Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 16

Living in the Lap of Luxury

I posted a picture of my hotel compound earlier.  Now you get a chance to see what is was like inside.

This was a normal dinner.  A can of soup or stew heated up over a Sterno  can. My bunk is right behind me.  Notice the mosquito net.  You needed it, for the mosquitoes were very bad.  We had many lizards on the walls, our friends, who ate the mosquitoes.  The wall beside my bunk was an outside wall.  This caused me a lot of worry. The Viet Cong loved placing bombs against the walls of any U. S. facility. 

These are two of my roommates. They were the two I lived with the longest.  Ray Hendricks, on the left was from Oklahoma and a full blooded Indian, or Native American.  Really nice guy, but when he got drunk he wanted to fight you.  Those Indians and their firewater. I was almost politically correct. The guy on the right is Jim Richardson, from Michigan.  The three of us played many games of pinochle at that table.

We didn't have hot water.  There was a water tank on the roof and the sun heated the water.  So if you were one of the first people in the building to take a shower that evening you had a little warm water.  Usually though, you took cold showers.  The water cut off suddenly all the time.  Because you took a shower in cold water, you jumped in, got wet, soaped up out of the water stream and washed, then jumped back in the water to rinse the soap off.  Once while soaped up, the water shut off.  I ran around from room to room to each shower rinsing with all the water that would drain out of the pipes.  The electricity would should off very often, too.  We finished many a pinochle game by candlelight.

One luxury we did have was maids.  We had Vietnamese women clean our rooms, wash and iron or clothes, make our beds and keep our bed linen changed and clean.  One 'Mama-san' would take care of two rooms, usually 8 guys.  We would pay them in Vietnamese Currency, the equivelent of about $10 a month.  So these ladies would make about $80 a month, pretty good wages for them.  And, they washed clothes the old fashioned way, with scrub brush and wash board.  They would also sew up any tears in clothes they found.  I never knew of anyone who had anything stolen.  These were hard working women who knew what a good deal they had going and could not afford to lose it.  I know it doesn't sound like such a good deal to you, but for them it was a very good deal.

We had a bar. This was at the other end of the compound from my room.  The Navy guys had it almost finished when I moved in.  We stocked it with our ration cards and took our turns tending bar. Simple mixed drinks and cold beer. The bar had some nice lounge chairs and tables. Nice place to relax, play cards, and socialize with the rest of the guys in the compound. Once a week we got a movie.  The bar was also the theatre, but in nice weather the movie was shown outside in our courtyard. When we did that the walls of our compound were lined with neighboring Vietnamese kids. Sometimes the movie was 3 one hour TV shows.  As we didn't get to see any TV, I thought these were the best movies.  I can't remember all the one hour shows we would get, but  some of them were Star Trek, Bonanza, and Mission Impossible.

Sometimes we drank.  The guy eating the mustard and crackers was the guy  I was on the roof with who had the rifle.  Yep, crackers and mustard was another one of our delicious staples.

 All servicemen, after being In-Country for 8 months got a weeks Rest and Relaxation.  You had a choice of where to go, Japan, Thailand, Australia, or Hawaii.  Married guys who were meeting their wives went to Hawaii.  I was able to meet Mary Lynn in Hawaii, I think it was in July.  We got one week together after being apart for almost 10 months. 

As you could imagine, I really missed Mary Lynn while in Vietnam.  Wasn't she cute?  Even if she did forget her hair dryer.  Hawaii was a paradise. It's still the most beautiful place I've ever been.  The weather perfect. 
The week flew by. We spent every minute together. But, all good things must come to an end.



 Soon I was back on a plane headed to Vietnam again. 
Not long after getting back I was transferred back down to Saigon for the remainder of my tour.  I returned to work at the Headquarters building on Tan Son Nhut Air Base.  This time my job was a keypunch operator.  I don't know if they have those anymore.  But it was a machine that punched all the information onto  index cards and then they ran off computer spreadsheets from the information on them.  There were 3 of us doing that job, and only 2 machines.  Keypunch operating was pretty boring so  the three of us rotated on the two machines often.  I have some pictures from that time period, but can't find them.  They were just pictures of us playing volleyball and pitching horseshoes at lunch time. Pictures inside that facility were prohibited.  It was a secure area.  Not much beyond the normal routine the last couple of months.
My tour in Vietnam was almost up.  A normal tour is one year.  Many times people would receive their orders and be able to leave a week or two earlier than a complete year. It was late September and I was due for transfer any day and  anxiously awaiting my orders to get the hell out of there. Not only out of Vietnam, but because I would have less than six months service left I would be getting an early out from the Navy.  Going Home to be with Mary Lynn, never to be separated again!  Just waiting for the word.

To be continued.....................

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 15

Life at Work in Nha Trang

In this installment I'm going to show a lot of  pictures.  The daily grind of work and the things we did to keep busy.  We had 7 people in this office and we could always spare a couple of people at a time to do our landscaping projects.  First, the office we worked out of before and after our projects:

You see the air conditioner on the side of the building in the above pictures.  That is the air conditioner above me at my desk, so you can tell where my work station was looking at the outside of the building.

You'll also notice a mattress leaning against the wall.  As in all Military Offices, Somebody spent the night there every night.  The Duty Officer. Because I was the clerk and not one of those who coordinated the communication lines, I didn't have to pull duty.  Sweeeet!

We performed many projects to keep busy and beautify our surroundings and make it a safer place to work.  Often the air field would be rocketed from the hillsides behind the base. That's one reason that big cannon was set up at the Special Forces base that I mentioned earlier.  And, often we could watch Air Strikes on those hills when the enemy had been spotted.  Not belonging to any Service, we had to beg, borrow, steal, and trade for any material we had.  We tiled our concrete floors, even cutting out "DCA - SAM - NHA TRANG" in the tiles to really make it look spiffy!  I wish I'd gotten a picture of it.  But I was standing on those tiles in my Christmas Picture in the last post. 

