Life tended to be more casual in the old diesel submarines, especially when deployed and in tropical waters. Not only were beards permitted. they were actually encouraged to decrease the use of hard-to-come-by fresh water. The uniform of the day often amounted to shorts, a short sleeve shirt and submarine sandals. While stationed in BREAM (AGSS 243). during a deployment in the South China Sea, I was dressed accordingly when notified that my surfaced OOD watch was approaching with the weather on the bridge being warm with occasional showers. My beard in those days, while not flaming red, was rather reddish. I donned a rain slicker and proceeded to the conning tower to talk to the quartermaster of the watch about our position and intentions for the next four hours. The sharp young quartermaster looked at me in sandals, red beard and rain slicker and remarked, “Gee, LT Rees, you look like Jesus Christ going duck hunting!”
