Longtime lurker, first time poster. First off, I want to thank the Mods for the recent post welcoming those of us who never served to submit stories. Thank you for this community, and thank you to everyone who is serving, has served, or is going to serve in the military.

My family tended to the sea, rather than the land, for their service. My dad's father was in the Merchant Marine, my dad was in the Navy, my oldest brother was a Chaplain in the Naval Reserve and served with the Marines and Coast Guard, and his oldest son was a reservist in the Sea Bees. I would like to share some of their stories.

My dad served in WWII on the USS Bradford (DD 545), a Fletcher-class destroyer, in the Pacific theater. He was a SONAR operator, listening for subs. This is one of the (very) few stories he ever told about his time on the Bradford.

When the smoking lamp was lit, he and a couple of buddies would gather on deck and head over to where they could safely light their cigarettes. The standard way to light a cigarette was to use a match, shake the match until the flame was gone, then flick it over the side of the ship.

One time, had put into a port in Australia to join up with a Task Force. They had a week or two of R&R. While they were there, a big load of mail caught up with them. One of my dad's friends had celebrated some event, like an anniversary or a birthday, something like that. His girl back in the States sent him a brand new, brass Zippo lighter, engraved with his name and the date.

They pulled out of port and started sailing, joining up with the other ships in the Task Force. Eventually, they cleared the coast of Australia, and the smoking lamp was lit.

Dad and his buddies walked out to their normal smoking spot, and his buddy pulled out the lighter and showed it around. Everyone congratulated him and told him his girl was great.

He shook out a cigarette and put it to his lips, then flicked the lighter open and lit the cigarette. He took a deep drag.

He then shook the lighter out, and, out of habit, chucked it into the ocean, like he had done hundreds of matches before.