Post-Boot Camp

Graduation

Graduation was a big deal after 16 weeks away from home and with just the guys in our company to hang out with.  We were all yearning for some conversation about anything but shining shoes and making bunks. 

My aunt Alice lived in LA at the time and came down to San Diego for my graduation.  She was so beautiful, it hurt to look at her.  She and her husband Barney came to the ceremony.  After we graduated, they had punch and cookies for recruits and visitors.  I was proud of the looks my aunt was getting from the guys in my company.  I know they weren’t all “pure” looks, but so what. She was a real babe in my book.

With graduation, we got a weekend pass, meaning we could leave the base.  Aunt Alice and Uncle Barney invited me to come to their hotel to have some non-navy food and see a little of San Diego.  They treated me like royalty.

“A” school

Shortly after graduation, I got my orders transferring me to my first “A” school.  It was also in San Diego so it was just a bus ride to another base. 

Here I learned some basics about torpedoes.  Some of the older torpedoes used alcohol burners to create steam to power the torpedoes. Some of the sailors would siphon off some of the alcohol and put to a different use than it was intended. I can’t imagine what that use was. The torpedo I was tasked to learn about was the MK 35. 

It was propelled by battery power and used Sonar to locate its target.  I was good at reading schematics and technical drawings, so this was fun for me. I don’t remember how long the school was, but just long enough to prove you had the capabilities to learn and retain all the technical data involved. If you showed an aptitude for what was involved, you were sent to “C” school for further training.  I was lucky enough to get a berth in “C” school in Boca Raton Fla. (I think that’s where it was. I know it was Fla. for sure).

“C” School

To get to Boca Raton, I was given my first ever plane ride. I got my orders, and a ticket for American Airlines.  At that time the 727 was the workhorse of the airline industry.  That was my first experience with air travel.  San Diego airport is in an area surrounded by hills, almost mountains.  When we took off, the pilot floored it, and when the wheels left the runway, he pulled back on the yoke and it felt like we were going vertical. What a kick in the ass.  I thought I was going to go thru the back of my seat with g-force.

Home for leave

On My trip from San Diego to Boca Raton, I had a couple of days leave. I stopped in Houston and went out to visit mom and dad on "the ranch."

Shortly after I left for the Navy, my mom and dad moved down to a ranch in Fulshear, TX.

to be caretaker/foreman for one of the executives at Brown Root.  I don’t think my dad had ever been on a ranch, except to get to an oilfield drilling location.

My brother Joe had been working in Saudia Arabia, and other remote places. On one of his trips home from South America, he brought a beautiful blue-yellow-red

Macaw (Guacamaya) and gave it to our parents. The bird was about 2 feet tall, and the wingspan was close to 5 or 6 feet. 

When mom and dad would go around the ranch checking on stuff. They would let the bird out and he would fly around them as they drove the jeep.

When I was home on leave, my dad let me use the jeep to go into town. I didn’t really have any friends in Fulshear, so I mostly just drove into town to go to the movies. Each time I got in the jeep, the bird would start squawking to go flying like she did with mom and dad.

When my leave was over, I continued to C school.

Boca Raton

I got to Boca Raton with no problem.  By the time I arrived, the people in the offices of the base knew Santa Claus was arriving for “C” school.  It was all over the base in no time.  The Navy has a pretty good grapevine, and they make use of it. “C” school was a lot more laid back than “A” school was. 

In A school, we were just new recruits with no experience (so called Salt). In C school we had a little salt and got more liberty, and the regulations were a little more loose.  Also, Boca Raton had a great Rec (Recreation) Department. You could borrow snorkeling equip, or surf boards, or boogie boards.  They had softball equip to outfit 3 or 4 teams. They had golf equipment available also, but I wasn't interested at that time. Anytime we had down time, we could make use of the Rec. I Aced C school and was given my first shipboard assignment.  I was transferred to the USS Fulton in New London Conn.