Tony,
Back then, which was about the same time John Paul Jones joined the navy, I worked at University of Maryland Hospital as a Chief Cardio-Pulmonary Technician. I ran the pump-oxygenator (Heart/Lung Machine) for open-heart and cardio-vascular surgery. I did this for both University of Maryland Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital, and trained at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. It was a high-stress job, and I was on call 24/7. I lasted 15 years, which is a long time in that business.
During the early 1960s I also managed to save enough money to purchase an old, well-built, 30-foot, cabin cruiser. On the transom of the boat was my wife's name in large, black letters, which could easily be seen from several hundred yards away. When the hospital called to determine my whereabouts, my loving wife told them "He's out fishing aboard his boat at the north end of the Dumping Grounds," a great location that held lots of stripers. It was a weekday and there were less than a dozen boats at that location, so the Coast Guard had no trouble at all finding me.
Unfortunately, only a single case of National Bohemian Beer was purchased, and the guys that fished with me regularly had no problem consuming a case of Natty-Bo in the blink of an eye. Tony, if you've ever owned a boat you would know these things. Now that I own a sailboat, which is a lot slower, and not something that is set up for fishing, it's mostly the ladies that want to go out on the water with me--not that this is a bad thing.
When you get around to writing the book, and eventually turn it into a movie, I WANT ROYALTIES!
BTW: Here's a photo of the new boat.
Cheers,
Gary