Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

What an ordeal-- I've been out all day and never puked till I got to the dock LOL

debeda

Carlos

It's a good outfit, some duty is a little rough, like weather patrol in The North Atlantic for thirty to forty days at sea, some seas are really rough. But then there's other duties like on a life boat station say in Hawaii or Florida, not to say they don't have tough times. During any war the Coast Guard goes to sea,they were In Okinawa, Viet Nam, anywhere their needed.they don't often get recognized so this isn't a service that You go to for recognition. Most people have no idea that the Coast Guard served in war zones. I was on the Coast Guard Cutter George M. Bibb, during the Korean War, weather patrol gunboat 31, picking up airmen, fishermen and anyone Who needed help while checking out submarines In Terrific storms at sea, you'd swear the ship was going to heel over at times . Oh well,Everyone has a story to tell and I'm Sure mine are not as interesting as most. None-rhe-less, the U.S. Coast Guard is a good outfit as are the other services, just that you dont hear too much about the Coast Guard, especially overseas work.
Good luck to your son, he will do well and chief is a very good rate.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al

Was on Okinawa in a 160 MPH typhoons. Blew water thru the cinderblook walls into quarters.

Red Onion Rip Loc: Oklahoma

Very good poem! I spent a year aboard the USNS Pvt. Jose F. Valdez home ported in Capetown, South Africa. We cruised primarily in the Indian Ocean off the East coast of Africa. As you can tell from the picture we were a communications research ship (yeah, right) with all those antennas. We went as far North as Aden and we went around the cape to the West coast in October after changing out a third of the crew. At one point we were only 5 degrees from 0 - 0, but the Old Man wouldn't let us go there so we could get our Golden Shellback. Boy were we pissed. We did get to stop at Luanda, Angola and Walvis Bay, South West Africa (now Namibia). We had to stop at Walvis Bay because one of our engines had blown and we had to wait for a replacement for 4 days. We had to anchor out and use one of the life boats to get back and forth. We went back to Capetown in December for the remainder of the crew change. That's when I t***sferred out. That's Capetown and Table Mountain in the background.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

Doesn't sound like the duty station on the century. Hope you got a better one next.

badbobby Loc: texas

it appears as though
we got a lotta Sailors on OPP
maybe we outnumber them Marines

