The Bad Rap: The Beginning of the End

Even with the success of their first single, outside pressures began to exert themselves on the fledgling super group.

The demands of the job were first and foremost. The command moved to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where the ship’s construction was finished before it set sail for Boston, Massachusetts, and commissioning on Sept. 20, 1986.

Commissioning week was a thing unto itself, from a ship trip to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox take on the Milwaukee Brewers to a 21-gun salute causing Sen. Ted Kennedy to hit the deck just before his departure from the ship. “Those were for you, Senator,” he was reassured.

The next three and a half years were a whirlwind: stationing in San Diego, California, escorting tankers in the Persian Gulf during a 1987 WestPac deployment and changing homeports to Yokosuka, Japan, in 1988.

Davis and Vanderpoel working on lyrics 

The group continued to create when possible, but different duty days and opposing shifts underway limited music-making.

Toward the end, Davis would turn his attention to marriage and children; Vanderpoel achieved success as an Air Intercept Controller and Rouch maintained his close-up relationship with dirty deck drains.

By 1990, the trio had decided to leave the Navy and go their separate ways and there’s no telling how many creations were lost in the transition to civilian life. With his exceptional recall, Davis was able to write down the group’s last smash hit, one that kept the Combat Information Center (CIC) hopping.

 My name’s Chillin’ Chuck we have a rap for you

We’re up in CIC where all the lights are blue

There’s a couple other guys who will track with me

We do this kind of track’n at the DDRT

We’ve got S.R. Fresh on the track’n pad

He’s the No. 1 tracker, he’s the best to be had

 

Jammin’ Jimmy V.P.’s in the place to be

To do a little track’n with me and Scotteeee

(chicka, chicka, , cha, cha, cha, cha, chicka)

 

We’re track’n a sub and it’s really kind of funny

Cause the submarine we’re track’n is the USS Tunney

The USS Tunney let me tell you all about ‘em

When the Tunney goes down we call it a da, da, da, da, datum, datum

Da, da, da, da, datum