Hey Wombat. Had a ship mate on Endeavour we called "Fran the Gran". She was a tall ship junkie in her fifties, originally from Scotland living in OZ. Anyway, we got to talking on watch one time and I mentioned that I had visited Sidney during the late unpleasantness in Southeast Asia. She asked when. I told her, '68 and went on about what a good time I'd had and how friendly the girls were and how we had gone to the Motor Club in Sydney every night to, well, you know, soldiers on leave eh? She got this horrified look on her face
and asked me what my rank had been. When I told her I had been a buck sergeant at the time she almost feinted from relief and said. "Oh, I only dated officers."
Old Fran led an interesting life. Retired, she traveled the world crewing on tall ships. Last time I saw her she was passing through Honolulu on her way to join a ship in New York (IIRC) for a tall ship race across the Atlantic.