Wishing everyone the best of luck, in Hawaiian. The tale of the USS Pueblo.

[il d00d]

These guys rule.  The story of a Naval spy vessel captured by the DPRK during the cold war (link here)

"And almost by accident, they came across the idea behind their greatest coup: in two propaganda movies, the crew noticed people giving the finger were not censored. The crew deduced that the North Koreans didn't know what the finger meant. In the subsequent propaganda photos of the crew, their middle fingers were firmly extended to the cameraman. When the North Koreans questioned, the crew described it as the “Hawaiian good luck sign.” The ruse went on unnoticed until October 1968, when Time magazine explained the mysterious gesture appearing in many photos as one of “obscene derisiveness and contempt.”"

Gentlement, I salute you.  With all of my fingers.

[Artful]

My dad was on the USS Ranger working the dah-dit dah-dits at the time the Pueblo was captured. He has some pretty great stories about how the other covert radio crews in the US Navy "made their contempt known" for the US government not being more aggressive in getting the crew returned. Not stuff I can post here, but it's safe to say there were a lot of radio operators that made their CO's life hell during that time period.

[fastwin]

I remember that happening as a kid but I don't remember the finger story. That's awesome!!