Introduction: Part I

A little background on me. I am the son of an Army Vietnam Veteran that was born and raised in Arkansas. My mother was also born and raised in Arkansas. I was born in Kansas, moved to Germany shortly after, and spent most of my childhood in Oklahoma. My parents divorced while I was young. I remember the day my mother announced to me that "your dad and I are getting a divorce." I thought it was a type of car. I have a younger brother that was born while they were still together. I lived in a number of towns in Oklahoma and while I don't regret having grown up there, I didn't look back when I left.

In 1988 I decided the Navy was going to be my future. I had always known that I wanted to serve in the armed forces. That however, was not my first choice. I was initially talking with a Marine Crops recruiter. Since I was 17 and needed parental approval from both parents to enlist, joining the Corps was not going to work out. You see, my dad was in the Army and threatened to remove the Marine recruiters head and other unhealthy things if he were to set foot in his home. This dislike for the Corps was not about inter branch discrimination. My father had simply known too many Marines. So I guess the Army was next. Yeah, no. He would not sign that either. Now why not the Air Force? I seem to remember a lot of comments about the Air Force that included statements like, "pantie waist" and "candy ass. I guess I could not do that since every young man strives to impress his father. So I left for boot camp five days after high school graduation in 1989.

June 1st 1989, I stepped off the bus in Great Lakes, IL. Boot camp was not too bad. I got a free hair cut, a bunch of free shots and some good exercise. I remember they had a lot of names for us like, Rickey Recruit and Civilian Under Naval Training. The latter was my introduction to the Navy's use of acronyms. You don't honestly think they would say all four of those words while yelling at us.


I left Great Lakes in August and was sent to Millington, TN for "A" school. I really did not enjoy this time. I lived in a room with three other guys. We were not allowed to where civilian clothing. This was little more than an extension of boot camp. The training was good, I learned about working with liquid and gaseous oxygen, ejection seats and aircraft air conditioning and utility systems. At the end of this school, it was time for receiving our orders to our first duty stations. This was an exciting day, the day I would find out when I would get out of there. Now it is important to remember this was 1989. I drew orders to an F14 squadron out of Miramar, CA. MIRAMAR! I am going to MIRAMAR. That's Top Gun baby! Man I was excited. I ran out and told everyone I knew that I was going to Miramar to be an ejection seat mechanic on the F-14 Tomcat.

I will pick up again later in Part II