My Navy Story - Hacienda Heights to The Tonkin Gulf

As I said when I started this Blog the reason I started it was because my of a book. My daughter Stacie sent me a book about the Oriskany for Christmas and when I called to thank her I told her how much I enjoyed it and how many memories it brought up much of which I had forgotten She told me she didn't know anything about my time in the Navy and would like to be able to share it with the kids. I decided to see what I could do and dove into so many old pictures as well as just "stuff" I had saved from that time in my life. I can honestly say that I never talked about that time with anyone except for some of my Navy friends in recent years. I have had so many conflicted feelings over the years, mostly because of how poorly we were treated when we served and how poorly Vietnam Vets were treated for the majority of the past fifty years.  This is the result of that walk through the past as well as diving into the following books to get some perspective. I'm just giving th...

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...