debeda

Red Onion Rip Loc: Oklahoma

Actually, it wasn't bad duty. At sea 4-5 weeks then in port for about 6 days on 4 section watch. We ported in Capetown, which, at the time was a real nice city with a lot to do, at least, if you weren't black. That was during the period of Aparthied and because of that we couldn't have any b****s in the military detachment. We had a civilian crew who ran the ship and they had a few b****s, but they had to go into the black part of town when we were in Capetown and Durban. Durban was also a nice little city with plenty to do. We also stopped at Mombasa, Kenya. That was probably the best port because we were able to go on picture taking safaris into the Tsavo National Park which is about 2 million acres of wild animals. We would go from Mombasa up to the foot of Mount Kilamanjaro, Tanzania and stay in a little hotel which served dinner, then have breakfast the next morning and depart there with a couple cases of beer and sack lunches in our open top VW micro busses for the park. We would spend most of the day touring the park taking pictures of the animals just about like going to a wild animal park here only much, much bigger. We had to stop off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia once to let one of our guys come back to the states for a family emergency. He went through the U.S. Embassy who arranged his flight out. We stopped by there one other time when one of our guys was sick and the 1st class corpsman (which was all the medical we had on board) thought he had appendicitis. They sent the Embassy doctor out to examine him, but decided it was just stomach flu. On that stop, the Somalis told us if we stopped there again they would blow us out of the water! At the time the Russians had military there and had their Big Bear Radar sites near the coast. Of course, with us being a 'Spy' ship we weren't too popular there. We got into Aden, Yemen to re-fuel for one day and half the crew got to go ashore. The British were there patrolling the town in jeeps with machine guns mounted on top of them, so we felt pretty save. Aden was a duty free port so I bought an Akai reel-to-reel tape recorder while we were there for about half what they were selling for in the states. We also went into Djibuti, French Somali Land for a couple of days right after Aden. You have to remember this was the mid-60s before all the middle eastern crap started over there. So, as you can see it wasn't really all that bad. In fact, in June we had yard period in Capetown and during that time (about 28 days) I spent 8 days in the hospital recovering from a double hernia operation, then 10 days on convalescence leave in a hotel with a real sweet young lady I met before I went into the hospital. A little background, when I went for my draft physical, they discovered I had a double inguinal hernia and I ended up classified 4F. A year later, I decided I wanted to join the Navy so went to the recruiter, signed all the paperwork, etc., told him about the hernias, and he said just go take the physical and maybe they won't find them. So I went to the same place I had gone to before and sure enough they didn't find them. I kept my mouth shut and enlisted. That was in May of '63, then in May of '66 it flared up again so I went to the corpsman and, of course, he about had a runaway. Put me on light duty, I couldn't even open a filing cabinet drawer. Of course, our filing cabinets were solid steel with 2 inch walls and the drawers were extremely heavy and had combination locks because that is where we kept all our classified material, most of it Top Secret. Our first day in port for yard period I had a doctor's appointment in Capetown that morning. So he checks me out and says yes you've got a hernia and I think you might have one on the other side as well so I'm sending you to a specialist this afternoon. So i go to this little upstairs bar and cafe for lunch and there's just me and this girl in there so I tell the waiter to send her a drink, well she motions for me to come and sit with her. We left together, she accompanied me to the doctor's office, his secretary set up my surgery for Monday morning so I had to be at the hospital Sunday evening in East Capetown. The girl (and for the life of me I cannot remember her name) accompanied me back to the ship in the cab so I could tell the corpsman and my boss about what was going on. It just so happened that I had the weekend off and this was Friday. So I go back to the cab and ask her what she wanted to do and she said why don't I come with her to her sister's house. I could sleep there we could spend the weekend together then she would ride over to the hospital with me on Sunday. Wow, what a weekend. She was right there by my bedside when I woke up after surgery, and visited me every day while I was in hospital. I think I saw maybe 2 guys from the ship the whole time I was in hospital. When I got out she and I got a hotel room in the East end of Capetown and she took care of me for ten days. Those were probably the most amazing 28 days of my entire life. I probably should have married that girl and brought her back to the States! But, alas it just wasn't in the cards. The next time we were in Capetown, she had another boy friend and didn't really want to have much to do with me. Kind of broke my heart. I guess that's why I can't remember her name. Well that and the fact that it's been almost 52 years.

So as you can see, it wasn't all that bad duty after all. At least we could go up and SEE the SEA!

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

The visual while reading this excellent!!
Do you write books or poems?? If not you should!!

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

I can write some when I am in the mood. I am a rocker but I seem to write country stuff. I even wrote a gospel song once. I appreciate your support. You are very kind and I am flattered. A lot of what I write down is what I actually experienced.

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

Couldn't agree more with LindaJoy regarding your obvious writing ability. Makes me glad I questioned that duty station you were assigned to. Now I know.

BTW, I began writing my biog beginning with the first memory that I had and continued with a narrative of my life, Navy life and work history beginning before my first day of school in 1939 and ends with my retirement from the labor force in 1994. The narrative runs for 50+ pages and has been read by a couple people.

I highly recommend this for everyone. You don't have to be a writer to do it. Put your thoughts on your computer while you can remember and can type( even hunt and peck works). I'm glad I did it and am happy that I could offer mental forgiveness and peace to some who needed it. Looking back, it was a good life. Certainly we all make mistakes and poor judgement calls but survived in spite of it all. Do consider giving it a shot. Makes you feel good all over.

teabag09

In addition to doing the Merchant Marine thing while I was in my teens, I raced ocean going sail boats in my twenties. I sailed against Ted Turner and his twelve meter, sailed with Ben Derikerson and was pictured on multiple sports mag covers as we were knocked down under full spinnaker crossing the finish line in Nassau. On that race several boats hit and sank on the great bear rock. What happens when you try to take a short cut but that is racing. I was worn out at 26.

To give you a idea of what it takes, I'm now 68 and have worked construction since, prior I worked fishing and oystering and crabbing and I mean worked all hard it. I carried cinder blocks, shoulders full of 2x4's, dug footers, etc. Easy work compared to race boat sailing. When you add to that the parting from racing, OMGosh. 33 gal trash cans full of Planter's Punch, Half naked girl loving really hunky guys it's no wonder it can go on for only so long and you have to go to a some what of a normal life.