On October 13, 1975 my new Navy adventure began with a short train ride to Newark with two friends from High School, Dave Akromas and Scott McGill. Little did I know what the future held but I had a mixture of emotions: excitement and trepidation wondering what lies ahead along with happiness and sadness. Happiness to start a new life and sadness of leaving home especially the girl I had just spent the last 6 months with, June. The three of us arrived in Newark and grabbed a quick breakfast together. Then Dave and I said goodbye to Scott ( it was the last time I would ever saw Scott) as we headed for the Federal Building in Newark where we would raise our hands with a group of men and women and swear the Oath of Enlistment. We all then formed 2 columns and marched down to the Newark train station located a few blocks away. We took the Amtrak train down to Orlando, Dave and I roomed together. I pretty much spent most of my time in our cabin as I was not in the mood for socializing. Dave, on the other hand, was out partying with everyone else from our group heading for Bootcamp. Remember that letter I mentioned June had handed me, well it was more like a book. I can’t remember how many pages but it was thick and long. As I sat reading the letter alone in my cabin the tears flowed as I read the words from June’s heart. Reminiscing about all the things we did together that summer, and writing about the hopes and dreams about our future together. We both were determined to make our relationship last and spend the rest of our lives together. I did make it out to the dinner train for a while but mostly spent time in the cabin reading and sleeping. I remember when the train arrived in Florida the next morning, looking out at the Palm trees which I had never seen before and sunshine the excitement started to build. We arrived in Orlando, I remember how warm and sunny it was as I got off the train. We soon boarded a bus that would take us to the RTC – Orlando Naval Training Center where we would spend the next 9 weeks of our lives totally cut off from the world as they transformed us from civilians to Navy Sailors.
RTC NAVAL TRAINING CENTER – ORLANDO FLORIDA – BOOTCAMP
Navy Bootcamp was like nothing I had ever experienced. The first thing they did was place us in companies of about 70 guys from all different parts of the country. Since a good portion of the guys were from the south many had southern drawls that I had never heard before. One thing that stands out about that first day was getting haircuts. Since it was the 70’s many guys had long hair, some guys even had beards (not me, at 17 I still had peach fuzz on my face). Everyone went into the Navy barbershop with different styles and lengths of hair but everyone came out clean-shaven and with buzz cuts. I remember one guy who had a big red afro sitting there crying about his hair being gone. I thought to myself, what was he expecting? I looked at Dave and we both had to hold in our laugh. We then got our Navy issue uniforms which was everything we would need for every aspect of Navy life, underwear, socks, shoes, pants, shirts, coats and more. We had to stencil our social security number on everything we owned. We were then placed in our barracks and assigned a bunk. I remember the first guy who bunked above me was from the deep south and could hardly read or write. A few weeks into Bootcamp he showed me a letter he wrote to his dad. The writing looked like a small child in large letters and he wrote “Hey Old Man, I’m here in Bootcamp and it sucks” (he had another word in there I won’t repeat). That was the extent of his letter. He was a screw-up and didn’t last long and was demoted to a company that was formed for washouts. We saw him marching with the company a few days after that, he waved to us and said: “Hey guys I’m getting out of the Navy”, we envied him as most guys were wishing the same thing at that point. Most guys were pretty normal but in a group of 70 guys, you always had your borderline psycho’s. One was a small guy from Georgia who also was dumb as a tack, who had already washed out of the Marines. One night our Company Commander (CC) made us all do jumping jacks for punishment. One every 5th jumping jack you had to count by 1 (5=1, 1o=2, and so on). Well for some reason this guy could not get it and kept screwing up. The CC kept getting in his face yelling at him. The guy finally cracked and jumped onto the CC in a fit of rage. He had to be dragged out of the barracks. We never saw him again, I have a feeling he washed out of the Navy also. Another guy warned us that if he was woken suddenly he had a habit of jumping out of bed and attacking the person. I don’t know if he was telling the truth but he seemed crazy. When he had to be woken someone would throw a washcloth on his face from a distance. I don’t remember him ever attacking anyone. The main idea of Bootcamp was changing you from a civilian to a military person. To do that it was mostly mental, so they played a lot of mind games with