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Re: NAVFAC Cape Hatteras Memories

Hey.

I was stationed at Hatteras from August, 1978 until March, 1982. It was the last of 3 NAVFACs for me.

I have been back to the island several times since then, last time in 2010 I think.

Here is a story that some may remember.

Behind the mess hall was a pond. More a lake really but it was called a pond. It went all the way over to lighthouse road. Back then all the fresh water ponds had bass in them. In fact one of the state record bass back in the day came from a pond down by the laundry mat. The bass all disappeared back in the 1989 hurricane/tornado if I am told correctly. Not sure why. Anyway, I digress.

I had only been there a couple of days. We were at dinner and one of the cooks came in from a break and stated very loudly, there's an alligator in the pond. Everybody sort of laughed and said, "yeah right" and continued eating. The guy who was claiming to have seen the alligator was apparently a known prankster so most everybody just ignored him and didn't think much of it.

Several days later, other people started reporting gator sightings in the pond.

Sure enough, there was a big alligator in the pond. If I remember right, and that is quite iffy these days, he was at 12 feet long. The number I am remembering is 16 but I am not sure. Point is, it was not a little 6 or 8 foot alligator, this was a real alligator.

Out in the pond, right behind the mess hall, maybe 75 feet out, there was a little sand island and that is where he took to hanging out during the day. For a while, people would go and feed him scraps from dinner but eventually it seemed to sink in that that was probably not a great idea and pretty soon the alligator just became a normal thing to have there.

I used to fish that pond a lot and I would be down behind the mess hall and would wade out in the water a bit while casting. As soon as I would enter the water he would come off of his island and swim over to about 25 feet or so in front of me and just sit there watching, just his eyes and snout showing. That kind of spoiled the fishing of course but it was interesting to see what he did.

Eventually the game wardens came around and captured him and moved him to a more appropriate location. The word passed aorund was they said that he had probably been run out of his home area or his old water hole had dried out and he swam up the islands looking for another place, found the pond full of bass and said "hey, this looks like home" and settled in.

So, that is my story about the Hatteras Alligator for you.


Re: NAVFAC Cape Hatteras Memories

Ha, that's awesome! Thanks for the story!

Re: NAVFAC Cape Hatteras Memories

And that folks is a true story. I was there '77-'79 and witnessed that dude myself. Contained my fishing to the beach LOL

Re: NAVFAC Cape Hatteras Memories

Like John (and probably on his crew when he was a chief at COSL and I a OTA1 fresh back from Japan) I went to hatteras on an ORI....so, I had been to Iceland, Newfoundland, 3 years in Japan..went back to COSL and worked the ORI at hatteras...have to say I was underwhelmed...BUT...the BBQ we had during and after the drill was great!! Cape Hatteras was much the same....but all good times....

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