Radioman 3rd class - 1970 - 1972

USS Recovery
A Salvage and Rescue Ship



 I joined the USN-R in 1969 with the understanding that I would attend an abreviated boot camp (Great Lakes, IL), and a full-blown technical school to become a radio operator (San Diego, CA) and when not in either of those capacities would attend Navy Reserve meetings every Monday night for a year; at which time, I would be called upon to serve 2 years of active military service at a location of their (USN) choice; my duty station was the USS Recovery, docked in Little Creek, VA right beside the large Norfolk Naval Base.

There were 86 crew members on our vessel, including officers.  The ship was designed to pull LSTs off the beach after off-loading troops, but during peace time, we towed targets for ships practicing their gunnery skills, rescued ships that were in trouble in the Atlantic and had about 25 drivers on board that were assigned a variety of underwater tasks.

Interestingly, Carl Brashear, was stationed on the USS Recovery, during the same time that I was there but I had no idea as to his accomplishments until the movie was released several years later.

At the time I was in the military, I was still a smoker and my preferred brand was Salem, although I am not exactly sure what got me started on menthol cigs.  I was in the US Navy when the CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) was Admiral Zumwalt who was famous for his Z-grams.  One of his Z-grams indicated that the length of one's hair could be undetermined as long as it did not interfer with one's military headgear.  So, being the bright enlisted person I was, I just purchased headgear that was a size or two larger than I really needed.

During my 21 months in the military (because I received a 3-month early out to return to College), the USS Recovery was fortunate enough to participate in a 6 month Med Cruise, during which I decided not to cut any bit of my facial or head hair while deployed.  I was discharged from active duty shortly after we returned and my cousin took this photo of me a week later.                

During my radio school training, the Navy used a technique called "accelerated learning," that taught morse code to us so that we could send and receive 16 words per minute without a speed key in under 3 weeks.  I was a quick study and was able to send and receive 22 words per minute which qualified me for submarine duty, but I had no desire to spend 6 months at a time under water in a coffin.  The rest of the time was spent tuning up transmitters and receivers, some of which has 126 sequential steps.

The military was very good to me and not only did the GI Bill cover all my tuition for both Undergraduate and Graduate Schools (all but $500 actually), I made additional monies by loaning out money to sailors who had a hard time managing their money which was most of the enlisted men on the ship, especially when we were in port.  When we were at sea, I lost money

The Captain of the ship was a "Mustang" and he and I became very good friends when I woke him up at 3am one morning because I had received "flash" traffic and he was the first Captain in the Fleet to respond because of what I had done.  From that point on, I could do nothing wrong; although, there was one time when  group of us went on a "message run" and decided to drink our lunch and did not return for several hours.  I went to "Captain's Mast" was was given "EMI" or what the Navy called, Extra Military Instrution, when I could have been fined and "busted" in rank.  Our EMI was throwing away the old teletype paper and in our antics of throwing away the rolls, one hit me in the chin, which required 7 stitches...  I asked the Captain for a "Purple Heart" since we were on "alert status" but was denied.



ROGLMAO

 Then, there was another time that I was performing EMI and we were at sea, as I recall; my EMI was to burn "classified documents."  These "classified documents" were burned in a 55 gallon drum behind the Radio Shack and the day was hot... and I mean really hot...  and, behind the Radio Shack is where the heat from the ship collected.  Referring back to the top photo, it was beside the lifeboat and the air circulation was poor.  So, me and another sailor had to do this in order to witness what each other had done, so we borrowed some wire hangers from the officier's quarters and some hotdogs from the galley and had ourselves a winnie roast which enduring the hardship of burning "classified documents."