you. Everything was about following small details, like how you folded your clothes, made your beds, things that were tedious. Since new clothes were easy to fold, they made you rotate your uniforms (underwear and t-shirts included). They would have these routine cloths inspections every so often. If they discovered you weren’t rotating your cloths (new cloths are easy to spot), as punishment they would have you place your clothes in a bucket of soapy water and walk around the room saying ” I am a Magtag washing machine”. You also had to pull all the tags out of your clothes, if you missed one, they would rip it out and place it on the floor then make you blow the tag around the room saying “out of my life little tag”. During these inspections, you had to stand at attention the whole time with a straight face. Almost everyone at some point would fail these inspections. So picture a room full of guys all walking around doing those things at once, it was hard to keep a straight face. I remember once when we went out to chow (dinner) they did a complete barracks inspection. We all worked hard trying to get everything perfect, we were sure we would pass with flying colors. To our surprise, when we came back our entire barracks was turned upside down, clothes were thrown all over the place, even pillows, sheets and beds all over. You had to find all your own clothes and bed linen and put everything back together again, it took hours. Of course, we were told later they did it all on purpose to create a teamwork atmosphere. They broke us up into squads with a squad leader. Showers and toilet breaks were done in squads. I remember the toilet stalls all had open fronts (no doors). Even though they had about 5 or 6 toilets they would often only allow 2 to be used. Imagine trying to take a poop with a line of guys looking at you yelling at you to hurry up. It wasn’t easy. Besides mind games, Bootcamp had its’ physical elements, marching, obstacle courses, and lots of pushups. Being in the Navy you had to not only know how to swim but learn to float for long periods of time. Of course, this would be necessary if you were ever on a ship that was sinking and needed to float in the ocean for a long period of time. They taught you how to use different pieces of clothes as floating devices. I remember sitting with my company waiting for our turn and seeing across the pool a group of guys who had flunked the swim test. They were nicked named the “rock company” and was made of 99% black guys who didn’t know how to swim. In order to graduate Navy Bootcamp you had to be able to swim (makes sense – Navy=Water). The instructors would practically torture these guys making them jump into the water then push them with a pole to the deep part of the pool and tell them to start kicking. These guys (in the pool) would be screaming, some calling for their mothers, while the instructors would curse them out, showing no mercy. I felt bad for those guys but also wondered why they would join the Navy if they couldn’t swim. I passed the swim test with ease. We also learned how to fight fires in close quarters, this was needed if you were ever on a ship that caught fire. We also had to endure the gas chambers. They made each squad go into a small chamber with an instructor and would then lock the door behind us. We all had gas masks on but as the chamber started filling with gas we were told to take them off. We then had to repeat some Navy terminology together in unison as a group and were told if anyone cries out, panics, or tries to put on their mask, it will cause the entire group to have to stay in the chamber longer. As the gas started to get into our eyes, nose, and throats we all started coughing and choking. Our eyes began to water and snot came down our nose into our mouths. You couldn’t wipe your face or it would make it worse. One guy started to scream and cry “let us out, please I can’t take it” we all yelled at him to shut up – he was starting to freak out. He kept screaming and we had to stay in there longer. When they finally let us out I think every guy wanted to beat the crap out of him, but we couldn’t’. During Bootcamp, we all had to get multiple inoculations since many were most likely going overseas. We would stand in line and two doctors would be on each side of the line. When we got to them they had this air gun they would zap us at the same time in both arms. You had to stand perfectly still because if you moved it would create a cut in your arm and bleed. which happened to some guys. The shots made some guys sick but they were not given any mercy as sick or not, you still had to participate in the training (luckily the shots didn’t affect me). We often did marching drills with rifles out on the grinder (which was like a big concrete parking lot) often in the heat. We would have to learn to stand at attention for long periods of time. You were told to bend our knees a little to keep from passing out. Well, some guys didn’t listen and down they would go face-first on the concrete.
