This was sent to me by a friend. We think it's from the Canadian Navy, but we don't know.
In the beginning there was the word and the word was God. All else was darkness and void and without form. So God created the Heavens and the Earth. He created the Sun and the moon and the stars, so that light may pierce the darkness. The Earth, God divided between the land and the sea and He filled it with many assorted creatures.
The dark, salty, slimy creatures that inhabited the seashore He called Marines and He dressed them accordingly. The flighty creatures of the air He called Airdales, and these He clothed in uniforms which where ruffled and foul. These creatures where not over popular, as their droppings fell on the earth below, but God forgave them because He said, they knoweth not what they do.
The lowest creatures of the sea God called Skimmers, and with a twinkle in His eye, and with a sense of humor only He could have, God gave them big grey steel targets to go to sea on. He also gave them many splended uniforms to wear. He gave them wonderful and exotic places to visit. He gave them pen and paper so that they might write home every week. He also gave them a shiny laundry that they may keep all their splended uniforms clean. (When your God you tend to get carried away at times.)
On the seventh day as we know God rested, and on the eighth day at 0700Z God looked down upon the earth and God was not a happy God. He realized something vital was missing. So He thought about his labors and with His infinate wisdom God decided to create a devine creature, and this devine creature He called a Submariner. And these Submariners, whom god created in His own likeness, were to be of the deep, and so He gave them a white wooly pully to keep them warm. He gave them sleek, black, steel messengers of death to roam the depths of the oceans waging war on the forces of Satan and evil. He gave them hotels to welcome them when they became weary of doing Gods will. He gave them subsistence so that they may entertain the ladies on nights ashore and impress the hell out of the creatures called Skimmers.
At at the end of the eighth day God looked down upon the earth and saw that all was well. But still God was not happy, because, in the course of his labors He had forgotten one thing. He had not given Himself a Submariners white wooly pully. He thought long and hard and finally satisfied his mind that not just anybody can be a Submariner.
Amen.