Way Back When

WAY BACK WHEN, I was in the U.S.NAVY, (1960 or so), and we had about 5 kinds of men: GENTLEmen (most of whom were officers), WOmen (most of whom were volunteers), Marines (REAL men, according to them), SEAmen (which you would expect), and AIRmen, the group of which I was a member. Recruitment for these billets (jobs) was a lot like selling used cars - You can draw your own inferences here...

We airmen were relatively new to the Navy. We came along with the airplanes and helicopters, which were usually found on the "aircraft carriers." We could also be found at Naval Air Stations like North Island in San Diego, CA, and Agana, Guam.

Historically, when recruiters were filling the crew of the original USS Constitution and other ships of this new country's Navy, they could afford to secure recruits after a long bout of drinking at one of the Boston pubs. What they actually ended up with a couple of days later, at sea, once the alcohol wore off, may not have been the cream of the intellectual crop, but all those recruits really had to know was which end of the swab (mop) to hold on to, how to pull on a line (rope), and which side of the ship to go to for personal relief issues (downwind!).

In the 1960s and onward, even during the draft, Navy recruiters were trained to evaluate victims' mental abilities while sober, because requirements had changed for filling the billets. That's when I was inducted into "the service of my country" as a 17 year-old US Navy recruit. They had an enlistment program called a "Kiddie Cruise," which I qualified for as a high school graduate, but not yet 18 years of age. That was before the age of legal adulthood was lowered from 21 to 18. I needed my parent's permission. My dad was helpful in that regard. He didn't want me in the U. S. Army, having observed the giongs-on in Korea, and before that in WWII. If my number came up in the draft, Army would be my destination, so Dad and I went to see the Navy Recruiter. At the time of my interview, I was overweight, not very athletic, and had graduated with a 1.9 GPA. With those atributes I didn't qualify for Navy enlistment! I'd be taking my chances with the draft. Bummer! We made our displeasure known.

The recruiter "remembered" he could let me take a test to see if I had what the Navy needed in the brains department, considering my poor performance in school. When he reviewed my responses to his "test," I was "suddenly" eligible to become a U.S. Navy enlistee!

(Whoopee! At least for my dad - he'd wanted to enlist during WWII, but was deemed 4F, [ineligible]. I became his vicarious chance to serve.)

I was promised electronic school and end of active service the day before I turned 21. I was off to boot camp, otherwise known as Basic Training.

What's there to say about boot camp? Mysterious? Unexpected? Exciting? A coming-of-age experience? Oh! Yeah!

I arrived at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in late evening after an air-sickening, first ever, airplane ride and had to soldier-on through induction all that night and the following day with very little sleep. I was mistreated, bullied, yelled-at... I was homesick for two days. Woe is me, right?

But, wait! I had signed up for this! High school had been so repetitious it had become boring. I hadn't been challenged and had gotten lazy, hence my GPA. I opted for the easy way.

Here was a chance to "re-start!" So, I decided to just get with the program.

Boot camp was a place where new experiences happened at every turn. If we were to go anywhere, we marched as a group. As a group, we had specific goals to meet, but they weren't impossible. We learned to work as a team - we learned about helping one another. There was fun stuff, like fire training. Everyone who lives on ships has to be prepared to fight fire! NOT a skill learned in the local high school!

Swim training. I didn't know how to swim. If a person is in the Navy he should be able to swim! DUH!

So one day my group went to the pool for swim qualification. Many of the guys were excited; I knew I was going to die!

So we get in there, to a locker room with up and down showers. (The down shower was overhead - the up shower was situated so you straddled it as you walked along. When you're in the Navy, you WILL be clean..!) I had been issued swim "briefs" but this day was a nude experience! Explanation? The instructors had to be able to easily and immediately recognize the recruits. After the shower we were herded to the diving tower (about 20 feet tall) and lined up to climb the tower. I had to climb the tower, stand at the edge overlooking the water (20 feet deep) and walk off voluntarily! NAKED! If a person succumbed to his fears and went back down the ladder, dire occurrences ensued! The instructor at the top of the ladder reminded me to keep my legs tightly closed! (!!!) Another instructor was waiting at the edge of the pool at the bottom of the ladder with a pole he could offer to a struggling, drowning, pre-sailor.

Courage is defined as advancing in the face of fear! I "advanced" off the tower! My next memory was of seeing 20 feet of water between me and life! I was lying on my back on the bottom of the pool! I began to learn to swim!

When my eyes broached the water I saw the pole being held out to me - I grabbed it! Then I realized there was no one on the other end! I knew that because the pole was sticking up like a submarine periscope. So, I shoved it back in the general direction of where it had come from, and felt it contact something fairly soft. I got pulled to the edge of the pool. As the instructor helped me from the water he said, "I damn near let you drown!" He was holding his groin... OUCH!

It was Summer in Illinois. I needed to pass a swimming test to graduate from basic training. For 10 of the 11 weeks I was there, I got to "practice swimming" at the pool in the late afternoon while everyone else was sweltering. Hehe.

Finally, graduation from basic training!

During Basic, I went from size 40 pants to 33. When I arrived home on leave wearing my dress blue uniform, only my pre-teen cousin recognized me as I deplaned onto the tarmac (in the days before jetways and TSA). I looked at her and winked with my finger to my lips. I took her hand and we walked away from the rest of the family waiting for me to come off the plane. We were snickering about 30 yards away when someone asked, "who's LauraLee walking with?" That was fun for us both. (I can just see trying that gambit today!)

Vacation over, back to school! Only this time in Memphis TN. Electronics school ran through Autumn, Winter and Spring, so my first full year in the Navy was spent in school, but this time it wasn't boring. The longest course was Basic Electronics, which lasted about 9 months, followed by specific courses in radio, radar, antenna theory, etc.

