The coffee was a revelation when I first encountered it. I was a crappy little airman apprentice at my Air Traffic Control A-School, at NAS Glynco, Georgia during the back half of '74. I was detailed to empty the ashtrays, single up the stray magazines, and take care of the thirty-cup coffee pot in the chief's lounge. The inside of the pot was thick with an oily black film. I cleaned it off and made a fresh pot. Then got reamed by a couple chiefs because that oil gave the coffee the flavor they wanted.

As for bug juice, I only heard of it from chiefs who'd come to the Keflavik and Brunswick (Maine) naval air stations from attack boats and boomers. They were there to offer advice to our P-3 Orion patrol squadrons. They talked about bug juice. They said they drank a lot of it, but they weren't very fond of it.