NAVY BOOTCAMP AND MISSING HOME
The hardest thing about Bootcamp was missing home. For many of us, it was the first time ever being away from home and every guy experienced some sort of homesickness. I would spend my 18th birthday and Thanksgiving while in Bootcamp which was hard. For the first two weeks, they completely cut us off from any news from the rest of the world, especially letters from home. I remember wondering if I was missed? What was June doing? Was she missing me? How is my Mom doing? It was 1975 the World Series had just begun and my Red Sox were in it against the Cinncinati Reds. When I left for Bootcamp the series was tied 1-1 and game 3 was the next day. What happened? Did the Sox win the series? Since we were isolated from all current events I could only guess. Not knowing what was going on in the outside world was hard and increased our homesickness. I was lucky that I had Dave Akromas there going through it with me, but it still was hard. Somehow Dave and I found out that another friend of ours from High School, Paul Kelly had joined the Navy and was also in Bootcamp in Orlando. We were able to meet up with him at chow time and sit for 15 minutes and talk about home. It was the last time I ever saw Paul alive as years later he was killed in a training accident at Navy Seal training school. Apparently he was doing a skydive routine with another guy and they collided in mid-air and both fell to their death. A bunch of us went to his funeral, Dave went with me. We found out Paul had just gotten married and left behind a pregnant wife.
In Bootcamp, each guy was assigned a duty he would perform the entire 9 weeks. I was lucky enough to get mail-duty. This allowed me to leave the barracks alone each evening to either bring out letters to the mailboxes or retrieve them from the post office. Each evening I went out, I often took my time and just enjoyed my 15 minutes of freedom alone apart from 70 other guys. I would think about June and how much I missed her. I remember I would look up at the moon and think maybe she was looking at the moon at the same time. I felt a connection with her through those quiet moments, missing her more. Since I was the company mail-man I was the one who was able to retrieve the mail the first night we got the mail after 2 weeks and handed it out to everyone. There were multiple boxes of mail (2 weeks – 70 guys – lots of mail). As I started reading the names on the letters, I pulled out one with my name, then another, then another (the guys were starting to tease me), finally after it was all over I think I had almost 20 letters to read – 14 from June alone. She had written to me every day and mailed the letter each day. I was on cloud nine. Every envelope smelled like perfume and in each, not only was there a long letter but in a few were clippings from the Daily Record newspaper with results from each World Series game. I sat on my bunk the rest of the evening reading those letters and the newspaper clipping. Letters were our lifeline to home and were a welcome break from all the other Navy stuff. Letters would be special all throughout my time away while I was in the Navy. Remember, back in the ’70s there was no internet or mobile phones. Everywhere I went, for the next 4 years, Pensacola, Japan, and Scotland I didn’t even have regular access to any phone, so letters from home were precious and vital. June was a great letter writer whenever I was away and she was starting off with flying colors. In Bootcamp, we were even allowed to get boxes of food from home, but the rule was if a guy got a box of food they had to share with the other guys. Many guys including myself would get homemade cookies from home and we would all enjoy them together. I also started smoking cigars while in Bootcamp. We didn’t get much free time but when we did they would say “the smoking lamp is lit”. At that, the guys who smoked were allowed to go into a smoking room, to smoke and chat. Since it was a break from just sitting on your bed, I bought some cigars so I could join the guys and smoke. I hated cigarettes. I had made June quit smoking when we were dating, though when I was away she started up again. Once we got married she quit for good. I quit smoking cigars after Bootcamp.
