Tag: US Navy

Posted on

Pass in Review

Thursday of this week will see me traveling to Great Lakes, Illinois. I haven’t been there since February 8, 1973. My nephew is due to Pass in Review. He’s been at Great Lakes Recruit Training Center since late June. Tom signed up on a delayed enlistment plan in January. Since then a young man I hardly knew because we’re usually separated by hundreds of miles has constantly been in my thoughts and prayers. I called him the night before he left and talked briefly with him and let him know that I’d be praying for him. I’ve sent him 7 letters and a postcard since he’s been in Boot Camp. I know from being there that “mail call” can be a lonely time. I’ve done my best to lighten his load and encourage him along the path to his new career. Whether Tom stays in the Navy for four or thirty-four years one thing is for certain now, he’ll never be the same again. Boot camp is one of those rights of passage that young men and women go through that set them apart from their peers. It is designed to be that way. He has metamorphosed from a civilian with a distinct individuality into a member of a military unit where each person is part of a great whole.

This journey to Great Lakes is part of a larger journey which Tom’s enlistment has been for me. It’s been a journey into my own past and a better insight into my own experience of the United States Navy. Thirty-six years ago on the 13th of October 1972, I led the division onto the field carrying the American flag. I got the honor because I’m tall and I had a good military bearing. I get goose bumps just thinking about standing again at a place where my own Navy journey began. So much has changed in these past 36 years and yet so much remains the same. I’m as anxious as a nineteen year old once more except I know now how it turned out. I did well. I excelled and I hope the same for Tom and his shipmates. One thing is for certain as they pass in review there will be one old sailor with a lump in his throat, a tear in his eye and a chest filled with a healthy sense of pride for this new group of sailors about to become part of the greatest navy in the history of the world.

Posted on

Thirty five years

Yesterday was the thirty-fifth anniversary of my father’s death. It’s a day that will always live in my memory. I was serving on active duty in the United States Navy and stationed at the Naval Air Station in Albany, GA. I was working the afternoon shift in the newborn nursery when I was summoned to the executive officer’s suite. He greeted me and told me that he was sorry to have to tell me that my Dad had passed away earlier that day. I cannot remember the XO’s name, but I will always remember his face and the look of genuine concern. Though I had only been stationed in Albany about four months at that point my shipmates took the best of care of me.

Bill Kirkland, one of the dental technicians magnanimously offered the use of his Datsun 240Z for me to make the trip home. I’ve often thought of what a special gesture that was. I’ve completely lost track of all my shipmates in the last thirty years, but I’d like to say thank you to Bill because his gesture stood out from the rest. I don’t even know if he’s still alive, but you really bumped me up that day with that offer.

Posted on

Double chocolate chip frappucino

Yesterday I received a letter from my nephew who is in boot camp at Great Lakes, IL. It was touching letter and I my voice broke as I read it. I never got to spend as much time with Tom as I would have liked because distance always separated us. Yet, now in my life I find us being knit together from the common experience of the United States Navy. His letter was also interesting because he mentioned that he is scheduled to graduate from recruit training on the Feast of the Assumption. I hadn’t made that connection until his letter. In one of my letters to him I mentioned stopping at a number of Starbucks on our way to and from North Carolina a few weeks ago. Tom said that their chaplain told them that one of the ways you can know that God loves you is by consuming a double chocolate chip frappucino at Starbucks. I think I’m going to get Tom a gift certificate to Starbucks. That’ll be a good completion for the Chaplain’s metaphor. It’ll be good for Tom and good for Starbucks.

Posted on

Good news

My nephew Tom has been named Education Petty Officer for his division at Navy Boot Camp. I’ve been praying for his success and safety everyday and this is good news indeed. In 1972 I was given the same assignment when I too was at Boot Camp. This is one of the coincidences of life that’s difficult to explain. I wonder what set Tom apart in his division commander’s eye.  He’s tall, very bright and must have a good military bearing. He must command respect and equally important be able to get the message across to other recruits who need help learning their lessons.

Posted on

Good luck and Godspeed

Tomorrow my nephew enters boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He will be the third generation in our family to “go Navy.” I called him tonight to wish him well in his new career. I was speaking to a retired Navy recruiter yesterday and that man said that today’s recruits don’t face the hazing that was part of my experience in the early 1970’s, but that my nephew will face rigor nonetheless. I hope that you will join me in praying for Tom as he embarks on this journey. All recruits face a transition from civilian to military life. They leave behind the familiar surroundings of home with its comfort and familiarity. They make the transition to military life. They learn to become part of a team. It’s the end of individuality in a culture that stresses just that.

I remember my own transition. I joined the Navy because that’s how my Dad had answered the call during World War II. Like Dad, I went to Boot Camp at Great Lakes. Those first days were an awakening. I met a lot of great young men and formed relationships that I still remember nearly thirty-six years later.  I had a really great company commander. He was Chief William W. Boyd. Chief Boyd was near the end of his Navy career when he took us through boot camp. We loved him and visited him after we got out of boot camp. I hope Tom does as well.

Posted on

Memories

301 Hazeltine
Today while I was waiting for Diane to finish shopping I used my GPS and found what used to be the United States Naval Reserve Center at 301 Hazeltine Avenue in Jamestown, New York. It was here that I came in June of 1972 to inquire about service in the United States Navy. It was here that I enlisted on June 21, 1972 for six years in the United States Naval Reserve. Little did I know how much that decision would impact my life both in the short and long term.

I was anxious and uncertain about what the future held for me, but it was the calm assurance of Petty Officers’ Leonard Fuller and Dan Slocum who reassured me. I never met Mr. Fuller again. Like most of my naval friends and acquaintances he has vanished. I later ran into Dan Slocum when he served on the school board at Franklinville Central School. As I stood there today looking at the building and enjoying the lovely day I thought of how often in the past several years that I wished I had kept up with my shipmates. That was one of the mistakes I made, I lost contact. I look for them by name sometimes in Google searches, but find only the names of surgeons I worked with never the Corpsmen and other enlisted men and women with whom I served.  All lives have regrets and that is one of mine.

Posted on

35th Anniversary

Thirty-five years ago today I graduated from the United States Navy Hospital Corps School at Great Lakes, Illinois. I was a member of Company 7316 as we were officially known. I was eighth in a class of sixty-eight other new Hospital Corpsman that crossed the stage that day. We were mostly draftees who chose to join the Navy rather than take our chances wandering in the jungles of South East Asia. Some of us would later serve with the Fleet Marine Force as HM-8404’s and many would later face peril somewhere else. I often wondered if any of my shipmates were injured in Beirut in the 1980’s. Continue reading “35th Anniversary”

Posted on

No news is good for me

Life has been very busy and I’ve not had time to record my thoughts here in a number of days. I also missed the second anniversary of my entry into blogging. I’m grateful to all the folks who stop by and read my thoughts and in turn share their own. Blogging and blog reading has become a major pastime for me. I read the RSS feeds of over a dozen blogs each day. I get most of my news from blogs. In the past couple of months I’ve stopped listening to and/or reading daily newspapers and televised news. For the most part I’m more contented. I’ve found their constant hype of Brittany Spears, Election 2008 and other items to be a distraction from the problems faced by real people everywhere on the planet. Continue reading “No news is good for me”