Railroads, Rivers, Route 66 and Running: 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.