Back to Lemoore - VA 23 Decommissioned - VA 122 for A7 Training

 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 third one was taken in my parent’s front yard. They had moved back to Hacienda Heights. That’s Ted with Bill Kennedy’s future wife and later widow and Randy’s sister, Debbie Thelmann.

Also for a brief time during those first four months, Joe, Smitty and I rented a house off base. Looking back it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do just because it was such a pain in the ass driving back and forth to the base for work and watches. More often than not the fog was so bad it felt like we just drove by feel. I remember that Smitty even got a part time job. We rented a three bedroom house at 11565 11th Ave in Hanford. 

And then the squadron no longer existed and Smiity, Joe and I were through serving together, First I took leave from April 3rd to the 11th and then I don't know what my assignment was until April 20th when I was assigned to VA 122 another training squadron at Lemoore. This time I was going to be trained on the A 7. No more A 4's for any of us. Smitty, Joe and Willie were all sent to Whidbey Island, Washington to be trained on a different aircraft. 

During my time in 122 I was in training for 9 weeks total in the following areas: A7E System Familiarization; A7E Weapons Control System; Computer Familiarization. Those courses were all completed between April 27th and July 1st. Additionally I had the following classes: two days of Defensive Driving; two days of training on various types of support equipment, NC5, NC6, NC7, and GTC-85. (No clue what any of those are now.) And then my least favorite training of all, although it was probably the most important, Fire Fighting Training on May 21st and 22nd.

During this training period I moved into a big house right on the main drag in Lemoore. like so much I can't remember a lot of specifics but I know we drank a lot of Coors and made and ate a lot of spaghetti because it was cheap and easy. I know I had a ton of pictures from that time but I can't find any of them so I'm thinking they might be in my slides. It wasn't as crazy as Ted's House but it was definitely a bachelor pad. We had a massive chain made out of beer tabs that was strung all over the ceilings. We painted a lot of panels on the wall in the living room including one of Hot Stuff, the devil on our tattoos. 

I did find these two pictures from the “Whitehouse”. You can see the sign above the door. It was when I was living here that I met Jackie who I would later marry. We had a lot of fun in the short time before I once again went to sea. Ironically I shipped out on Jackie’s birthday to join my new squadron VA 147 that was already deployed to Vietnam. 

Here's my final VA 23 evaluation: 

"Petty Officer ANSTEY is assigned to the Fire Control Branch of the Avionics/Armament Division. He performs Organizational Maintenance on A-4C/F aircraft.

"Petty Officer ANSTEY is a capable worker but requires moderate supervision. Being assigned to a work center where the center supervisor is serving in the same pay grade creates some small problems for him in the area of accepting authority, His supervisory ability is somewhat below normal because of the lack of opportunity to apply it, but when applied he does get very good results. Petty Officer ANSTEY's personal appearance is a credit to the U.S. Naval Service. He is always neat and clean in his dress. He is usually good for morale with his sharp wit, but occasionally defeats himself by being slightly sarcastic. Petty Officer ANSTEY has good command of the English language both orally and in writing."