My Navy Story - Hacienda Heights to The Tonkin Gulf

The first two paragraphs from the book, Fox Two - The Story of America's First Ace in Vietnam  by Randy "Duke Cunningham" summed it up pretty clearly. I didn't even know anything about Cunningham until I started going back through things to be accurate when writing this blog. He and I were actually on both The America and the Constellation cruises together. He became an Ace after I left the Connie for home. He then went on to become a US Congressman, eventually sent to prison as "the most corrupt Congressman in history".  "The morning of October 1, 1971 was crystal clear as the men of the USS Constellation, under the command of Captain J.D. Ward, prepared to get underway for the Western Pacific. The beginning of this second combat cruise would be a time of heartache for me. I honestly did not know if I would ever see my family again. Amid public controversy and national news coverage, Connie, as we knew her, left San Diego harbor with an escort designed...

The thing I was most looking to on my return to Lemoore was being able to spend more time with Jackie and the boys. She had been great about writing and staying connected while I was on the America. One thing that really stands out in my memory is how much John Fiorella one of my friends and squadron mates loved the chocolate chip cookies she sent. I would make him act like an airplane and fly around the flight deck before he could have any. Since Jackie was working in the Credit Union on base and I had my job as a member of VA 147 we looked forward to the weekends to get out and go places. We went to Kings Canyon National Park, to the Kings River and a big park in Lemoore for picnics with the boys and friends, we even took the boys and went to Lake Isabella near Bakersfield to meet my parents and camp. While the America was headed for home I completed the practical and written examinations on Quality Assurance techniques and that qualified me to be a Collateral Duty Inspector and I wa...

This is a picture of a postcard that I sent to Jackie from the USS America. I was actually able to call up quite a few memories from reading the postcards I sent to Jackie on this cruise. As I said in my previous post I left Lemoore on Jackie's birthday. I picked up postcards wherever the bus to Travis Air Force Base stopped and sent them to when I found a place to mail them from. I actually sent five one each from Fresno, Modesto, West Sacramento, San Francisco and finally Travis. One of the notes that stood out was on the very first card that talked about how bad it stunk on the bus.  When I arrived at Travis for a flight to the Philippines where I was supposed to catch up to my new squadron VA 147 that was deployed on the America. A friend of mine Bill Curtis who had been in VA 23 with us was in VA 122 with me and then when I was assigned to 147 he was assigned to VA 146 and we would both be sent to the America. When my bus dropped me at Travis I could hear his plane taking off...

 The next 8 months would find me back at Lemoore Naval Air Station. The first 4 months Joe, Smitty, Willie and I were all still attached to VA 23. But then on March 20, 1970 the Black Knights ceased to exist as our squadron was decommissioned and then we were all waiting to see where we would be sent next.  During that four months we spent a lot of time running back and forth to Southern California and going to parties with any of my friends who were either still living there or were home on leave from their own duty stations.  This period of time is also when Smitty and Joe met some of the other devils who were still around, on leave of back from their time in the service. That included trips to camp on the beach in Mexico. These are a couple of pictures from when we went south for weekends. The first was from late ‘69 or early ‘70 when Fred was home on leave and Willie went to LA with me. The second was at a party at Pete’s parents house for his 21st birthday . The thir...