Thanksgiving 2013 - #1 "Thanksgiving 1970 U.S.S. America"

One of the more unique Thanksgiving experiences of my life took place in 1970 as a result of my time spent on the USS America. While returning from Vietnam to the America's homeport of Norfolk, Virginia we cross the International Dateline on Thanksgiving Day. The result was that we actually had Thanksgiving twice. I am including a copy of the menu from both days so you can see that it was pretty special. Trust me, while shipboard food was actually pretty good, it was nothing like what we were offered on our Thanksgiving menus.

While sorting pictures from the America cruise I decided to choose some others to use in this blog rather than do a separate blog on the cruise. The America cruise was my second to Vietnam and took place in 1970. After our A4 squadron VA 23 decommissioned in Lemoore, California some of us were reassigned to another training squadron in Lemoore, VA 122 where we were trained on a new aircraft, new for us, the A7. I was assigned to VA 122 for 17 weeks from April to July 1970 and then I was assigned to VA 147 an A7 squadron stationed at Lemoore but already stationed aboard the America.

The America had left Norfolk, Virginia for a "world cruise" in April and I arrived on board with other members of VA 147 on July 14th. We flew from Travis AFB in California to Clark AFB in the Philippines and then were transported to Subic Bay in the Philippines where we joined the America. While on this cruise we visited Subic Bay, Manila, Hong Kong, Yokosuka, Japan from where we were able to travel to Tokyo, Sydney, Australia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Of course we spent the majority of the time at sea and the majority of that sea duty in the Tonkin Gulf for Vietnam combat support.

Two other interesting things that took place on this cruise was our crossing of the equator where those of us who had never done so before, "Pollywogs" were initiated into the "Royal Order of Sheelbacks" by the "Shellbacks". It was an unreal, bizarre experience, somewhat like an overblown fraternity initiation. There was so much grease and garbage involved in the day's initiation that out Squadron Commander even put out a letter with instructions on how we should shower. That took place on the 15th of November on our way to Australia. Additionally on that portion of our cruise we had another unique experience; the ship was stopped and we were allowed to jump from the hangar deck and swim in the ocean while Marine sharpshooters circled us in boats watching for sharks.

Here are some additional pictures from the America cruise:

Flight Deck

Flight Deck

Top Left - Curt & Me Top Right - Grimey
Bottom Left - Randy from home, Me & Curt
Bottom Right - Don't get sick, the Navy has other plans!

Catching Up - Day Trip, Race & One More Veterans Day Entry

I wanted to sit down and catch up on a few things that I have been taking pictures of for the purpose of blogging about them. It is amazing how fast I find myself several events or ideas behind if I keep saying, "I'll write it tomorrow". Rather than stressing about getting it done I just faced the fact that we all know that "Tomorrow Never Comes" so I just had to come to the realization that it was fine to just wait until I really wanted to make the time to do it. The reality is that if it is important enough to me to do it then it will get done. With that said, here are a few things that have been going on.

APPLE HILL

There are similar places all over the country to Apple Hill. I have been hearing about it on the news for weeks and my sister told me that she had taken my parents there in the past. So we decided to do a day trip and it was definitely a trip worth taking. It is one of those trips that you really want to take if you enjoy the Fall season; orchards, vineyards, wineries, restaurants and breweries, what's not to like. 

I think one thing that made it so much fun is that we had no agenda; I have really learned to love doing day trips or even longer trips that don't have to be so planned that they are spoiled if you happen to miss something that you had planned. 

The trip was a kickoff for my sister Donna's birthday week.

Donna & I

This past weekend I did a half marathon in Clarksburg, California. I've mentioned before how much I enjoy going to races where I can see new places and Clarksburg was no exception. It is a beautiful area in the Delta region southwest of Sacramento, just west of the river. The course ran along miles and miles of vineyards and was beautiful. It helped that the weather was perfect.

While going through pictures looking for some of my Dad for Veteran's Day I found some as well as some pictures from my time at Aviation Fire Control Technician "A" School near Memphis, Tennessee. I was stationed there after boot camp and before I was sent to my duty station in Lemoore, California. So here are some final pictures for Veteran's Day 2013.

MEMPHIS - NAVAL AIR TECHNICAL TRAINING CENTER

These pictures are of Ted, one of the five of us that enlisted together and one of three of us sent to Memphis for training and Pete, who we met and became close friends with in boot camp. The other pictures are some of us who graduated from AQ "A" School.