We built a bunker and sunk it into the ground, sandbagging all around it and cutting a hole in the office wall so we would have access to it without going outside.  This came in handy when the base was under rocket attack!  I have a picture of me down in that hole, too.  I did my share of digging.  But the people in this picture:  Our Commander, Major Ray Lee with the shovel. Leaning on his elbows is Chief McReynolds, who was the one that had a broken thumb in the bombing.  And leaning on one arm, Capt Joe Antone, the one who had a piece of shrapnel go through his knee. This was long after the bombing, so you can see they'd recovered.  Chief McReynolds went home suddenly several days after this picture, accompanying his brother's body, who was killed.  Another project was to build a deck.  Why?  Because it was something to keep us busy and allowed us to watch the air strikes up in the hills, and afforded a good view around the base.

This work, plus seeding the sandy dirt in grass, watering it, then keeping the grass cut, kept us busy.  We also had a vegetable garden behind the building. I rounded the corner of the building one day going back to the garden and startled a huge lizard enjoying our vegetables.  This lizard was 4 feet long!  There were a lot of lizards over there.  The Vietnamese ate them.  You would often see a man walking down the road carrying a couple of lizards by the tail taking them home to skin and eat.

This picture was taken from the deck after completion.  You can see we were right next to the air field.  Notice all the barrels, each filled with sand, to protect parked aircraft from rocket attacks.

Looking the other direction from the deck, you can see an Air Strike going on in the hills behind the base.  It was kinda neat to watch those fighter planes diving and dropping bombs and pulling out of the dive.

So went the life at work in Nha Trang.  Coming up, my luxurious living quarters and the people I roomed with while in Nha Trang.

To be continued...............

Bob - the Navy Years, Chapter 14

The War Changes

I'll cover Christmas a little before I move to the Vietnamese New Year (Tet).  I'm doing this just because I have a picture of me at Christmas time so I thought I'd post it.

As I said before, we didn't belong to any branch of service, so we didn't have a mess hall to get our Christmas Dinner.  So on Christmas Day, 1967, my Christmas Dinner was a cheeseburger and fries at the base snack bar.  And it wasn't a very good cheeseburger. Being away from home on a Holiday, especially Christmas, makes you a little lonely. I'm sure I wrote Mary Lynn a letter that day. I wrote to her almost everyday.
The Vietnamese New Year fell on January 31st. That night came and as the evening wore on we heard more and more fireworks going off. These fireworks turned in to a full scale battle at midnight.  The North Vietnamese had been amassing troups around all the major cities in South Vietnam. Their plan was, at midnight on New Years, to march into all the cities, attacking all U. S. Installations and servicemen.  They were sure when they did this that the South Vietnamese would join them in routing the Americans and then the two Vietnams would join as one. The South Vietnamese did not join them, but this was the bloodiest week in the Vietnam War, for both sides.
Before Tet, non-combatants, such as myself, and all the sailors I lived with, these guys mostly worked on the shipping docks at the wharf, were not armed. We were not issued weapons. When the early morning hours hit, all of Nha Trang was under attack, street fighting all around our Building. Our entire arsenal consisted of one M-1 rifle, and 2 clips of ammo. This was an old Army rifle and I don't know why he happened to have it.  One clip of ammo was used up earlier in the evening when the guy went up to the roof and shot off a clip to celebrate Tet.  We were helpless. We were in the hotel, or compound, listening to explosions, small arms fire, and shouting coming from all around our building all through the night. The entryway into our compound had a guard shack and was manned by an old Vietnamese with a shotgun. As it got light outside the fighting continued. At one point I went to the roof with the one guy that had the rifle.  We watched the war.

I took these pictures from our rooftop. Notice the photo on the left,  I didn't get very far above the wall to take a picture. On that hill we could see North Vietnamese moving in and out of the buildings and through the streets.  Then the guy I was with did something stupid!  He fired on them with his rifle. "What the hell'd you do that for?" Well, they started shooting back! When a bullet whizzes by your ear you get a real sensation of what it would do if it hit your head. Bullets were whizzing by our heads and we ducked behind a 2 foot high wall on the roof.  Now, we were pinned down, all because this stupid idiot had to shoot, and we had about a 15 foot run in the open to get to the doorway to go down. Well, we stayed put for about 15 minutes. He was on the side closest to the door, so he was the first to get up and take off.  He made it.  Now, I'm out on the roof all alone.  After several minutes I got up and took off for the door.  I made it, but it's amazing how slow you run when you want to move like lightning.  No more trips to the roof.
Through the day the Army started to get control of the City.  Resistance was pocketed in certain areas, but no street was considered safe.  Late in the afternoon my Commander, Major Lee, and Chief Zajak showed up in a jeep to pick me up to take me to a secure area, the base.  They were dressed  in flak jackets, helmets, weapons...and this time it wasn't a practical joke.
They had a flak jacket and helmet for me and we jumped in the jeep and headed for the base. Along the way we could see all the carnage. Right outside our building two dead Viet Cong lay by the curb.

 I took this picture months later, but as we went through this traffic circle, bodies were stacked like cord wood along the curbs on both sides of the road.  Bodies were stacked about 5 high  along the road at least for a block. These were North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. The American bodies had been hauled away.
We made it back to the base and we all stayed at the office, sleeping on mattresses on the floor for the next several days.
After the City was secured I returned to my Hotel. The night I left, a grenade round had landed on the roof, from a grenade launcher. I took a picture of it to show the damage.  This was only 10-15 feet from where we were pinned down earlier in the day.
From that point on in the war everyone was issued a weapon.  I was issued an M-16 rifle, though I'd never fired one, but I carried it with me the rest of my stay in Vietnam.  As did everyone else. 
When you enter a building with your weapon, before entering you remove the clip, cock the weapon and fire it into the air to make sure it's empty. Now, as I talked about the dangers in a War Zone before, they've now doubled.  Everybody carrying weapons, many like me, untrained in their use.  Cocking and firing weapons before entering buildings. Does this sound dangerous to you?
I'll jump ahead a little, to about September of 1968 for this.  One of our new people, an Air Force Sergeant, forgot to clear his .45 before coming into the office.  So, as were hanging our weapons in the closet he cocks it and fires at the floor, but forgot to take the clip out.  So, a .45 shell hits the floor about 5 inches from my foot! This is what I mean by dangerous.  He got in some trouble for that, and I'm glad. 
But, things calmed down. we got back in to the routine, and my tour in Vietnam progresses.  My next Chapter, I'm going to cover my living quarters and my working area, and what we did to pass the time.  With a lot a pictures.

