I May Be a Mechanic but I Can't Fix Stupid Travel Mug With Handle

The obsession began over seven years ago.  In 2006, I began at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum as a wide-eyed intern, ready to take on the new and fascinating world of naval history.  I thought the coffee mess at work was reserved for staff and volunteers only.  I did non feel comfortable partaking in the delicious mash until somebody told me I could.  When I finally got the dark-green lite, I happily brought my coffee mug in the next twenty-four hours, eager to drink from the well all working form souls get to each morning.

This was my kickoff feel with "Navy coffee."  Information technology was hot and potent.  Very strong.  The thickness of it closely resembled crude oil.  It tasted both wonderful and terrible at the same time.  Your mind can trick you into believing anything.  When a supreme pot of joe is brewed, many of the volunteers would phone call it "Betoken Bridge Coffee," recalling the nostalgia of long nights and many cups consumed.

Later that first morn of java, I went to the break room to wash my cup and let it dry for the next day'southward angry set up.  As I done out my cup, I felt the sting of glaring optics from behind my back.  I'thousand sure whoever it was, they could sense my hesitation.  I turned around to see GMC Dana Martin, the museum'south agile duty OIC.  He had a puzzled, concerned look on his face.  Chief Martin was grizzled and salty.  He was by far 1 of the saltiest sailors I accept always met.  He grabbled my arm washing the cup.  My hesitation grew to fearfulness.  He leaned in close and told me to "never wash it over again," staring back down at my loving cup and back to me.  I looked at him, puzzled with fascination and disbelief.  Although I drink my java black, my mind struggled to find reason in the exercise.

"I don't sympathize," I told him.  "I need to clean my cup."  I was only doing what I was taught.  Bills should be paid on time.  Five minutes early is five minutes belatedly.  Coffee mugs should be washed out after use.  Simple, right? Wrong.  I held my  breath and constitute out but how wrong I actually was.

He leaned in once more, this time more relaxed (and less confrontational).  "I know you are merely starting out here, only I desire to let yous in on a little secret."  He was about whispering.  "If yous intend to stay here at the museum, you can impress the Navy guys with your mug."  He went on to explicate to me the significance of an unwashed or "seasoned" coffee mug, particularly in the Navy Chief community.  "And keep it every bit tarry blackness as possible," he added.  "Sometimes it's the simply fashion you tin can drink this swill.  Just you will abound to love it and depend on the sense of taste."  I would never recall I would believe him.  Boy, was I wrong.

Quondam coffee in a cup signifies seniority and stature in the military, particularly on deployment.  As one blogger noted, "You may not be able to embrace your loved ones while you are gone, but at least you can still taste the same coffee y'all drank the day y'all left."

To many in the armed forces, this is cipher new.  Ask everyone who served or is currently serving in the war machine, and they volition likely give yous a story nearly an experience involving the practice of "seasoning" their cup.  Navy Chiefs, yet, are considered by many to be the most Spartan of stalwarts to the unwashed coffee mug.  I spoke to some retired CPOs who counted four or five deployments on a single unwashed cup. The August 1949 edition of All Hands Magazine declared that coffee was the "Lifeblood of the U.Southward. Navy."  The commodity goes on to hash out why many sailors have their coffee and then seriously.  The article opens with this paragraph:

The 1945 Cookbook of the U.s. Navy lists several reasons why a clean mug and pot of java is essential to a flavorful experience.  All parts of the coffee mess had to be "scrupulously clean," according to the melt book.  Sailors today might read those guidelines and laugh at the rules and regulations.

Several recent manufactures about the practice surfaced on the cyberspace on message boards and military news blogs.  I blogger from the Military Times (Broadside Weblog) wrote about it this past August.  "At that place are just a few things you need to know about Navy coffee, and nearly of it involves the cup,"  the blogger writes.  "You practise not launder a Navy coffee cup. Ever."

I took Principal Martin'southward advice, but not at first.  For the offset few weeks following our confrontation, I washed my cup out after he left for the mean solar day.  But I got lazy after a while.  I starting noticing nighttime brownish rings within my loving cup.  My mug started to look like the within of a tree, and I started to like information technology.  The mug was white, so it was like shooting fish in a barrel to measure my progress.

The rings grew larger and darker until the entire inside was jet back.  Although I was never in the military, I felt a swelling of pride at my Frankenstein creation.  Unfortunately, that mug did not survive.  My latest and greatest cosmos came about in 2009.  It has not been done or cleaned since its purchase.  I don't know if my peers understand it.  My wife surely doesn't.  I have a similar mug at home that she avoids looking at, and, on rare occasions, volition make clean when I am non looking.

Here is my (meager) contribution to this fine naval tradition.  I warn you, if yous are unfamiliar with the practice, you might exist shocked.  Behold: My four year "seasoned" mug:

Do you have a similar story or an paradigm of your mug?  Show it and share it hither or email them to meng@navyhistory.org.

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