Writing, reading and running. Three things that I did a lot of while stationed at Memphis when I wasn't in class. While stationed at Memphis we used to have to march to class, lunch, etc. One of the advantages of being on the track team was that we were given a pass exempting us from marching. Nice!

These pictures are of times that Pete and I spent with Rob, another of the five and his wife Jenny who was also a friend of mine in high school. Jenny and I ran on a relay time together at a coed all school track meet. It was great having them stationed at Memphis and living in base housing because it gave us a chance to get away from the barracks and Rob had a car so we could get around when we had liberty.

Our barracks and our chow hall, nothing fancy. Pete, Ted and me at the Memphis Zoo. We would go to Memphis when we got a chance and since we had very little money we went to the zoo, the movies, where we actually watched Gone With The Wind in a huge old theater, we visited the place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and several other tourist areas. It was good to get away from the constant structure of school and military duty. 

I'm sure there will be future posts about my time in the military experience. While readers may find some (all) of it boring, I find it somewhat therapeutic. 

So I'm caught up for now through mid-November!

Veteran's Day - 2013 #2 U.S.S. Oriskany

I mentioned before that it had been difficult to talk about my time in the Navy and that the difficulty was created by several sources; some of the sources were my own mixed feelings about duty vs. Vietnam War, the way that the majority of Vietnam Veterans were treated for many years, even decades, and honestly just the fact that I wasn't sure how I felt about so much of that time in my life.

I've also said before in this blog that I want to document and share some of my past so that my children and grandchildren can know me better. When I was helping take care of my Dad the last years of his life I found myself wanting to know more about his life and a lot he either didn't remember or wasn't sure of. I can see how as we age we all get that way so some of these blog entries are made simply to record the past so that I don't have to worry about being able to share in the future.

I enlisted in the Navy in 1968 and left for bootcamp on February 6th. I was in bootcamp until April and then after "boot leave" I traveled to Millington, TN just outside of Memphis where I received training as an Aviation Fire Control Technician. I was there for several months and was then assigned to VA 23; Attack Squadron 23 stationed at Lemoore Naval Air Station in Lemoore, CA. where I received training specific to the fire control systems on the A4 aircraft.

On April 14, 1969 we embarked from Oakland, California on the USS Oriskany, CVA 34, a very old aircraft carrier. We were headed for what was called a WestPac tour. I love the word tour as if this was a vacation. On this "tour" we stopped in Hawaii on the way to Subic Bay in the Philippines where we prepared for our first deployment in the Tonkin Gulf to provide air support in Vietnam.

I am attaching just a few of the pictures that depict life on the ship. Anyone who has ever seen an aircraft carrier, particularly one of the newer ones has probably been impressed by the size and rightfully so, they are big. The reality though is that when you are living aboard one for months at a time they become very small very fast.

The center picture is one taken when I was going through a hatch to get to my sleeping quarters. When we first got aboard part of our squadron had to sleep below decks because there wasn't enough room in the squadron area. It was noisy and claustrophobic. The other pictures top left and clockwise are of my bunk area when I moved into the squadron berthing area, sleeping on the floor of the shop where I worked rather than sleep way below decks, working on an A4 on the flight deck during stand down and working on some of the electronics in the avionics shop.

A lot of time was spent in the Avionics Shop. As you can see from previous pictures there wasn't room to "hangout" in the berthing area and if flight operations were going on we certainly couldn't "hangout" on the flight deck. Despite the size of the ship once aboard my life was pretty much confined to a very small world. Shop, bunk area, chow hall and hangar deck or flight deck if we had to work on an aircraft. Sometimes we could spend time on deck just to get some fresh air as long as flight ops weren't taking place. (And no, I'm not smoking in the top left picture, I'm chewing on a pen cap).

Chow Hall

We did get to visit some other ports when we were on our cruise.

Clockwise from top left, Japan, at a floating restaurant in the Kowloon District of Hong Kong with Joe and Smitty, Hong Kong and with Joe on Corregidor, Smitty must have taken the picture. The three of us did a lot of sightseeing when we were in port.

I tried to run when I could, this picture was taken at a ball field in Subic Bay, I actually had to do most of my running on the flight deck between air ops. Smitty, Joe and I playing miniature golf in Subic.

I mentioned earlier about trying to talk with my Dad about his life and his military service is one thing that I wish I knew more about. I can certainly understand not remembering a lot and not wanting to remember some but I'm grateful that I have these pictures and others to serve as reminders of some of those times.

HOMECOMING - November 17, 1969