Shaun,
The picture was from LT Pete Martino who was one of Christian's instructors in San Diego when he went through as a crewman and rescue swimmer. Pete is the guy in khaki's in the picture.
The story. Definitely my favorite memory of being in the Navy. I remember that Christian told me he sent you an e-mail about it right after it happened. It was the time he got stuck in Indonesia when he lost his passport. I remember it like it was yesterday. The scene of walking into the police station to file the police report was like something out of a 'B' movie -- you know, where the ceiling fan only has one blade, there are no lights on, and the furniture is plain wood block furniture with no cushions or upholstery. And everything is brown. our tour guide - Marlon Brando - had to act as our interpreter. The cops were so back-woods that when they were typing the report, they had to go to the safe to pull out a sheet of carbon paper. since the immigration office was closed, we finished the tour and the guide took us to a hotel to spend the night. See, the Indonesians wouldn't let him on the ferry to get back to Singapore because they were afraid Singapore wouldn't let him in without a passport, and then he would be stuck on the ferry because Indonesia immigration wouldn't let him back in either.
I was a young LT, married with a kid, and had just bought a house a month before we deployed -- i had no money. Christian was an E-5 at the time, so we were both sweating paying for the extra night and all that might go with the adventure since we didn't know what would happen when we finally got into the immigration office -- were we going to have to fly to Jakarta to go to the embassy, were they going to arrest him, were we going to miss the ship leaving Singapore...all sorts of crazy thoughts. So that night, we decide to go back to the mall where he thought he had lost the passport. It was just down the street from the hotel, so we went out front to catch a taxi. of course, at night in that part of Indonesia, there are two kinds of taxis -- legal and illegal. The legal ones have the little things that you expect -- meters, windows, floors. The illegal ones -- well, they're a little more exciting. By the time we were ready to head out, it was getting dark, and the illegal ones had pretty much turned into rolling brothels. While we were standing by the side of the road, we were probably propositioned 10 times -- "American, American -- you want good time?" Of course, we politely said no and waited for a taxi that didn't offer a 'happy ending'. So when we finally got in, we realize that we only have 10,000 rupiah between the two of us (the exchange rate was 15,000 rupiah to the dollar at that time -- it's only 9,500 now). So we say to the cabbie and his buddy in the front seat "10,000. Only 10,000." From what we understood, they agreed. So we got in and went down to the mall. When we get there, he wants 15,000 and we end up arguing about it until Christian shoves him the money and we decide to just 'melt' into the crowd. two Americans, 6 feet tall, melting into the crowd in Indonesia is a pretty difficult thing to do. Fortunately, they didn't pursue. Ands then we realized that we had just screwed them out of about 33 cents. Could have pulled a dollar out and thrown it to them and they'd have been thrilled. But oh well, too late now.
So we're at the mall looking for his passport and decide to get dinner and do some souvenir shopping. We finish dinner, buy our little trinkets and can't find the passport, so we decide we'll just walk back to the hotel instead of dealing with another cabbie. Along the way, we are passing a bar and decide to check it out. Well, turns out that the illegal cabs aren't the only things that turn into brothels after sunset. So we turn around and walk out and continue back to the hotel to go to the lounge to drink our beers. That turned out pretty good -- we had two or three Japanese couples in the lounge singing karaoke, so they provided plenty of entertainment, and the beer was cold.
The next morning, we get ready to check out, with no idea how much it was going to cost. Christian was pretty appreciative of the fact that I had stayed behind with him, so he offered that he would pay for the whole thing. i told him to just put it on his card and I would get him some cash when we got back to the boat. So he goes to the counter to pay and comes back with this huge grin on his face. The night at the hotel -- which was like your typical marriott or Ramada, had cost something like $19. So we figured that the hotel, dinner, beer and souvenir shopping had cost a total of about $50 for both of us. After paying, he says to me "if i had known how cheap this was going to be, i would have drank more beer last night and enjoyed myself!"
The end was pretty uneventful. We got to the immigration office, they gave him paperwork as an affidavit of a lost passport that would let him leave Indonesia and that the Singapore authorities would accept for him to get back in over there, and we caught the next boat back. turns out, of course, that all Singapore requires for US servicemembers is a valid military ID. Who knew? He was pretty scared when we got back to the boat because the whole boat knew what had happened (the ship's lawyer had been on the tour with us and reported back to the amphib group commander and staff). Christian had to go to the embassy to report the loss of his passport and get a new one, and i think he had to do a lecture of some sort about being responsible while on liberty. The boss also threatened to withhold his application for Seaman to Admiral (she was joking, of course, but she wanted him to sweat a little because he was generally irreverent about getting into trouble because it just didn't happen to him. She was trying to make a point that he had almost caused an international incident). He ended up getting selected for the program about a month later.
all in all, not a crazy story of drunken stupidity or youthful indiscretions -- just a story that makes me smile. The enduring part of it, for me, is the image of the police station and the cop pulling the carbon paper out of the safe. And of course, the argument over 33 cents with the cabbie.
I am going to look for some more pictures, including ones from that deployment, and will forward what I can find to you.
thanks for reminding me of the story. makes me smile every time i think about it.
Jon
Picture of my grandfather Robert "Bob" Ganjian with my brother.
