- Shelly Berry - SNVTC1978@AOL.COM - PN3 ELMORE'S TIGER - I was a USS Tarawa LHA-1 Navy Tiger in 2003.
All of the activities were awesome and many of the people were polite and courteous to me. I had a very good time and would recommend the Tiger program to all family members!
As a guest I got turned around REALLY easy those first few days and my sister kept ditching me! So one evening I got lost while looking for women's berthing.

With so many doors being blue in color, things started to look the same! For some reason my sister always took a short cut through Officers Country...I did not like that at all because she was not an officer! I still do not know why she refused to go the way everyone else did, but one night I tried to find my rack on my own without her.

Obviously I zigged when I should have zagged!
I heard several people off to one side that were laughing and carrying on. I walked toward the blue door that I thought was women's berthing and as my hand reached out to open the door, ALL of the voices had stopped. Just before I opened the door to enter, I saw a sign on it that said Marine Men's Berthing!
I pulled my hand back so fast when I realized I had gotten lost somewhere around Officer's Country and I turned quickly around to return to the nearest ladder.

Out of the corner of my eye, there they were!

Apparently I had passed their bathroom/showers and all I saw was skin, smiles and men! I quickly hotfooted it outta there and eventually found my way.

Needless to say I made a lot of friends on that float both Navy and Marine personnel!
I never cut through Officer's Country again and also no longer ate meals alone after that.

I will NEVER forget that as long as I live.

There were SO many other things that happened, too but that one got my heart racing! All of the personnel were returning from their first tour of duty in Iraq in 2003.

P.S.
I also ate VERY well...
One night we ate steak and crab legs :)
I LOVE the Navy :)~