To be continued.............

Bob - The navy Years, Chapter 13

+Wounded as a Result of Enemy Action

The explosion knocked me over backwards.  When I hit the ground my left knee hurt like hell. I thought maybe my leg had been blown off.  I wiggled my toes as I lay  there on my stomach. People were yelling "Get down, Get down".  Many times after a terrorist explosion like that the enemy would ride by on a motorcycle and rake the area with machine gun fire.  So we stayed down.  After being on the ground only a second or two, I felt something trickling through my hair.  Very soon a stream of blood began pouring onto the ground in front of me and I realized I was bleeding pretty badly. The guy next to me handed me his handkerchief and I pressed it to the top of my head.  That seemed to stem the tide a little.  Laying on the ground you could hear people moaning, calling for help, people scurrying around trying to help and give aid to those they could. After several minutes our Commander yelled for us to get up and get to the jeeps.  The guy beside me helped me up, my leg was killing me, and helped me as I limped to the jeep.  I can't remember who helped me, or who drove the jeep, but we headed for the base hospital.

The diagram at left shows the explosion. We were in an outdoor patio setting.  A chain link fence covered with vines ran along the street side. A Claymore mine was hung on the fence.  These mines are remotely detonated and are a shaped charge.  They blow out in a 'V' shape as shown. U. S. Claymore mines are filled with steel balls.  These mines are anti-personnel mines, meaning they are meant to kill people.  Viet Cong Claymore mines are usually filled with nails, screws, bolts, and any other kind of small metal objects they can find to put in there.  They are very effective at killing and maiming people.

Arriving at the base hospital, along with dozens of other vehicles coming from the same place, it was like on M*A*S*H, the  medical personnel went through the injured establishing the priority cases.  Though my leg hurt like hell, it wasn't anything serious.  Not even cut, but like somebody had kicked me hard!  My head wound wasn't serious either, but because it was a head wound it bled a lot.  A small piece of metal went under my scalp.  I was lucky. The explosion killed one person, injuring 28 others, some of them very seriously. When they finally got around to working on me they decided to leave that little piece of metal in there saying it shouldn't hurt anything and I would always have a souvenir of Vietnam.  Of the 8 of us in my Detachment seated at the table, 3 of us were injured. One, the Air Force Captain, not the one I came up with, had a small piece of shrapnel go through his knee. It went through cleanly and caused him to have a limp for awhile, but recover OK.  The other, one of the Navy Chiefs, had a piece of something hit his thumb and broke it.  He had a bandaged thumb for a few weeks but he recovered OK.  So, our little group came out of that pretty good, considering. I later looked at the jeep that took me to the hospital. I had been in the back leaning against the plastic window and canvas. Man, was it covered with blood.   Our Detachment earned 3 Purple Hearts for being wounded as a result of enemy action.  About a week later, the Colonel from our main Headquarters in Saigon came up and pinned our medals on us.  Also, during that time I earned a promotion to YN2, and the Colonel presented me with my new stripes. 

It is very difficult to make 2nd Class Petty officer in the Navy  when you just serve 4 years. You must have a year left in service to be promoted, so that meant it had to be done in 3 years.  I was proud of that.
This was early November.  I was settling into our small Detachment in Nha Trang.  We had a small office on the Army Base, right beside the Air Field.  Also, right next to the Special Forces Camp.  My daily routine was office work, but because of the small group, and me being the lowest ranking person there, I had a lot of other duties.  I drove to get the mail, kept the jeeps' oil changed, ran all kinds of errands.  Leaving our compound you would take the perimeter road.  Going to the left out of our gate ran you right in the front of the Special Forces Compound.  They had a large cannon, often firing into the hills behind the camp.  They had a standing order to fire when they wanted  when not targeting anything special.  Anytime a jeep went by the road they made it a point to fire that big gun right as you passed under it.  Talk about making you jump!  Even though I knew the gun was there, and they would fire it, I would often forget and it would catch me by surprise.
One day, and I can't remember why, we needed to make a trip to Cam Ranh Bay, about 40 miles south of us, also on the Coast.  We couldn't just drive down there.  We needed to hook up with a convoy headed that way and go with them, coming back the same way.  Chief Zajak and myself made the trip, going down one day and coming back the next.  Now, on this trip we wore a flak jacket and helmet because we were definetly going through areas that could be hostile.  Going down, the convoy was stopped.  They had received sniper fire from a Rubber Plantation.  The convoy brought up a jeep with a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on the back and fired into the trees.  This would stop the sniper fire.  Well, while firing into the trees a car full of Vietnamese drove in front of the jeep.  They didn't stand a chance.  When the convoy finally started moving we passed that car.  It looked like the car in "Bonnie and Clyde", only there were 6 bodies hanging out of the car instead of 2. 

At this point I'll bring up something I've always said.  It's easy to get killed in a war zone and I don't mean from the enemy.  Any place you have everybody walking around with a gun, those guns with them day and night, drinking or sober, it's easy for accidents to happen.  Not only that, but people drive like maniacs and those jeeps were open and didn't have seat belts.

Things went along pretty smoothly after the explosion.  This will take us up to the 1968 Tet Offensive that started during the early hours of January 31.  This event changed the War.
To be continued...........

