~ The Life And Times From The Inner Spirit Of ................................. "Rolling Thunder"

~ Military Years ~
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Military Years

1952 - 1956

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After taking my physical and being sworn into the Navy, I was placed on a train along with several hundred others from all over the United States which had been boarded from Chicago and report to the U.S. Naval Training Center. The following thirteen weeks were to become the most enlightening years of my life. Yes, every day, each week and the months that passed were indeed like light years in duration. It was a time of regimentation, inspection, stress, discipline and learning that I had never encountered in my proceeding youth. I was to become a wise old man in just a short time. There was not just the military change going on inside of my young mind but a revelation(not rebellion)of what my mothers husband was to her and could be to me if only given a chance. I knew that I was going to Korea and the people there were being killed and dropping like flies. What would your mother have if you got killed I thought to myself. How utterly selfish I had been and that my mother had someone that loved her, loved me and my sister as well. He truly wanted to take us as his own and us be something none of us had ever known, a family. Upon my graduation from boot camp I was given leave to go home before starting a specialized school at the Fleet Sonar School in San Diego. This time in Oklahoma City with your Grams and Granddad Dick was the most enjoyable time of my life to that point. I gave Dick the chance he had been wanting with all his heart and we became the best of friends and so came with that my understanding of his intentions and the attitude that I carried in my heart for that man with a never ending growing of love until the day of his death. I went back to San Diego to begin my schooling only to find out that I did not have an aptitude for that particular training and with my decision to go into The Fleet, I was transferred onto the U.S.Begor APD-127(a converted destroyer escort)for the purpose of carrying USN "Frogmen" and Marine Reconnaissance Units. We were to be a control vessel for amphibious landings in Korea. Only a short while after boarding my ship in Sand Diego we were on our way to Korea via Hawaii and Japan and landing in Korea. On the tour of duty in Asia I spent approximately ten and one half months in Korea, Japan, China and the Philippines, going to the upper most reaches of Japan and both sides of Korea. I spent nine months on the deck force and learned the skills of a sailor as well as spending my off duty time in the radar shack(Combat Information Center)learning about the Operations Division and their duties. I requested and received a transfer to Operations Division and became a Radar man. Upon returning to The United States I again received a leave of thirty days of which I spent with your Grams, Granddad Dick and Aunt Pat who had on the 29th day of September 1952,a son, your cousin Gil. The following and remaining years in the Navy consisted of going to and completing with Top Honors "Fleet Radar School" in San Francisco, California at Treasure Island. Another tour as Radar man Third Class Petty Officer in Korea, a cruise down and across The Equator, a visit to Singapore, Malaya, another stop in Hong Kong, China and The Grand Finale of getting to go to the God Forsaken Country of Vietnam. We arrived in Indo-China in May of 1954, right after the fall of Dienbienphu. We went to the aid of Anti Communist Vietnamese Forces in Haiphong and Hanoi and later evacuated many North Vietnamese people desiring peace in Saigon in the South.

After returning to The United States and San Diego I again went home on leave only to return and be transferred to The U.S. Naval Station in Orange, Texas near the Louisiana State Line in Southern Texas. I had on my leave home bought a brand new 1955 Ford two door buckskin brown and snowshoe white. It was my pride and joy and was a great asset to my social life in the future days and months to come. I drove the car to San Diego and then upon my transfer to Texas, drove there after a short delay in orders again to Oklahoma City where I was introduced to a beautiful young lady by the name of Clara Jeanette Yates who was in time to be my wife and the mother of my first son. I spent the next six months in Orange, Texas with every chance I could, going to Oklahoma City to see Carla. On February 17,1956 I was released from active duty with an Honorable Discharge. The National Defense Service, Korea Service, United Nations Service and the U.S. Navy Good Conduct Service Medals. How I ever came by The Good Conduct Service Medal is a wonder and another story in itself, which is only going to be between myself and The Navy Department. I returned to Oklahoma City as a civilian to continue my life and thus is the real beginning of the future, to contain the happenings both happy and tragic which affected many lives including both of yours. This will begin the start of The Brotherhood that you, my remaining sons are now to be aware of how it came about and how each of you played a part in my life and how life itself was to be as it was for me, as well as the effect it had on all that I touched or came in contact with, until the very end of time as we knew it prior to July 8th, 1985.