I ain't saying I'm old or anything, but...

Downeaster

Everything in XS
Top Contributor
Messages
2,987
Reaction score
18,500
Points
513
Location
Downeast Maine
50 years ago this month, I got off the bus at Camp Moffit, Naval Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois.

Standing in the chow line at oh-dark-thirty on the shores of Lake Michigan in February. How much more fun can an 18 year old boy stand?

boot3.jpg


1969.

retired.jpg


1990.
 
50 years ago this month, I got off the bus at Camp Moffit, Naval Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois.

Standing in the chow line at oh-dark-thirty on the shores of Lake Michigan in February. How much more fun can an 18 year old boy stand?

boot3.jpg


1969.

retired.jpg


1990.
Thanks for all your service to our great country! Can only imagine the sacrifices you had to make.....
 
Wow, 1969! Great photos DE! Where have the years gone?
Would you mind sharing what your duties during your years in the Navy entailed? I find it interesting all the different kinds of lives we’ve all led.
 
I enlisted for a 6 year stretch as part of a deal for guaranteed Electronics Technician school, which was a year long in itself. I expected to be either an ETN (communications) or an ETR (radar).

About 3/4ths of the way through school, a couple of guys in black suits (literally) pulled me out of class and asked if I wanted to be a Communications Technician, Maintenance (CTM). I had one and only one question: Do I get to finish Electronics school? "Yes, and we'll send you to a follow-on technical school on cryptographic equipment repair." "Where do I sign?"

So after ET"A" school, I went to Crypto School in Virginia for another 5 months.

As a CTM, I was part of the Naval Security Group, a very small, very specialized subset of the Navy. In my nearly 22 years of service, I spent 12 days at sea, and I had to volunteer for that. The rest of my career was spent at overseas shore stations that were in geographic proximity to...uh..."nations of interest". (Primarily Russia, tho China and North Korea figured in as well). As far as I know, the details of what we did and how we did it are still classified. I had a TS/SCI (Top Secret, Special Compartmented Information) clearance from right after "A" school until I retired.

Duty Stations in chronological order:

Great Lakes, IL (Boot camp, "A" school)

Portsmouth, VA (Crypto School)

Clark Air Base, Philippines. (We co-located and shared facilites with the Air Force Security Service a lot)

Misawa Air Base, Japan.

NSGA Winter Harbor, Maine (got married, decided to stay in)

Back to Misawa (loved that place).

Navy Technical Training Center, Pensacola Florida. Another advanced school, a bit over a year long. Got selected for instructor duty, taught the same school. Spend 5 years there.

Naval Base Charleston, South Carolina. Mobile Technical Unit, supporting the fleet. That's where I got in my 12 days of sea duty :p

NATO Air Base, Keflavik, Iceland. Unaccompanied tour, lonely, horrible weather. Good professionally tho, got my last promotion as a result.

Back to Winter Harbor for duty and retirement.

Overall, it was interesting and fun, especially the time spent as a dirty-fingers technician. The last few years flying a desk as a manager, not so much.

Sorry for the long post, but you asked...
 
Not long at all, it’s a very interesting life you’ve had. Far more so than the life of a humble mailman! :D
The closest thing I ever had to excitement was an old lady who liked to stand naked in her front window when the mailman went by. ( True ) :laughing:
Seriously though, when I was in my early twenties I had a lust for travel and I was a certified welder at that point and I really considered joining the Navy in hopes of landing a job on an aircraft carrier. In the end I didn’t do it out of fear that I would spend my days freezing my ass off in some New Jersey shipyard doing repairs and never get to travel.
 
One of the coolest things I got to do was ride all over Luzon on a Honda CL77 Scrambler.

One of the better trips was down the Bataan Peninsula and ride a banca boat (basically a dugout canoe with a motor) over to Corregidor Island and rummage around in Malinta Tunnel where McArthur held out against the Japanese in '41/'42.

Also rode some SERIOUSLY slimy mountain/jungle roads on other trips. Always had to have a Filipino guide/companion along as an interpreter and to keep us aware of Huk (Communist insurgents) activity so we could avoid those areas.
 
I posted this someplace else before:
I get misty @ 2:15 every time... who wouldn't (unless you don't have a heart)...
It's about pals. "Bro's". To whom time has no meaning. It hurts to lose them. Hitintheheadfred, Weekendrider, Robinc... I know I'm missing people. Not intentionally, just my fragmented memory (I am a product of the '60's and '70s!)
You know. The people you'd drop everything for, at a moment's notice, without even thinking about it.
I consider many of you on this forum among such people.
 
Back
Top