FAMILY DAY AND GRADUATION
Well, Bootcamp was coming to an end, graduation day was right around the corner but first family day. For the first time in 8 1/2 weeks, guys would see their families who came down for graduation. My Mom, Steve, June, Bernice, Carolyn, and Scott all came down for my graduation ceremony. I remember how excited I was to see everyone. The night before graduation we were able to meet our families at the family center. We had to wait for our name to be called before we could leave the barracks. The walk seemed like forever but walking through those doors and seeing everyone (especially June) was great. My mom said as I was walking toward the center she knew it was me even from a distance as I walked just like my father. The next day was graduation where each company would march in front of a review stand to the Navy theme song “Anchors Aweigh”. We were given a couple of day’s leave before processing out. We had to return each night to the base, I remember guys throwing up all night from too much drinking while out during the day. My family and I spent a couple of days going to Seaworld and Disney World which was a blast. The only thing left to do was get our orders and process out so we could be home for Christmas, which was only a week away. I remember feeling sorry for some guys who had to stay through Christmas to continue some special training for future ship duty. Me, I was headed home for 2 1/2 weeks, to spend time with my family, friends, and mostly June to celebrate Christmas. Being home again was great as June and I continued where we left off. I loved being in the Navy and wanted to wear my uniform when I could so when June’s company Suburban Propane had their Christmas Party I remember wearing it that night. It was during that time home I realized how much we were in love and couldn’t see my life without her. I told my parents before I left for school I wanted to propose to June, I didn’t want to lose her. A couple of guys during Bootcamp received “Dear John” letters from their girlfriends and I didn’t want to go through that. They helped me pick out an engagement ring up at Catano’s Jewelers, it was small but what do you want I was an 18-year-old Navy Seaman, we didn’t make much money. So on New Year’s Eve December 1975 at a party at our friend Sam’s house, I remember asking June to marry me and she said yes. I had taken a night that I lost someone dear to me years earlier – my father – and made it a night I would gain someone who I would spend the rest of my life with, I wasn’t going to lose her. We had no immediate plans of when the wedding would be as I had no idea where I would be after graduating school. I could possibly spend time out at sea on a ship, the future was unknown but I at least knew June would be part of my future. After spending 2+ weeks home it was time to leave again. So on January 2, 1976, I boarded a plane in Newark NJ and headed for my next duty Station – back to Florida for Cryptology School a place called Corry Station Naval Technical Training Center, Pensacola Florida.
NTTC CORRY STATION – PENSACOLA FLORIDA – CRYPTOLOGY SCHOOL
Naval Technical Training Center Corry Station, was a sub-installation of the nearby Naval Air Station where the world-known Blue Angels were stationed and flew out of. The base hosted several of the Navy’s Information Warfare Corps training commands and is the headquarters for its Center for Information Warfare Training. This was a place where I would be learning my job rating as a CT (Communications Technician – changed a year later to Cryptologic Technician). I would be learning how to operate various radio collection equipment used to eavesdrop on other countries’ military communications. Since we were in the middle of the Cold War – our main focus would be Russia and China. That was the reason my recruiter use the word “Spy” as that was basically what we were doing. We were also given the nickname “Spooks” I guess because we would be operating on small bases situated around the world. These were places no one knew anything about where we would be hidden from the world and out of sight from our enemy surveillance targets. I later had a jacket made up with a large decal on the back depicting an Eagle wearing headphones with the saying “In God we trust, all others… we “bugged” the world!!” I left for school on January 2, 1976 back to Florida expecting warm sunny weather. I was surprised when I got there how chilly it was. Pensacola was located on what is called the pan-handle of Florida more north and close to Alabama, so it did get chilly in January. I was assigned a room and had one roommate (don’t remember his name or where he was from). The airline lost my luggage so I had to buy some navy cloths at the base commissary to last a few days before my luggage arrived. At first, you were assigned to a work party until your security clearance arrived. As a “CT” you would be working with Top Secret material which needed a Top Secret Security clearance. I was told the FBI would be doing a background check on everyone which would include interviewing people who knew me back home, like former employers, school officials, and neighbors. Since I pretty much kept my nose clean most of my life and never got into any big trouble I wasn’t worried, my clearance came in about a week and I started school.
