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