and convent in the "lost" Gloria Swanson silent drama, "Her Love Story." A review in the October 7, 1924 NY Times noted that "...the scenes in many instances are really beautiful. There are the great baronial halls with bare, stone walls, a charming convent scene, and glimpses of impressive rooms and structures."

GOD AT SCHUYLER - The "Good Old Days" are the subject of a long, ruminative note from TERRI THOMPSON, Class of 1965, reacting to ERIK JOHSON's comment about Friday inspections in the last issue. Terri begins: "My Maritime roommate, BRIAN SKEELS, and I just spent a week trout fishing in south western Colorado, camping out at 8200 ft. elevation and had a chance to catch up on each others lives and to reminisce about our Fort Schuyler days."

Terri then describes cadet life during his time at Schuyler. These six paragraphs include references to Saturday classes, no-cut policy, lack of recreational facilities, living aboard ship for two years while dorms were built, restrictions on off-campus liberty, ban on civilian clothes, appliances and room decorations.

In the fourth paragraph he asks: "I wonder if Mugs still have to walk square corners for a year and carry matches (to light an upper class man cigarette on command) or carry a women's nylon stocking balled up in our sock so we could use it to shine upper classmen's shoes whey they wanted it ? Are only the First Class allowed to walk through the center side walk of the Pentagon"? Do Mugs still have to memorize the "Sally Port Saying" (which I think I can still do to this day- " But men and officers must obey, for obedience to orders, instant and unhesitating, - - and so on) ? I wonder if any other cadet since LOUIS "Lou-Lou" KESSELMAN , Class of 1965 has made it through Schuyler with his cherry (no demerits) ?"

Terri concludes: "I got a great education and I don't know if I would have personally made it through college if I did not have at least some of this discipline. Our class had to stick together if we were going to make it through four years. I know everything since Schuyler has been a ‘piece of cake' in comparison. Whenever something got tough during the past 34 years since I graduated, I said to myself, 'If I made it through Schuyler, I can make it through this.' I bet many others feel the same way."