Dear Tula:

I think that I will have to tell you the best gag I heard this week and that happened in a Tactics Class . . . GORDON McDONOUGH was a bit puzzled as to definitions of ship manenvers and asked the question of the instructor, "Does the guide of ships in a line of bearing always bear to the right just like we do out in the Yard?" . . . (Ed. note: we hope not) . . . could a ship ever get in and out of those trees like we do?

We now have our exercise for the most part out in the not afternoon sun in the Yard and it seems that FRANK REARDON will work harder bending over trying his shoelace in the middle of an exercise and that it would be easier to do the exercise.

Those khaki shorts worn by WARREN BARTHG must have been made for a midget and if you knew the size of WARREN you'd wonder how he ever got into them and much less bend over . . . I thought I'd spilt when he did the jumping Jack routine. . . he almost did, too.

The baseball games in Charlie's league seem to have some ardent rooters in the person of YEO LEARY and FRED CHEW . . . not to mention the Cadillac convertible and Dorrie.

I was over at Phillips Brooks House the other night and I heard some music emanating from the third deck so I investigated. . . I found a real jive session in progress and learned that they were rehearsing for a Record Hop on July 14 . . . FRANK DAVIS, JAMES OLIVER, F. GLENETT and M. LYSING will give out to all the solid senders instead of the usual wax discs. . . that should be very good between 9 and 10 P.M.

I think that I'll tell you about our Smoker . . . you might like some of the stuff we did . . . Paced by "Mrs." TRAMMELL O. (All I do is knit!) SMITH, a slightly swollen matron-about-town, a Navy Wives Club such as no Navy wife has ever seen headlined the skit. . . A bevy of hairy, knobby-kneed "girls" which played bridge, guzzled beer and madly chased anything remotely resembling a husband was composed of men from Section B.

P.S. I got my one shirt back . . . this time it's blue.