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 12

Welcome to Vietnam

After checking in at Travis AFB and sitting around for a couple of hours, I was loaded onto an airplane and headed to Vietnam.  It was a normal passenger plane. The trip over was rather quiet.  The guys on the plane were pretty subdued, not a lot of joy in mudville.  We made a stop in the Phillipines, then landed at Tan Son Nhut Air Field, Saigon, Vietnam. Because I was attached to a joint service outfit, I didn't belong to anybody.  I found that out early.  A misfit. 

All new arrivals, no matter what branch of service, reported to an indoctrination center.  At the Air Field I was instructed to throw my seabag on the truck, get on the bus. No problem.  I never saw my seabag again!  So, my first hours in Vietnam I lost everything I owned except what little I had in my gym bag I had carried with me.  These sole items included my razor, toothbrush, change of underwear......and that's pretty much it.

This is why today the only thing I still have that was issued to me in boot camp was my 'Ditty Bag'. You can see my name and service number stenciled on the bag.  I went through about 5 days of in-country orientation.  I can't remember what they taught us that took 5 days.  History lessons about the country, how we were paid, what to do and not to do out on the street.  Don't eat the food from the corner food vendors.  Stuff like that. One thing they did though, was issue us 3 sets of jungle fatigues, boots and hat.  That took care of my clothing problem for the moment.  This was the uniform I wore while in Vietnam.

After orientation I reported to work at DCA-SAM.  This was a large building in a corner of Tan Son Nhut Air field.  They were in charge of all communications in Vietnam.  All land lines, radio hook-ups, etc.  They were the AT& T and FCC all rolled in to one in Vietnam.  I worked in an office, doing a lot of filing, a little typing.  I don't remember where I lived during that time, which only lasted about a week.

I received orders to be transferred to the DCA-SAM Detachment in Nha Trang.  This City was on the Coast, about in the middle of Vietnam. In Peace Time, Nha Trang was, and is today, a Resort Town.  They have a beautiful Beach. I found out that the Detachment consisted of 7 people.  When getting on the plane to go up there, I found out that another person was being transferred up there, too.  An Air Force Captain.  So we traveled together. I didn't board a normal passenger plane like I came over on, but a military transport plane  The Seats were netting, as shown in the picture. I also heard that most people rode in those planes sitting on their helmets, in case some enemy fire penetrated the fuselage.  I didn't have a helmet, so I just sat on my rear.

At this time in the Vietnam War, the fighting was in the Jungle. The Cities were the non-combatants. Fairly safe except for terrorist attacks, which happened frequently.  Someplace was always being blown up. So, leaving Saigon, heading to a small town up north, sounded to me like I was headed into hostile country.  The Captain felt the same way.  At the Airport in Nha Trang we were met by the other people in the Detachment.  They were armed to the hilt, each wearing a .45 on their side and carrying an M-16, wearing flak jackets and helmets. Not a good sign.  They were rush-rush, in a hurry. they handed us flack jackets and helmets and we all piled into 3 jeeps and headed out.  We left the airfield, headed down this dirt road, passing little huts filled with Vietnamese families, driving fast. They told us "Watch out for someone trying to throw a hand grenade into the jeep, or anything that looked suspicious." What the hell does that mean?  So I kept my eyes open.  We reached the end of this road and it emptied into a field where they circled and stopped. Over to one side of the field was a run down looking barn. We got out and they said "You guys will have to stay out here tonight, we'll be back to pick you up in the morning.  If you go over to that barn there's an old Papa-San over there who can find you a place to sleep.  You should be OK until we get back in the morning."  This was a fast, rush-rush, and they jumped back into the jeeps and took off.  The Air Force Captain and I stood there looking at each other.  Finally he said, I guess we'd better head over to that barn.  Just then, the jeeps turned around and headed back.  They pulled up, jumped out laughing, and said "Welcome to Nha Trang!" We then realized this was their practical joke.

The small Detachment in Nha Trang was headed by and Army Major, along with an Army Captain, a Special Forces Captain, another Air Force Captain, and two Navy Chief Petty Officers. The Air force Captain I came up with was taking the place of the Special Forces Captain who would be leaving in 2 weeks.  That would leave our little group to be seven people. Not belonging to any branch of service, we were Nomads.  The first night in Nha Trang I stayed with one of the Navy Chiefs in a Villa that he and several of his friends had rented out. After that, arrangements were made with the Navy people for me to stay with the Navy guys in their hotel.  Quiet a luxurious accomodation.

The second night in Nha Trang the group decided they should celebrate our arrival, so we went out to one of the finest restaurants in town.  I can't remember the name of the place, but it had a French name.  We were seated at a table outside. Ah, alfresco dining.  Not long after ordering our food, before it arrived, BOOM!  The Viet Cong blew the place up!
Did our hero get killed?

To be continued........

Bob - The Navy years, Chapter 11

Welcome to Vietnam

My worst fears were realized.  I didn't even get Sea Duty in the Pacific.  Shore Duty in Vietnam.  My orders came through to report on Oct 8th to DCA-SAM, Saigon, Vietnam.  Which was Defense  Communication Agency, Southeast Asia Mainlaind.  This was a Joint Service Group, positions filled by the Marines, Army, Air Force, and Navy. All branches of the Service supplied people for this Outfit.  OK, I'll find out what all that means when I get over there.
Meanwhile, Mary Lynn and I packed up and headed back to Kentucky for 2 weeks Leave.

We packed up that 'white' car, trunk and backseat full of everything we owned and headed East.  This time, instead of taking Route 66, we took the northern route to see different sites. Up through Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Carson City then stopping our first night in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  Then on to Yellowstone Park to visit Yogi Bear.  Then we started working down to a more southern route down through Nebraska and Kansas City over to St. Louis.  Remember, this was before Interstates, so looking at a road map now it's hard to remember all the back highways we drove.

