Red Onion Rip Loc: Oklahoma

Sounds like you had a pretty good time of it. I was very lucky in that I only had 1 year of sea duty in 9 years. 1st duty station after 'A' school was Edzell, Scotland. Was supposed to be there two years, but got 'emergency' orders after a year along with about a dozen other guys. Then came back to the states for 30 days leave, then up to Brooklyn Navy Yard to wait for a month before we flew to Capetown, South Africa to pickup our ship which was home ported there. The USNS Jose F. Valdez T-AG 169 "Oceanographic Research Vessel", Yeah Right ; ) in a pigs eye. We had more antennas on that thing than you could count. We had a civilian crew so we didn't have to run the ship. The military department consisted of about 95 officers and enlisted. Most of the enlisted were Communications Technicians. We cruised the Indian Ocean from Capetown up to the the Gulf of Aden with stops at Port Elizabeth, Durban, Mombasa, Aden, and Djibouti, French Somali Land. We actually stopped in Durban a couple of times and Mombasa 3 times. In June we had a 28 day yard period in Capetown then into the Atlantic and stopped at Walvis Bay, South West, Africa (now Namibia) and Luanda, Angola. From Africa I went to the Naval Security Group Activity at the Naval Radio Station, Washington, D.C., located at Cheltenham, MD for two years. From there it was off to NSGA Kamiseya, Japan for two years followed by one year at NSGA Misawa, Japan. While I was at Kamiseya, I went TAD to the USS AMERICA in the Tonkin Gulf. Had to fly C-130 from Japan to Kadena, Okinawa. Stayed the night there, then another C-130 from Okinawa to Da Nang the next morning. Then I had to wait until I could catch a COD out to the carrier. Sat there about six hours waiting for the COD. At least I can say I made a carrier landing even if I was sitting backwards. There were about 10 of us sent down there to ride the carrier up through the Sea of Japan to test Soviet reaction to a carrier in the Sea of Japan. They definitely reacted to us too. We were over flown five or six times by TU-95 Bear aircraft. It was our job to notify CIC when the TU-95s and their Mig escorts took off so the carrier could launch fighters to meet them and escort them in. Too bad they didn't fly us off the carrier too. But the carrier, after transiting the Sea of Japan went around into the Pacific and docked at Yokosuka, Japan. And, of course, my wife was there to meet me and we just drove the short distance home to Yokohama where Navy housing was. I really liked that trip, the only bad part of it was the fact that they put me in a top bunk right under the port main catapult. Nothing like being awakened at 2 A.M. to the sound of a freight train coming straight at you then passing within a couple of feet and finally hitting a brick wall. Other than that it was great fun. Our spaces were just off the port side forward catwalk just in front of the angle deck. When they launched off the angle deck we'd go up in that catwalk and take pictures. You could almost touch the planes.

One of my grand-sons has committed to the Navy. His test scores are high enough that he will either be CT, which is now called Cryptologic Technician, or Nuke. He says he doesn't want nuke because he doesn't want to end up on submarines, but he could end up on subs as a CT also.