A US Navy cruiser anchored in Mississippi for a
week's shore leave. The first evening, the ship's Captain received the following
note from the wife of a very wealthy and influential plantation owner:
"Dear Captain, Thursday will be my daughter
Melinda's Debutante Ball.
I would like you to send four well-mannered,
handsome, unmarried officers in their formal dress uniforms to attend the
dance."
"They should arrive promptly at 8:00 PM prepared
for an evening of polite Southern conversation. They should be excellent
dancers, as they will be the escorts of lovely refined young ladies. One last
point: "No Jews please."
Sending a written message by his own yeoman, the
captain replied:
"Madam, thank you for your invitation. In order to
present the widest possible knowledge base for polite conversation, I am sending
four of my best and most prized officers."
"One is a lieutenant commander, and a graduate of
Annapolis with an additional Masters degree from MIT in fluid technologies and
ship design."
"The second is a Lieutenant, one of our helicopter
pilots, and a graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago , with a BS in
Aeronautical Engineering. His Masters Degree and PhD. In Aeronautical and
Mechanical Engineering are from Texas Tech University and he is
also an astronaut candidate."
"The third officer is also a lieutenant, with degrees in both
computer systems and information technology from SMU
and he is awaiting notification on his Doctoral
Dissertation from Cal Tech."
"Finally, the fourth officer, also a lieutenant
commander, is our ship's doctor, with an undergraduate
degree from the University of Georgia and his medical
degree is from the University of North Carolina . We
are very proud of him, as he is also a senior fellow in
Trauma Surgery at Bethesda ."
Upon receiving this letter, Melinda's mother was
quite excited and looked forward to Thursday with
pleasure. Her daughter would be escorted by four
handsome naval officers without peer (and the other
women in her social circle would be insanely jealous).
At precisely 8:00 PM on Thursday, Melinda's mother
heard a polite rap at the door which she opened to
find, in full dress uniform, four very handsome,
smiling Black officers.
Her mouth fell open, but pulling herself together,
she stammered, "There must be some mistake."
"No, Madam," said the first officer.
"Captain Goldberg never makes
mistakes."
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