IDAHO FALLS

 YELLOWSTONE GEYSERS
Mary Lynn kept saying "Get closer to the bears so I can get your picture". No thanks, this is as close as I want to get.  I think she was really looking to draw that Military Widows pension. There were a LOT  of bears, not just the one in the picture. I was watching several on the other side of the road.

We made it back to Louisville in one piece.  And spent two wonderful weeks visiting with family and friends.  We stayed at both our parents' houses on different nights, and it was soon time to say good-bye.

The morning of October 8th, 1967, we kissed good-bye at the Airport, I boarded a plane, and headed west to Travis Air Force Base, Oakland, California.  Debarking point for Vietnam.

Mary Lynn and I had $13 between us.  I took all the money with me.  Our whole life savings.  She was going to stay with her parents for the year, and I was going to travel half way round the world.  We thought I needed the $13 more than she did.  It was a sad day for a newly-wed couple, only married 6 months.  Sitting on that plane. looking at Mary Lynn in the terminal window, facing the real possibility that I may never see her again.......I was feeling about as low as a person can feel.

Arriving in Vietnam Next............To be continued.

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 10

Six Months Together

Mary Lynn and I got married Saturday, April 8, 1967.  Wasn't she a pretty bride! On Monday, April 10, we loaded up our new car and headed for California. Now, the car.  I bought a car while I was home, just a couple of days before the wedding.  I found out later that Mary Lynn had said to her family "I don't care what kind of car it is as long as it's not white."  She neglected to tell me that. So, we loaded up our 'white' car, and headed to California.  This was before Interstate Highways, and the road to take west was the fabled 'Route 66'.  Joplin, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Winslow, Ariz.....just like the song says. The trip west was our honeymoon.  We enjoyed the sights along the way and took our time.  We made a slight detour to see the Grand Canyon, drove through the Painted Desert, spent a night in Las Vegas.

We  drove across the Hoover Dam, then cruised on up to Fresno. I had rented us a furnished apartment in Fresno. So I commuted about an 80 mile round trip each day to the base.  I knew I was due for transfer in 6 months.  So we made the most of the time we had together.  With several other couples we were friends with, we made many weekend excursions to see the sights.  One weekend down to Anaheim to Disneyland, another weekend, Mary Lynn's favorite, camping in Yosemite Park and hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls.  One couple lived in Sacramento, so we went up there for the weekend when one other couple planned a wedding.  They got married in a Wedding Chapel in Reno.  That was a unique experience for us.  Each one of these weekend excursions was a story all by itself.     

Our friends in Sacramento, Dean and Judy Johnson, had a boat.  The worst sunburn I ever got was the weekend we went water skiing on Lake Folsom, beside Folsom Prison made famous by the Johnny Cash song.  While the guy at right is not me, and I didn't have a shirt on like him, I was burned that badly.  I should have known better.  Dean was the person who's place I took for 2 weeks at the Base Classified materials Office.  One other thing I'll mention, which I think was neat, we went to a local night spot in Fresno one evening and saw Billy Haley and the Comets  perform in person. I appreciated that more than Mary Lynn did.       

This was our little apartment in Fresno, CA.  It was a furnished apartment and our rent was $77 a month.  There were six apartments, 3 on each side of a driveway that went back to a garage for each apartment.  The place was very clean, the furniture nice, and I thought I did a pretty good job picking this place out, especially not knowing the area at all.

On May 17th, 1967 Mary Lynn turned 21!  I made her a cake, which has been our tradition for 43 years now.  You can see our kitchen furniture.

Well, I continued my job as a sailor, driving  the 80 mile round trip every day. During the past 2 years I had continued to advance in Rate and was currently a YN3. I looked back at my earnings over the years and in 1967 I earned a grand total of $2,502.   I was comfortable in the fact that Mary Lynn didn't just marry me for my money.   I  was due for transfer in the Fall.  About a month before being due for transfer you can put a request in for what type Duty you'd prefer.  Sometimes the Navy grants that wish if they need someone for that job anyway.  So, never having been to Sea, I knew I was due for Sea Duty.  Because of the Vietnam War and not wanting to go in that direction, I put in for Sea Duty on the East Coast.....Anywhere! I anxiously awaited my orders.

to be continued..............

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 9

Changing Jobs at VA-125

I mentioned in the last chapter that work was very much like the civilian workforce, and it is.  But, there are some exceptions.  You can't quit, and because of the nature of the military, the people you work with are constantly changing because of transfers. But, you make a lot of friends.  And I was fortunate to work with a lot of the same people for nearly the whole 2 years.

The picture at right is of the barracks in the background. I don't remember any gas station, so  think that might have been added later. The barracks were 3 stories, my living quarters was the 2nd floor.

This is a picture of the front gate at the Air Base.  Note how desolate the area looks in the background.  Not many trees.  I've Googled base pictures, and on recent pictures of this base there are many tall palm trees and lush looking lawns.  Of course, the newer photos were in color, but I can tell you now, they had some grass, but it hadn't really become lush lawns.  And, you still can't see those palm trees in the old photos! A military base is a small city.  It has most things you would need.  Movie, bowling alley, bank, snack bar, restaurant, store (PX), Grocery (Commissary), etc. Such was the living area on the base.

I started out working in the Captains Office.  I was there for probably 6-8 months.  This job consisted of being a secretary to the Captain.  Typing letters, filing, getting coffee.  The Captain had many people coming into his office, and we had to make sure any guests had coffee.  Coffee is BIG in the Navy.

