SwiftVets.com

[ASPB]

A Gedunk bar or "geedunk bar" is the canteen or snack bar of a large vessel of the United States Navy. The term was popular during World War II. The gedunk bar was usually open for longer hours than the mess. The name is supposed to come from the "gee-dunk" sound the vending machines installed there would make, when operated.

The bar had all kinds of consumables, such as cigarettes and pop drinks and abundant quantites of fresh coffee. In the bigger ships such as heavy cruisers and escort carriers, or battleships and large carriers, the gedunk bar also had several flavors of hard and soft ice cream, made right onboard.

Several museum ships such as the USS Salem (CA-139) have recreated or restored gedunk bars, complete with examples of period dry goods.

Scuttlebutt: Drinking fountain or rumor. Origin:

The origin of the word "scuttlebutt," which is nautical parlance for a rumor, comes from a combination of "scuttle" — to make a hole in the ship's hull and thereby causing her to sink —- and "butt" — a cask or hogshead used in the days of wooden ships to hold drinking water. The cask from which the ship's crew took their drinking water — like a water fountain — was the "scuttlebutt". Even in today's Navy a drinking fountain is referred to as such. But, since the crew used to congregate around the "scuttlebutt", that is where the rumors about the ship or voyage would begin. Thus, then and now, rumors are talk from the "scuttlebutt" or just "scuttlebutt".

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

The geedunk is a place for non-topical posts.

Maybe what you have is news but it's really not news that relates to Swifts.

Maybe you have an election story or poll - if it's not related to Swifts or POW's, it probably belongs here.

Maybe you have a cartoon or funny picture or a sea story. This is where it belongs.

It's not an "anything-goes" or free-for-all kind of forum, though. Some jokes, comics and graphics are fine - let's watch that line, though.

Keep it clean, keep it positive and upbeat.

Thanks for helping us keep the place organized and representative of the courageous organization that founded this movement and this site, even in your humorous writings.

Please keep their image foremost in your mind when you post.

Y'all do great 99.9% of the time and it's much appreciated.

Moderator Team
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[lcu238]

Gedunk came b-4 vending machines . I could be wrong , I think it came from the China squadrons circa 20's and 30's .
They also adopted the dragons on your rolled up blues sleeves from the China sailors . Tailor mades etc , remenber the naval tailors outside the fleet gate in Norfolk ? Then sailors dressed sharp ,have you seen the whites and the way they where their white hats . My lord those old WW II
and 50 and 60's sailors would get chuckle .

[Jack Hetherton, jr]

Wasn't it in around 1962 that President Johnson issued the National Defense Medal? We called it deebunk medals because all you had to do was be in the Navy. The very first inspection after it was issued I got my butt chewed out for not having it on. I asked the skipper if it was a HERO medal. He didn't see any humor and never did my division officer. I ended having to paint the entire passage way in front of our working area, after regular hours. I learned a good lesson early on about not being a smart ass seaman. Jack, Navy feb 62/dec 69,,Vietnam 68-69, Cam Ranh Bay.
_________________
Jack L Hetherton jr

[Guest]

Gedunk (also Geedunk and Gedonk)
Gedunk refers to ice cream, candy, potato chips, and other snack foods, as well as to the place on a ship where these items are sold. The first known published usage of the term "gedunk" in a non-naval context is in a 1927 comic strip which refers to "gedunk [ice cream] sundaes." In 1931 it was mentioned in Leatherneck magazine; subsequent early naval usage incluses Robert Joseph Casey's Torpedo Junction: With the Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor to Midway (published in 1943); and Robert Olds' Helldiver Squadron: The Story of Carrier Bombing Squadron 17 with Task Force 58 (published in 1944).

Usage of the pejorative term "gedunk sailor" to refer to an inexperience sailor apparently dates to 1941, and is mentioned in Theodore C. Mason's Battleship Sailor, published in 1982.

The origin of the word gedunk is uncertain, though it has been suggested it derives from a Chinese word referring to a place of idleness, or a German word meaning to dunk bread in gravy or coffee.

Ice-maker and refrigerated compartments were first introduced on some U.S. Navy ships in 1893, and an ice-cream maker is reported on board USS Missouri (Battleship No. 11, later BB-11) as early as 1906.

Source of Information:

Davis, Martin. Traditions and Tales of the Navy. (Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 2001): 45.

Harrod, Frederick S. Manning the New Navy: The Development of a Modern Naval Enlisted Force, 1899-1940. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978): 148.

Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 1, A-G. (New York: Random House, 1994): 875.

[NortonPete]

I found rereading this interesting and informative.

[joessoft]

Locks become a geedunk historian..


lol..


The Truth will set you free...
http://eagles.soft-vision.com/node/161

[Wing Wiper]

Well, I guess I can start telling people that I'l a Rear Admiral now.
That took long enough, I was getting worried that I topped out at E4.