Fifty years ago, I was actively involved in the Bicentennial Support Group at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. I was serving on ACDUTRA, which stands for active duty for training, as part of my enlistment in the United States Naval Reserve. I had volunteered for this four years earlier after being invited to participate in the Vietnam War. In June 1972, I received a notice for a pre-induction physical. Rather than being conscripted into the United States Army, I chose to enlist in the United States Naval Reserve, serving as a Hospital Corpsman. I served nearly two and a half years on active duty in several assignments, including recruit training, “A” school, and work at a dispensary at Naval Air Station Albany, Georgia. This was followed by an assignment at the Naval Submarine Medical Center in Groton, Connecticut.
Following active service, I was assigned to CV 1703, which was a reserve unit that drilled monthly in Buffalo, New York. In those days, reservists were required to serve two weeks each year in active duty for training status to fulfill their reserve commitment. Failure to do so would have put me back in active service for the remainder of my enlistment. I got orders to the Bicentennial Support Group in Philadelphia that spring and arranged with my employer to be gone for a couple of weeks. Though I was a corpsman, there were no billets in sick bay, so I was going to be assigned to help tourists aboard the USS Intrepid, which was then at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. It was hot and sunny in Philadelphia, and following muster on the first day, I joined other sailors aboard the Intrepid as we prepared her for tours by the public.
Reserve units like ours were made up of a number of ratings specialties, and one of them was a yeoman, who is the office staff person in the unit. At muster on the morning of the second day of duty, the commanding officer of our unit came to muster and said, “Is there anybody here who can type?” I raised my hand, and the old man said, “Watkins, come with me to my office. I need someone who can type.” The yeoman he’d been assigned couldn’t type a bit. I’m sure glad my Mom insisted I take keyboarding in high school. I spent the remainder of the next two weeks working in an air-conditioned office doing clerical work for the reserve staff.
Those keyboarding skills came in handy later in life with the advent of personal computers. They were my segue into another assignment as the school district’s computer coordinator, which, in time, led to my keen interest in Linux and open-source software.
I remember the men and women I served with in Philadelphia and elsewhere in my active naval service with pride. We were reluctant warriors who did everyday things that military personnel are called on to perform. I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes by John F. Kennedy.
“I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy. – John F. Kennedy