Then I moved in to Classified Records.  Actually, part of the same office, but in a smaller office to the side.  There, I was in charge of keeping up with all the classified documents in the Squadron.  Many weapons manuals, Classified communications, etc.  Basically, there are 3 classes, Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.  I know there are classes beyond that, like Flash, and For Your Eyes Only, but the 3 classes I mention are what I handled.  I needed a Top Secret Clearance for that, which required an investigation of my background by the Navy Department.  I guess I passed.  While working in that office, the records clerk in the base Classified Office went on 2 weeks Leave, and I was loaned out to them for that period.  This was a separate building, just off the airfield.  I worked in the vault, which was basically a library of Classified material.  Pilots came to this building and 'checked out' manuals to read up and stay current on weapons systems.  NO documents left that building. You were buzzed in and out of the building by Security. Outdated material had to be destroyed. And there was a lot of it.  Manuals were contstantly being updated with new pages inserted and old ones removed.  After a short while you could get a large pile of papers and manuals needing to be destroyed.  How did we destroy them? No, we didn't have a paper shredder.  We burned them.  The Officer in charge of classified material and I took the pile to the incinerator and burned it.  One page at a time!  You couldn't throw a whole manual in, because you had to stay and stir the ashes to make sure nothing remained.  So, you tore manuals apart, throwing pages into the fire.  Now, it was usually 100 degrees outside at Lemoore, CA.  Standing in front of a roaring fire, outside, for a couple of hours wasn't fun.

I worked in Classified Records for 4-5 months then moved next door to Officer Records.  This was the Personnel Office for Officers.  This is where they reported when arriving to VA-125, and I was in charge of keeping their personnel records up to date. Therefore, I knew by name and sight many fighter pilots in the Pacific.  Almost all of them went on to fly missions over North Vietnam.  I knew many pilots killed or captured by North Vietnam.  Our Executive Officer, Lt Commander Cameron, who I worked beside in the Captains Office for many months, was shot down and parachuted into the Gulf of Tonkin. We heard that he was in radio contact with the other planes above, when he stated "The boats are closing in now, I'll have to  go."  So we knew he was alive, in the water, but he was never heard from again. 

 Years later, watching TV as the prisoners of war from Vietnam were released, I recognized many names of those Navy pilots.

     I thought I'd show you how close all the offices were that I worked in.  They were all either part of the same office or just next door. This was the second floor of the hangar.  Down the hallway north was the Pilots Ready Room, the Operations Office, and Medical.  Down the hallway to the south was the Mimeograph Office, and Training Schedule Office.

While at Lemoore, I went on  two week Leave in May of 1966.  While home I asked Mary Lynn to marry me. She said yes and we planned a wedding day for April 8, 1967.  We can't remember if I came home between May '66 and April '67 or not.  I don't think I did.  So we did our communication by letter and an occasional phone call.  She planned the wedding and I found us an apartment to live in. In April, 1967, I went on 2 weeks Leave.



Bob and Mary Lynn get married and head to California.

to be continued........................               

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 8

Settling In

Life on a military base is much like Civilian Life.  I worked an 8-5 workday, with weekends off.  We did pull 'Duty', took our turn to be on call, as our turn came up.  I can't remember, but I think we were on 'Duty' a week at a time, and it came around about every 6 weeks.  This meant we were confined to base, because we had to be available at a moments notice. I was only called in once when I was on Duty, but it was a major event. This happened after I was stationed there for awhile, maybe 8 months or so. But our Captain, Cmdr J. A. Endicott, was killed.  All the officers in the squadron were fighter pilots. Even when assigned to a land base, they still had to log required flying time. This included Aircraft Carrier take-offs and landings. While many accidents happened the 2 years I was stationed there, usually to young, inexperienced pilots, this was shocking because it happend to someone I knew well and worked with everyday.
In the Navy the leader of your group is 'Captain'. Whether you are on a ship or on land, no matter what that person's rank is, he is 'Captain'.  Commander Endicott, one rank below the Captain Rank, was our Captain.  He was killed while taking off from an Aircraft Carrier.

 For those unfamiliar with Aircraft Carriers, they have a very short runway for the jets that use them.  When you take off, you are shot off the end of the carrier by a catapult, allowing you to be 'up to speed' to get airborn.  When landing, you have a hook on the back of the plane that must catch an arrest wire to help stop you.  This cable has some 'give', but brings you to an abrupt stop. When landing, you must be going slow enough to catch a cable, but also fast enough to take off again if you miss the cable or it breaks.  Captain Endicott was taking off, but got off a 'Cold Cat', which was to say the catapult didn't get up to speed and his plane, when reaching the end of the ship, went straight down into the sea.
So, as Duty Yeoman, I was called in to do a lot of typing.  Messages needed to be sent, Death Certificates needed to be typed up along with many other official documents.  Busy night.
I'll stay with the 'Accidents" theme for a little bit.  As I said, many accidents happened during my stay at Lemoore.  Pilots are often killed in the service, not just in combat.  These are young men, learning to fly the fastest planes in the world, and learning to fly them in all conditions.  They spend a lot of hours flying. Accidents happen, not just from pilot error or inexperience, but from mechanical malfunction.  Pilots also learn to fly by instruments only, in case of fog or other sight restrictions, and learn what to do in case of many different emergencies that may come up. They practice these emergencies, not just casual flying. Every once in awhile, a pilot would fly into the side of a mountain. They don't survive.  One thing they do is 'touch and go' flying, just making a loop around the field, touching down as if landing, but once their wheels touch rev the engine and take  right back off again.  Usually 4 or 5 planes would be in the loop.  Once, when taking back off again, a pilot's plane rolled over unexpectedly. He ejected.  Straight down into the runway 30 feet below.
These type accidents happened with regularity.  I saw many pictures of plane crashes. Most of them were just charred "V" formations in the ground cluttered with debris.

Barracks life was not bad.  I lived in a cubicle with 6 other guys.  We had a 'Day room', where there were lounge chairs and a TV.  We could watch TV in the evening and football games on Sunday.  Some guys had little TV's in their cubicle.  I played a lot of cards.  Many an all-night poker game.  Usually $1 limit games.  I usually won because I, not to brag, was a pretty good poker player, for I'd played poker all my life.  I also played pinochle and pitch with friends.  We'd have the same partners, and even though we didn't play for money, the games were pretty intense.  Pitch is similar to Euchre.
The base had a movie theatre.  A different movie each week.  They weren't first run, but second run. Fairly new. Between playing cards and going to movies, writing letters and doing laundry, and hitting the chow hall 3 times a day, that pretty much occupied all my time. That's one thing I need to mention here.  The Navy has very good food. That's one thing that prompted me to join the Navy.  I knew, even if I was on ship, I'd have good food and a warm bed to sleep in each night.  We did have a laundry room with washers and dryers.  No, we didn't have to wash our clothes in a bucket like Boot Camp.  I think they all operated on a quarter, just like all laundromats.