Then it was time to move out into "The Fleet." I was asked where I would like to serve: I said "anywhere East coast." With true military humor I was posted to a squadron of WV2* aircraft in Agana, Guam! (Well, Agana IS on the East coast of the island...). * The WV2 aircraft is a variant of Lockheed's Super Constellation passenger airliner of the 1950's.

So, after a short visit home, I flew off to HAWAII! Back to school, again! I was trained in repair of some of the specific equipment I would be working with when I reached my squadron in Guam. This training took a couple more months. I was getting pretty familiar with Waikiki and Honolulu as well.

FINALLY, school was out!

Hawaii is tropical. Guam is uber tropical! I remember stepping off the MATS * flight in Agana; It was like walking into a super-heated sauna! The interior of the airplane was 65 degrees and 15% humidity, give or take. The other side of that door was 95 / 95%! Blue chambray shirts rotted off my back within six months of purchase! A memorable experience! * MATS = Military Air Transport Service

During my second year in the Navy I progressed in several ways. I learned about being willing to step up when someone needed help. I studied the Navy courses for advancement in rank, so that I made every possible promotion as soon as I could. I became personally confident in my team as well as myself. I became a leader. And, I learned to brew "Navy" coffee as the 'chef' of the squadron's coffee mess. While in Guam I made rank of PO3 (E4). (It helps to know how to brew GREAT coffee - LOL)!

I learned that to step up when the Shop Chief called for a volunteer got noticed. To shirk was to sink.

Everyone wanted flight crew status: Flight crews got to fly to places like Okinawa, The Philippines (read Manila) and Japan! Flight crews got flight pay. To shirk was to sink your chances of flight crew appointment. I ultimately secured a spot on the crew of TE5 (more on that in a later chapter).

At the beginning of my third year of service I received orders to a different squadron, this time based in San Diego, CA. This was very different, as these planes were designed to fly from aircraft carriers. About six months into my new billet we were deployed aboard USS Kearsarge, and sent back to Hawaii. We had orders to pull a space capsule out of the ocean (Gordon Cooper) so we had a specific arrival date. After our arrival at Pearl Harbor, something went wrong at Cape Canaveral and Cooper's departure was delayed about 3 weeks as I remember it. Anyway, I got to spend many days in or near the tourist traps of Honolulu and Waikiki. (It really is true _ when people are practically naked, they all look alike!) Another memorable experience for a 19/20yo kid from blue-collar Pittsburgh PA!

I was being educated in the world's most efficient way: by travel. We left Hawaii, sailing West, doing training for the ship's company and flight crews. We visited Okinawa, Hong Kong, several ports in Japan, with rumors of a stop in Sydney, Australia. However, this was July/August of my 20th year of life, and I had an important appointment to keep in September in San Diego, CA, so I missed Australia...

I left CVS33 in US Naval base Yokosuka, Japan, with orders to report to a squadron headquartered in San Diego. The Navy decided to send me there on a submarine tender (ship) heading to Pearl Harbor rather than by air. That became an interesting journey in a couple of ways. I had achieved E5 (second class petty officer) late in my enlistment, and would probably have done well had I decided to make a career of the Navy. But, I didn't do that, so here I was, on a slow boat from (close to) China, as one of a small number of transient "pukes". I was ordered to muster with ship's company each morning, at which time everyone was assigned duty for the day by the Master at Arms (MAA). This "gentleman" had seen a long time in service, and should have been First class or Chief Petty Officer, but had been "busted" back to Seaman for some disciplinary reason. However, he still held his billet as MAA. This set up a situation with me in the middle, as well as the Chief of the Boat. After muster that first morning at sea, everybody but we "pukes" went to work, leaving us behind. MAA (colloquially pronounced MAAaaa as a goat would pronounce it) told us we were to "chip paint" that day, and proceeded to hand out the appropriate tools. I had heard about that job and wanted nothing to do with it! Also, I was above him in rank, and due to that little fact could order him to do it instead, but I didn't want to do that for several reasons-

I didn't want to supervise a seaman's job - I was an airman; I knew nothing about it.

It would be hot working in the sun, and I'd be stuck with the job for the duration of the trip to Pearl Harbor.

I would be working like a E1 or E2, not a E5 - NOT ACCEPTABLE!

So, when he got to me, I purposefully looked at his left arm where his rank insignia should have been and refused to accept the tool. (OK, maybe I acted like an arrogant adolescent. However, the rules of etiquette relating to rank are carved in granite and that was where I felt I had to stand up against this bully.) He loudly demanded that I take it. I responded, "If you make me take that chipping hammer, I will deep 6 it" (throw it over the side). He did not relent. He threatened me with being placed "on report" for refusing a direct order, and demanded again that I take the tool. I took it. Then I flipped it over the side! Poor guy, he went ballistic! We all stood there waiting for his next move; he had to do something! Well, he got another seaman to take over the work party while he escorted me to his boss, the Chief of the Boat, and placed me on report.

The Chief dismissed him. We watched him depart the area. The Chief looked at me and said, "Now, what in hell do I do with you"? He took me to the weather shack up on the highest level of the ship and asked the two meteorologists there if they could use my help. They said "sure, Chief."

So I spent the rest of the (2 week) "cruise" helping release weather balloons and other difficult duties related to the weather.

From Hawaii, I was sent to California via Military Air Transport Service. HoHum... On September 16, 1963, I was honorably discharged from active service in the United States Navy. The next day I became an adult, on my own in a city 3000 miles from home, and absolutely excited about further prospects!