I had the privilege of listening to some sea stories from one of the few World War II Navy veterans still with us. He seemed as sharp as the 18 year old that he was in his stories... until he started saying things like "Sal said this..." and "Sal did that..." and "256 gets called out for..."
I finally had to hold up my hand and say "256?" with a confused look on my face. He says "sorry" and launches into this story:
Sal's name was Salvatore Alonzo Laurentini IV (I'm guessing at the spelling of the last name). That name was passed on for four generations because Sal's great-great-grandfather was clever enough to give his eldest son a name with initials that matched is nickname (Sal is short for Salvatore).
As you can imagine, this bit of heritage got pretty confusing at family reunions with three or four SALs at the table. So, before his friend was even born, the family started using Sal1, Sal2, and Sal3. The problem was that Alonzo Laurentini II was not about to initial papers using Roman Numerals because SALII sounded like a girl.
Somewhere along the line his friend and shipmate starting initialing watch logs with "256" instead of SAL4. As the story goes, Sal's high school math teacher starting calling him 256 because his initials, SAL4, looked like SAL to power of four (4x4x4x4)... which was really a pretty clever teaching tool (my conclusion).
Unfortunately, SAL5 or 3125 was not to be. His friend was killed during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and was buried at sea.
I finally had to hold up my hand and say "256?" with a confused look on my face. He says "sorry" and launches into this story:
Sal's name was Salvatore Alonzo Laurentini IV (I'm guessing at the spelling of the last name). That name was passed on for four generations because Sal's great-great-grandfather was clever enough to give his eldest son a name with initials that matched is nickname (Sal is short for Salvatore).
As you can imagine, this bit of heritage got pretty confusing at family reunions with three or four SALs at the table. So, before his friend was even born, the family started using Sal1, Sal2, and Sal3. The problem was that Alonzo Laurentini II was not about to initial papers using Roman Numerals because SALII sounded like a girl.
Somewhere along the line his friend and shipmate starting initialing watch logs with "256" instead of SAL4. As the story goes, Sal's high school math teacher starting calling him 256 because his initials, SAL4, looked like SAL to power of four (4x4x4x4)... which was really a pretty clever teaching tool (my conclusion).
Unfortunately, SAL5 or 3125 was not to be. His friend was killed during the Battle of Leyte Gulf and was buried at sea.
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