Working in the Captain's Office, I knew before anyone else what was going on. All the latest news, or 'Poop', as we called it in the Navy. As in "What's the latest Poop?".  While I stayed working in the same area, over the course of the 2 years my job changed a few times. That's coming up next.

to be continued............

Jillian.....You crack me up!

Last night Jillian and I were sitting in my chair talking abour the movie "The Wizard of Oz". I was trying to get the feel for how scared she would be to watch it. We talked about how it wasn't so scary if you knew things would turn out OK.  Like, when the witch captures Dorothy and takes her to her castle, you know the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion will save her.  Jill "Yeah, but I don't think I want to watch it."  Me "Maybe when you're older, probably when you get to be six years old." Jill, thinking a second, "Mmmm......probably when I'm nineteen."

Then, this morning, Mimi was fixing cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Jillian was watching TV layed back on the Love Seat pillows.  "Are the cinnamon rolls ready yet?"  Mimi, "No Jillian, it'll be about five more minutes."  Jillian, in her deep voice, "Cinnamon rolls.......I can smell you!"

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 7

Off to California

So, after 2 weeks Leave, a lot of time with Mary Lynn, I packed my Seabag and off to California I went.  Looking back, I'd have to say the two years I spent in California was one of, if not the most, pivotal two years of my life.
Let me tell you a little about where I was assigned. VA-125, Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California. VA-125, (Attack Squadron 125).  They flew A-4 Skyhawks. The top attack aircraft of the day.

  VA-125 was a training squadron.  They did not deploy to an Aircraft Carrier as did all the other squadrons based at NAS Lemoore. All the other squadrons spent time on Carriers, months at a time, then had shore duty, assigned to an Air Base for months, then deployed to another Carrier.  We stayed put. That was nice. We trained pilots and ground crew.  All pilots assigned to other squadrons came through our squadron, off and on, temporarily for training. As did the ground crew.  The Air Station itself opened in 1961, so it was a very new base when I reported for Duty in August, 1965.  The base was located in Central California, about 40 miles southeast of Fresno, in the Desert. It was very hot in the summer, but often got in the 40's in the winter time.  The airfield and hangers were located about 5 miles from the barracks area.  To get back and forth we took 'Cattle Cars'. These were trailers shaped exactly like the cattle wagons you see semi's hauling up and down the highway.  The only difference was that there were no holes in the sides, there were a few windows, and there was a bus door on the side.  Inside, benches to sit on were placed around the walls and a couple of polls in the middle to hold when all the seats were taken. This was our base transportation. We took them to the airfield every morning, and back to the barracks every afternoon.  Quite a sweet ride!
I reported to the base in the evening and was assigned a bunk. Now, on a Military Base, there are normal work hours, but every building, and every job, is covered by a Duty Officer or someone on Duty that Day.  So, no matter what time, there's always somebody available to receive people reporting for Duty or take care of any other thing that comes up. Reporting to my barracks, I was given a blanket, two sheets, and shown the way to my cubicle and bed, then given instructions on where to be in the morning, and what time.
As I've said before, on any base of any size, there's always more than one person reporting in at a time.  This being a training squadron, there were more people than would normally be checking in a squadron.  I'd say there were about 20 people checking in.  We reported to the Personnel Office, first stop.  You give them your records, they give you a check in sheet and a map of the base. While there, a sailor came in and said "Anybody here know how to type?".  My hand shot up. Flunkies as myself would be assigned to washing airplanes or some other menial tasks. I knew that much, so hey, maybe a window is opening up here.  I think only one other person raised his hand, so we were to told to see him when we finished checking in. Well, to cut to the chase, after checking in, the other guy, I don't remember who it was now, was assigned to the Personnel Office, and I went to the work in the Captain's Office, right next door to Personnel.  George Kellogg, the guy who asked if anyone knew how to type, was the Captain's personal secretary, and I became his assistant.  Now, I know I said secretary.  But, in the Navy, this position is called a Yeoman. So, before I go any further, I think I should give a quick lesson in Navy Ranks and Rates. Pay Grades are different. They are the same in every Service for Enlisted.  E-1 through E-9.  As you go up in rank, your pay increases.
I would recommend anyone reading this to Google U. S. Navy Ranks. It would be a quick read, and give a better understanding.  In the Navy there are two separate people, Officers and Enlisted. They don't mix.  They even have their own clubs on base to go to.  That is, Officers Club, and Enlisted Club.  This Club is just a place on base that is like a Bar and Lounge.  You can get a dinner there, or a mixed drink.  Many times on weekends they would have live music and dancing.  A lot of local girls get to come on the base to go to the clubs.
But, lets go back to the Ranks.  I was an Enlisted man. We'll stay with explanation of Enlisted Ranks. In the Navy, Enlisted men don't have Ranks, they have Rates.  This is because a Rate states what your Rank is, plus what job you do. When you join the Navy, you are an E-1, Seaman Recruit.  When you graduate Boot Camp, You are an E2, Seaman Apprentice.  Later down the line, when you pass your tests, you become an E-3, Seaman. Now, when you are a Seaman, you are training for a job.  This is called 'Striking'. Myself, working in an Office, when I became a Seaman, I was striking for Yeoman.  The next level of promotion, passing all the tests required, I would become a Yeoman 3rd Class, or YN3.

