Dressed to kill
During a '75 cruise to Rio, where it was rumoured that the Sea Lords were trying to pursuade the Brazilians to buy our decrepit boat as a relacement for their even more decrepit vessel, we exercised with the Brazilian Navy. Other than the '77 Spithead Review, this was the greatest number of warships I ever saw in close proximity.
During one ADEX, a foul deck neccessitated one of our F4's diverting ashore to Bahia where it was to overnight with a minor snag. Funny thing that!
The boss asked me to pack a grip for Hungry Joe the Observer, a USN Exchange Officer, and also one of my cabin mates. (At that time all squadron members had nicknames from Catch 22). Hungry Joe by his own assessment was a snappy dresser in the Great Gatsby style, but by the assessment of others resembled an explosion in a theatrical costumiers.
Accordingly, I packed what I considered to be an ensemble in the worst possible taste. This included his white golf shoes, yellow full length socks, green tartan plus fours, blue and white striped shirt, purple bow tie and a royal blue suit jacket. This all went ashore with the ground party in an SAR chopper.
The following morning, HJ's F4 hooked on with the first recovery and out stepped a beaming HJ wearing this lot. According to the pilot, he had been delighted on receiving this combination and had worn it with considerable pride in the hotel.
We all had a good time in Rio, other than our Admiral (FOCAS) who never had a good time, but the ship remained unsold and was eventually scrapped in late '78.