Open mouth, insert foot

In honor of April Fool’s Day, I’ve been reflecting on situations that I or members of my family have recently found ourselves in. April first isn’t the only day of the year to be foolish as is evidenced with the Jarman family!

While my son was serving on a Coast Guard Cutter stationed in New England, the ship was sent on a mission to the Caribbean. He shared a sea story from this cruise with us at dinner recently. As the crew members were sailing off of the coast of Cape Hatteras, my son was on the ship’s bridge. He was joined there by the ship’s Operations Officer, Executive Officer, and Commanding Officer. Tim said that the sailing was a bit rough as weather conditions off the cape were somewhat ominous but the steady hands of the crew guided the ship safely through the storm

Once they had navigated through the rough waters and made it south to the Caribbean the cutter crew completed a successful mission at sea. About four weeks later, they set sail to return to their home port.

As they were just off the coast of Cape Hatteras on the return trip, the situation was identical to that of the original journey. Ominous weather conditions and the same gentlemen were standing watch on the bridge-my son, operations, executive officer, and commander. Noticing these similar conditions, my son decided to break the silence in the room and comment on the situation.

“I guess you could say that this is a real ménage à trois,” he said smiling. His commanding officers apparently looked at him questioningly, so he decided to clarify his statement. It was obvious to him that they did not know their French. “You know, when something happens and it feels like you’ve been there before.”

After a few minutes-I suppose they were too stunned to speak-the operations officer said to my son, “We think you mean a déjà vu.” Tim said that the ship has a log book to keep record of events that occur on board during missions. He’s certain that this event was recorded in the ship’s log book.

I suppose I’m proud of my son for sharing the story. I’m not sure many other young people would! And I am also eternally grateful that he did not tell those men that his mother teaches French!

Sometimes if we speak before we think, we wind up in rather foolish situations. Lesson learned for my son was to check for accuracy before speaking!