The Insignia at right is a YN1, Yeoman First Class  Stripes.  YN3 would only have one chevron.  But, the Rating Stripes show  the Rank, and the crossed quills below the eagle show that that person is a Yeoman. Engineman would have a gear, Personnelman would have a quill and book, etc.,each job having its own emblem.  But, the Navy is the only service where the stripes you wear not only show your rank, but also what job you do.
Now, coming out of Boot Camp, going to an aviation school, I was not a Seaman Apprentice, but an Airman Apprentice.  Therefore, I had to change from AA to SA, in order to strike for a Yeoman position.  Complicated? You need to follow the bouncing ball.  Anyway, George Kellogg, YN3, helped me bigtime in settling in and getting things changed that I needed changed.
So here I was, working in the Captain's Office with two other Enlisted men, a YN2, which I can't for the life of me remember his name, and a YN3, and Seaman Apprentice me. The Captain, the Executive Officer, and the Security Officer. 
This was how I started my tour of Duty in VA-125, NAS Lemoore, CA.

to be continued...............

Putting the Chips Away

The other day Jill was over for a little while.  After lunch, I closed up the chip bags with a couple of clips we often have hanging on the refrigerator.  Jill said, "I know where these go, I'll put them up".

Reference to Bob's Blog

I really wanted to find some type of picture to use with my last post about NATTC, Memphis.  I didn't take a singe picture while I was down there but thought I might find one on line to use.  So, I Googled NATTC Memphis, Tenn Pictures.  I got a site that had a lot of Navy training pictures, none that I thought I could use,  But, several of the pictures on that site were pictures I used in previous blogs about Boot Camp, and, they noted that they could be found on bobsbadgolf.blogspot.com. Cool!

Bob - The Navy Years, Chapter 6

NATTC, Memphis, Tennessee

Actually, this base is located in Millington, TN, just outside of Memphis.
After 2 weeks Leave at home, getting to visit with friends and spending a little time with that cute Mary Lynn Wagner, I boarded a Greyhound Bus and headed for Memphis.  I arrived there on May 17, 1965.  Checking in and out of a Base is very similar in nature. Just one is in reverse of the other. You hit all the same spots. You report to the Personnel Office, where there you receive your check-in instructions.  This is a check in sheet, listing all the places you need to check in, along with a map of the base.  Usually, there are several new people checking in at the same time so you have company on your little jaunt around the base. You must check in at places like Disbursing (Payroll), Chow Hall, Library, Recreation Dept, Barracks, Maintenance Shop, whichever Company on the Base you are being assigned, and various other places depending on the base.  Each of these places have a little stamp they use to stamp your sheet and when you've finished you go back to the Personnel Office.  You are now checked in to the base.  From there you report to your Barracks where they assign you a bunk, give you your sheets and blankets, then you move in.  Here, I was in the School Barracks and in a cubicle with 3 other guys.  Our wing had about 8 cubicles.  Our Barracks had 2 wings, 2 floors, so math would say about 128 people in the Barracks. 
School Bases are a step up from Boot Camp, but still very restrictive in your movements. Most people there are very new Sailors, so they didn't give us a lot of freedom.
Each morning we had to 'Field Day' or cubicle. Each person made sure his rack was made up, clothes stowed properly, and the place looked good.  The last thing we did was swab the deck, wax it, and wait for it to dry.  Then, the newest person in the cube had to secure the buffer to buff the floor.  One buffer per wing. This meant going to the person that was currently using the buffer and asking if you could have it next. Usually, somebody else was next and you had to go to him to ask if you could get it next..  A person would have to go through several people before getting a turn.  Then you had to remember who you got it after and who was getting the buffer after you!  Then you buffed the deck, nice and shiny, then fell out to march to class.  People were going to different classes, but they were basically in the same area.  So we marched from the Barracks area to the classroom area then disbursed.
I was attending electronics class.  Much math involved.  I hated it.  I didn't work very hard at it.  I hated High School, and I hated this school.  I really never got along with school in my younger days. Being in Memphis, I was close enough to home that I tried to get home every weekend. That didn't help my classwork, either.
While in Memphis I did run into Billy Doyle and Charlie Pate, two of the guys with whom I planned on joining the Navy. They'd  joined not long after I did.
Most of the time I took the Greyhound Bus home and back to the base. One time Charlie Pate and I hitchhiked back to Louisville. That was an experience!  It took all night.  We left around 4-5 in the afternoon and I got to Louisville around 6:00 am. the next morning.  Our last ride was caught in E-town and this guy in his Cadilac drove 100 mph all the way to Louisville.  I shouldn't have come home so often.  I was dead tired when I was home and dead tired by the time I got back to the base.
Well, it took me about 6 weeks to flunk out.
So, waiting for orders, I, along with all the other flunkies, was assigned to work details.  We did a lot of painting, cleaning, and yard work.
New Orders finally came through.  I reported to the Personnel Office to see where I was going.  Now, I never really thought about it or envisioned it, but in the back of my mind I thought somewhere in Washington, D. C., some high ranking officer was making decisions on where to send people.  You know, "Let's put this Tabler kid on a Destroyer in the North Atlantic fighting the Ruskies until he gets his head on straight." type of thing. The bubble burst. As I stood in Personnel, about a half a dozen old ladies, each one looking like Aunt Bee or Clara from Mayberry, was back there typing up orders.  "Bee, I need 3 of them to go to Florida", "Clara, give me 6 of them for Norfolk".  Well, I received my orders.  I was headed to VA-125, Lemoore Naval Air Station, Lemoore, CA.
Great.  Damn Watts Riots are going on in California at that time. Where the hell is Lemoore, California?  Am I gonna get right in the middle of that mess?  So checking out of NATTC, Memphis, like I checked in, thinking wrongly that I'd never see that place again, I went home for 2 weeks Leave before reporting to my new home in California.
Now, in the military you get 30 days leave a year, and here I was using up 28 days of it in 8 months.  I was in the hole.  But home I went, knowing this time getting back home was not gonna happen nearly as often in the future.

To be continued........