Mike M. was a Persian Farsi linguist, also one generation of linguists ahead of me. He was the person who trained me at sea. Mike had a twin brother named Mitch. Mitch was a Serbo-Croatian linguist, who was involved during the break up of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian Crises. (Details unknown, probably classified.)
Mike was a great fellow. He had no olfactory glands. This means that he couldn't smell. Unfortunately, he also had the worst gas of any person I've ever met. We would all be standing around and suddenly scatter. "Mike! What the..?" Mike would say, "What!?! What!?!" Ugh!
During Operation Earnest Will, we were endeavoring to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz. They tried to do so by mining the Strait. Of course, the Iranians denied this. One day, however, we caught them red handed. The ship "Iran Ajr" was mining the Strait. It failed to comply with our orders to stand to, so our helicopters opened fire. Five Iranian sailors were killed. Our ships detained the Iran Ajr and prepared to board her. Mike was enlisted (as was I). Enlisted persons can't interrogate officers. Therefore, Mike was dressed in a lieutenants uniform. He boarded a small boarding craft and stood there, erect, with his arms crossed. Navy Seals climbed aboard all around him crouched down, weapons in their hands at the ready. Two different worlds colliding. Paperwork linguists and warrior seals. As the boarding craft took off, Mike was knocked off his feet. He decided to crouch down as well. He did board the Iran Ajr along with the Seals and in old versions of Janes Fighting Ships, his photograph could be seen as he stood on the deck. He collected a number of Items from the Iran Ajr for the USN. I have in my possession the Captains Farsi to English dictionary that Mike apparently loaned to me.for a very, very long time.
En route on one tour to the Persian Gulf, Mike, Scott C. and I were traveling by bus at night from Manila, Phillippines to Clark Air Base, Phillipines. (Clark was later destroyed by the explosion of Mt. Penatubo.) We were taking a C-141 from Clark to Diego Garcia (Di-Gar) in the Indian Ocean on our way to the Midway Battle Group in the North Arabian Sea. Manila is a very colorful city. Lots of lights and bright paint. The bus we were riding on was like a colorful school bus. Only a couple of other people were on the bus. I was sitting on one side of the aisle, Mike and Scott on the other. Our seats were right over the wheel wells. The roads were wet from recent rains. Mike was sitting closest to me. As we talked and laughed a huge geiser of water erupted from between Mikes feet, sprung 4 or 5 feet in the air above his head, formed a mushroom top and splashed down right on top of Mike! He sat there, mouth open, soaked from head to toe! It must have been 30 gallons of water, at least. There was a hole in the floor board and we hit a pot hole just right to send the geiser into the bus. Neither Scott nor I got hit with a single drop. Life is full of unexpected adventures. And Hilarity. Mike laughed about it, too. He really was a great guy.
One of the explosions of Mt. Penatubo
Di-Gar seen from the Air. I saw this very many times en route the Persian Gulf (or returning)
Di-Gar is really a beautiful Island. Hot though. And nothing to do except work and exercise.
Iran Air with the US Boarding Craft alongside
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