I was on JFK in ‘74-’76 and the food wasn’t any better. She was fairly new then but even then maintenance was deferred. Just slap some paint on it and it will go away.
Yeah, back in Carter’s Navy, there wasn’t diddly squat for equipment, maintenance or troops and you didn’t want ANYTHING to look too good or some Sandcrab would haul it off for a Head Start School playtoy.
I was in a Reserve unit that had a P-2V (corroded main spars) that we’d just about spitshined. Except for any more than taxi-around-the-ramp-at-minimum-speed-only, absolutely everything in that bird was as close to 4.0 as we could make it, and every shop in the squadron was bustin’ it to get 4.1.
Got the orders to strip it and ship it (No Sh**) to a Head Start School, and I think that Squadron dropped fifteen percent of its sailors the first month.
Don’t know about after that, ‘cause I was outta there a couple of weeks later.