Ahoy Shipmates!

Continuing on with your Naval education we bring you another installment of MSW’s Navy Word of the Day.

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You could always tell when payday was getting close at Ft. Polk, LA. The weekend before payday, the Little Ceaser's delivery trucks would show up at the barracks, the weekend after payday the Pizza Hut delivery trucks would show up!

We had the option of being paid once a month or twice a month.

Jim

When I was in we were still getting paid in cash, make out a pay chit, stand in line, one arm behind your back, pay chit in the out stretched hand, side stepping along the dispersing table with armed guards at both ends. (And Yes lots of CASH stacked on the tables!) Present pay chit, they would check your ID card and your chit got stamped, side step, present pay chit again, chit got taken, ID card went into breast pocket, side step again , you got your bills, bills went into breast pocket, side step again, got your coins, all one handed. The chit got slid along the table with each side step, at the last side step, you were allowed to remove your arm from behind your back. (all that for $27.50 a payday!)
You filled out how much cash you wanted from your pay, the rest stayed on the books.
The Eagle "C------" on the 1st and 15th without fail, in port or at sea. By the time I hit my last ship, we had changed over to the check system, but again it was basically the same routine cashing the check, except now instead of the silly chits, and silly side stepping it was stand in a long line leading to the forward mess deck, and a rather simple set up of tables with again the armed guards, and a row of dispersing officers cashing the checks. (We would decide before the checks were issued how much we wanted to leave on the books each payday, and could change it when needed by visiting dispersing, again using a chit to change the amount held back, or sent home- being single and cheap, I did the 50% 50% routine after I made E-4) Eventually they built an actual bank type dispersing office on the ship, and kept order by dispersing the checks by divisions and cashing them by either divisions or work spaces depending on size, not by names.
How they (the dispersing clerks) ever kept their sanity on pay days always amazed me. After they built the little bank type office, it became much more sane, as they had more or less normal banking hours for you to cash your check after payday if you didn't need the money.

Direct deposit seems like a much more intelligent and civilized way to do it these days.