(Continued From Facebook)
My first duty station was
Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois for my initial training. Within
a matter of weeks, our training was halted for two weeks due to the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy. The base was
on lock down and the military put on alert.
Graduating from Recruit Training, I was transferred to Navy Submarine School
in New London, Connecticut. Graduating in
May 1964. Prior to my enlistment, the nuclear
powered submarine, U.S.S. Thresher was lost in Long Island Sound with all souls
onboard. The lengthy investigation as to
the cause of the accident created long waiting lists for graduates to get
orders to a submarine since the nuclear fleet was grounded until the investigation
was complete. I opted to go to sea on a
surface ship, the U.S.S. Shangri-La CVA-38 out of Mayport, Florida. I fell in love with the “Shang” and would remain
onboard her until October 1967. Your first ship is like your first love, she is
always special. She would carry me to
the Mediterranean Sea on two different occasions for eight month deployments;
numerous trips into the North Atlantic and a constant barrage of “sorties” into
the Caribbean Sea. The Atlantic transit
from Mayport, Florida to Naples, Italy is 4,450 nautical miles. From 1964 to 1967, the total nautical miles
onboard the Shangri-La was likely in the 65,000 nautical mileage range. While onboard the Shangri-La, I was temporarily
assigned to train as an Assault Boat Coxswain in Dam Neck, Virginia.
In 1967, married by now,
we would transfer to Naval Station, Adak, Alaska where two of my children were
born, Shane and Shana. My duties on Adak
consisted of being the Leading Petty Officer for the two structural fires
stations and the one crash Station at the Airport. We would remain on Adak for two and half
years. From NS Adak, I was temporarily assigned
to the Armed Forces Police Detachment in Vallejo, California enroute to my next
homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and reported aboard the U.S.S. Ponchatoula
AO-148, a fleet tanker, assuming the role as Leading Boatswain Mate. Within two weeks of reporting onboard, I was
underway again enroute to the western Pacific to support the fleet on Yankee Station
off the coast of Vietnam and supply the swift boats operating in the rivers of
Vietnam. Taking breaks to take on fuel
in Subic Bay, Philippines we would make sorties into the Korean Sea to refuel
the fleet operating in that area. After
seven months, we returned to Pearl Harbor to operate locally and served as a secondary
recovery vessel for Apollo 14. After
nine years on sea duty, it was finally my turn to rotate to shore duty.
My request was that I be assigned
to Navy Recruiting duty. Completing my training
in San Diego, I was assigned to Navy Recruiting District, Denver, Colorado and ultimately
assigned as Recruiter in Charge in Durango, Colorado where our second daughter was
born. In 1973, I was selected as “Salesman
of the Year” by the Denver Branch of the Marketing Sales Executives of
America. The same year, I was selected
as “Recruiter of the Year” for Area 6, in ceremonies in Washington D.C. in meeting
with Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the Navy had just came out with a new rating called the
Navy Counselor. He asked if I wanted to
convert my current rating from Boatswain Mate to Navy Counselor. You really can’t say no to the CNO, besides I
also enjoyed that type of duty.
Bypassing the selection process for the new rating, I left Washington D.C.
as the first Navy Counselor in the Navy. I would remain on recruiting duty in Durango
for another year until I transferred to Grand Junction, Colorado as the Recruiter
in Charge and Zone Supervisor for the Western Slope of Colorado. Two years
passed and once again it was time to rotate back to sea.
Returning to sea duty, I
would return as a Navy Counselor, my deck days were over, although I did miss
being a Boatswain Mate. I was assigned
to Attack Squadron 95, the “Green Lizards” flying the A-6 Aircraft. In the squadron,
I was assigned to the Executive Department which was not a very big department;
it consisted of the Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, Command Master Chief
and I. My arrival in the squadron came right at the
time that we were scheduled to make a Western Pacific Deployment onboard the
carried U.S.S. Coral Sea home ported out of San Francisco. Packing up all of our equipment, office
supplies, etc. we flew down to San Francisco to board the carrier. Once onboard and underway, as soon as we
cleared the Golden Gate Bridge, our aircraft as well as the other squadrons
would fly the aircraft onboard to make the Pacific transit. Enroute to the Philippines, we would make a layover
in Pearl Harbor and take on last minute supplies. Detaching from Pearl Harbor some of our
aircraft would detach from the carrier and fly to the Philippines due to the
dual mission of the carrier. Again,
operating in the area of the old “Yankee Station”. Midway through the cruise we rotated to
operate in the Sea of Japan and Korean Sea.
This particular deployment lasted six months until we returned to San
Francisco and ultimately Whidbey Island.
Returning to Whidbey Island, I
would be selected and advanced to Navy Counselor Chief Petty Officer. Our second son would be born on Whidbey
Island, Oak Harbor, Washington. Later in
the year, I took leave to visit my family in Colorado. Upon my return to the squadron, Commander
Craig, my Commanding Officer called me into his office for coffee. We chatted about the squadron and
personnel. Finally he asked me if I ever
wanted to return to recruiting duty. Replying
that I did, he smiled and said, I was hoping you would say that and handed me a
message that was ten days old. The
message was that he Navy was going to establish a permanent assignment to recruiting
duty due to the all-volunteer concept. I
noticed that the deadline for the applications had already passed while I was
on leave. He laughed and rr3plied that is
why he was happy that I wanted to return to recruiting duty because he had
submitted my application and I had been selected, it was only then he handed me
my orders to Navy recruiting district, Seattle, Washington.
Reporting in at the main
station in Seattle, I was then transferred to Anchorage, Alaska as the Navy Recruiter
in Charge for the State of Alaska. I
would never return to the main command in Seattle. After two years, I expanded our offices in
Alaska to include an office in Fairbanks and one in Juneau. Spent
a lot of travel time between the three offices assisting the recruiters that
manned the offices for me.
In the spring of 1983, I
had been selected for Senior Chief. The
Command in Seattle called me and said that the Recruiting Command was looking for
a Zone Supervisor in Oklahoma City to manage several stations and that I had
been selected. Talking with the Chief Recruiter,
I told him I would call him back the next morning. I counted up my time and had the requirement
to retire, although I would have to extend or reenlist for two more years to
accept Senior Chief. I talked to Terry
that evening pertaining to our options.
We mutually agreed it was time to retire and stay in Alaska. The next
morning, I called the Chief Recruiter and announced that I would have the time
required for retirement in August and intended to do so. The ironic thing was that I had been in
Alaska almost four years, I had never returned to our main headquarters in
Seattle.
In August 1983, I retired
from the active duty Navy with twenty years of service to the Navy Fleet Reserve
for the remainder of my ten years, subject to recall. My retirement ceremony took place at the new
Federal Court House, just four blocks from the old Court House that I had
enlisted at in 1963. In late October
1993, I received a Certified Envelope, enclosed was my Honorable Discharge for
serving thirty years in the Naval Service.
It was a great career, to do over again; I would choose the same
option. As I mentioned previously, your first
ship is always your true love, “Lady Shang” took me to sea as a boy and returned
me as man. Fifty years later, it is a
good day!
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