US Navy

Thirty five years

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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 … Read more

Good news

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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 … Read more

Good luck and Godspeed

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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 … Read more

Memories

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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. … Read more

35th Anniversary

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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.

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No news is good for me

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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.

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