Thursday, July 25, 2013

Visit from the COB

In May, I wrote about John being inducted into the Holland Club. And the CRAZY weekend I spent with him and his old submarine buddies, Pat McGovern and Joseph O'Hara...

The week after we were with him in Connecticut -- Joseph got in his Prius and started a two month cross-country odyssey that would take him to Alaska and back. Along the way, he drove his car onto a ferry in Alaska and slept on the deck for five nights, ending up in Bellingham, Washington...Joseph met people from all over the world...and he has friends in every state of the Union...

Joseph O'Hara was the Chief Of The Boat on John's submarine. So they all call him the COB. The way I understand it -- the COB's job was to know what was going on with the enlisted men on the submarine. He knew if a guy was having problems at home, or maybe drinking too much. He was more or less the buffer between the sailors and the officers. And it is clear that men on that boat respected the COB, and they are all very fond of him. Here's a picture of John and the COB going for breakfast on his first day here (obviously, wearing their favorite shirts AGAIN...)


Joseph called on Monday night to say he'd be arriving the next night.  Of course, we wanted to impress him with our best Iowa food. And wouldn't you know it -- it was the FIRST DAY for local sweet corn!! DELICIOUS...
Oh, yeah -- I also made roasted new potatoes, deviled eggs, and a prime rib roast....



I had planned on making a boiled green bean dinner for my sister Ronda Tuesday night...but I called her that morning to say I was uninviting here because I had to go to Plan B.  We had company coming, and I was making a prime rib roast instead and the E team would be joining us -- she said, "wow, who's coming for dinner? The Pope?"...and I replied, "as close as I am ever going to get..."

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