1975 to 1997. Not one day on a ship. I call that a perfect Navy career. I was sent to a P3 Orion command right after boot camp and "A" School. They started teaching me how to be a flight engineer on a 70 ton airplane too big to land on an aircraft carrier. I ended up with over 10K flight hours doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuYPtOwGYjY&t=1shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ_5aY82g5w
Lucky dog. Squids aren't suppose to be landlubbers. That makes you not even a Pollywog. On the other hand for me, I went on to become a "Golden Shellback". My shipmate and friend was complicit orchestrating this ritual and my hazing, was a lot of fun. He was the funniest 'one-liner' I ever met. Unfortunately, he died back in 2019. Lot's of memories there. I still remember earning my Golden Shellback diploma, his cigarette in his mouth smiling in pleasure while making me crawl through this trash shoot before reporting to the 'royal baby'. Yep, it was all part of the ritual. It was either crawl like a Pollywog or receive help from the charged fire hoses that flooded the deck and 'aided' the way. Yea, we were suppose to 'slither'. Of course, there was an annoying bit of rope lashing' from the smiling dude with his cigarette. That international dateline always screws me up. It seemed like this hazing happened in a time warp that repeated that day twice. The duration seemed so long. Yea, I've been there and done that.
Anyway, I joined right after Vietnam during the Zumwalt era. Unlike you, I spent some time on an aircraft carrier. It's now resting somewhere next to Davy's Jone's Locker some 15 thousand feet in the abyss. I often wonder what they hide in the hulls of a big ship like that before it is sank. It definitely is something that no one will ever learn about. Like you, I did the 'A' School thing,It was in North Chicago. And the "C" School thing in VB, Virginia. Then off to Norfolk I went. And in then into the dry docks at Portsmouth. After that, it was on to the opposite coast. I saw many crazy things while I was in. Even learned about NO NAME from my DC instructors, who were on the Forrestal and gave me first hand account of what happened. Well, I better call it a wrap for now. If you got any tales, let me know.
1975 to 1997. Not one day on a ship. I call that a perfect Navy career. I was sent to a P3 Orion command right after boot camp and "A" School. They started teaching me how to be a flight engineer on a 70 ton airplane too big to land on an aircraft carrier. I ended up with over 10K flight hours doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuYPtOwGYjY&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ_5aY82g5w
Lucky dog. Squids aren't suppose to be landlubbers. That makes you not even a Pollywog. On the other hand for me, I went on to become a "Golden Shellback". My shipmate and friend was complicit orchestrating this ritual and my hazing, was a lot of fun. He was the funniest 'one-liner' I ever met. Unfortunately, he died back in 2019. Lot's of memories there. I still remember earning my Golden Shellback diploma, his cigarette in his mouth smiling in pleasure while making me crawl through this trash shoot before reporting to the 'royal baby'. Yep, it was all part of the ritual. It was either crawl like a Pollywog or receive help from the charged fire hoses that flooded the deck and 'aided' the way. Yea, we were suppose to 'slither'. Of course, there was an annoying bit of rope lashing' from the smiling dude with his cigarette. That international dateline always screws me up. It seemed like this hazing happened in a time warp that repeated that day twice. The duration seemed so long. Yea, I've been there and done that.
Anyway, I joined right after Vietnam during the Zumwalt era. Unlike you, I spent some time on an aircraft carrier. It's now resting somewhere next to Davy's Jone's Locker some 15 thousand feet in the abyss. I often wonder what they hide in the hulls of a big ship like that before it is sank. It definitely is something that no one will ever learn about. Like you, I did the 'A' School thing,It was in North Chicago. And the "C" School thing in VB, Virginia. Then off to Norfolk I went. And in then into the dry docks at Portsmouth. After that, it was on to the opposite coast. I saw many crazy things while I was in. Even learned about NO NAME from my DC instructors, who were on the Forrestal and gave me first hand account of what happened. Well, I better call it a wrap for now. If you got any tales, let me know.