I took a guitar on both of my floats. The ship had a band, and the Navy guys let our Marine band play on there stuff. We played for the crew many times and had a ball (at ports and steel beach parties).
I've been playing for 13+ years and currently have a US made Strat and Fender acoustic electric. Worst mistake I ever made was sell my Les Paul! When I was in college I was in a band and we played at a local pub, classic rock, hard rock, some 80's and some country. My strat hasn't been out of it's case in a while. I've been playing Mexican-style fingerpicking pieces on my acoustic.