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My uncle Jack served in the late 60s on the aircraft carrier USS
Ranger, CVA-61, in the Tonkin Gulf off the east coast of Vietnam.
Having spent his youth with Ham radio, he became an electronics
technician.  He came aboard fresh from high school, Basic Training,
and the US Navy's radio repairman's school.

In the radio shop, as probably elsewhere on the ship, in the Navy, and
in military life in general, life is regulated by a strict hierarchy.
In small organizational units, where the hierarchy is rather flat, the
pecking order must be decided by some means other than stripe count.
In the Ranger's radio repair shop, the man with the least seniority
was assigned to arrive earlier in the morning to make the coffee, so
it would be ready by the time the rest of the crew arrived.

The first morning out of port, the chief petty officer was giving him
the shop tour, focusing closely on coffee-making procedures.

"Ya see kid, first ya put eight scoops of coffee in da basket, den ya
put da water in da pot, up to dat line.  Den ya put da basket in da
pot, put da lid on, and plug it inta da bulkhead.  Ya got dat, kid?"
"Yessir, got it."

Jack didn't drink coffee back then, and he still doesn't care much for
it.  And he didn't particularly like the idea of making the coffee for
the duration of the cruise, for everyone else to drink.  And he valued
those ten extra minutes in the rack as much as the next sailor,
perhaps even more.

So the next morning, Jack put eight scoops of coffee in the filter
basket.  The next morning, nine scoops.  The morning after that, ten
scoops.  And so on...

By the end of the week, the rest of the shop was convinced that Jack,
being incapable even of making a decent pot of coffee, was dumber than
the average tree stump.  They arrived at the consensus that the honor
of coffee detail should be removed from his list of responsibilities,
and given to someone more competent.  Jack just meekly hung his head
at the shame, said "yessir" appropriately, and enjoyed those extra ten
minutes of sleep for the rest of the cruise.

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