The first thing we learned to do was copy morse code as a “T” brancher (Technical) it would not be our primary job, but we still had to learn it. I found this very easy and quickly blew threw this portion of my training, even winning an award “The Samuel B Morse” award for speed and accuracy in copying morse code. Funny because the morse code was invented right in Morristown down the street from my house, I guess I was meant for code copying. From there we would begin to learn how to use a variety of cryptology collection equipment used in radio communications intercept. I would learn to use things like; Radio signal receivers and transmitters, teletypewriters, single-sideband converters, Audio Spectrum analyzers, and much more. I was learning things I never knew anything about and was loving my new field as a CT, thinking to myself I would never be learning anything like this in college. I went through school faster than anticipated and ended up graduating in just over 4 months.
Besides attending school we also had plenty of free time. I was lucky enough to be going through school with a guy who was in my company at bootcamp, John Convery. John became my closest friend and seemed to be stationed wherever I went. I remember he was from Long Island so we had some things in common (more on John in the next two chapters – Okinawa and Scotland). We would spend a lot of time at the EM Club (Enlisted men) which was the base dancing club and at the pool hall also on base. Since neither of us had a car, we ended up making friends with some other guys a couple who had cars. A bunch of us would often go into town to the club’s drinking and to the beach. The beaches down there were like nothing I ever saw, beautiful white sandy beaches located on the Gulf of Mexico. Pensacola was also known for its gay community who would often clash with Navy men. In the 70’s being gay was pretty much hidden. So I didn’t know anyone growing up who was, or at least I thought. At that time the US Government even forbid people who were gay to join the military. A bunch of us were on the beach one time and a few guys who were dressed in very tight small bikini-like suits sat near us. We pretty much ignored them except one guy who was with us. He seemed to like the attention they were giving us. Looking back at pictures of that day I can now see why as this guy with us was dressed just like them. I think he probably was gay but couldn’t expose that for fear of being kicked out of the service. I remember another guy who hung out with us who also was from the NY area. One day he gets a knock on the door that his girlfriend and another girl were there to visit him. To his surprise they had hitchhiked all the way down to Florida from NY, he was both happy and ticked off. While down in school, I once was able to fly home for a long weekend for Junes birthday. I remember we spent every minute with each other. When I got back I was sick for a few days and missed some school time. The base was run by the Air force which meant besides Navy personnel there were a lot of Air Force people. Fights would occasionally break out between Navy and Air force guys, which was normal. The good thing was the Chow Hall was run by the Air Force and they were known for their good food, which proved true. We also had a softball league that I got involved with while there, I was starting to become a better athlete and often did well. The Mardi Gras was happening in New Orleans at that time. A bunch of guys were going but I decided not to go, for some reason. I did go with some guys to Mobile Alabama one day just to see something different. We ended up touring the USS Alabama that was in drydock at the time. Turns out it would be the only ship I would ever be while in the Navy – go figure.
Well with school winding down and my anticipated graduation, I had to start thinking of the next step – duty stations, where would I end up. Since I was in the Navy you would assume I would spend time on a ship. That is why June and I even though we were engaged had not set a wedding date, because of the unknown. We then started to hear about all our options where we could possibly end up. I started to hear about possible places overseas such as; Japan, Hawaii, Guam, Spain, Iceland, and more. They even had bases for us stateside like Winter Harbor Maine, Adak Alaska, Homestead Fla and Fort Meade Maryland. Actually we were told that most of us would be land-based for our entire time in the Navy as only a small percentage of CTs would actually go on any type of ship duty at that time. The reason was just 7 years earlier in 1968 a US Navy Spy ship called the USS Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans. Onboard the ship were mostly CTs conducting surveillance of the area, “spying”. The crew was held captive for 11 months ( 1 died during the capture) and a lot of Top Secret material was compromised. For that reason, the Navy had most CTs pulled off ships and instead stationed them on these small secret military communications bases built around the world to conduct intelligence intercept operations. I was told that I could write down 3 choices of duty stations I wanted. Most likely the first one would be overseas then maybe I would return to the US. I was also told that if I choose a place like Adak Alaska which was a one-year hazardous duty place, I would not only get it but from there you could then request any duty station you wanted. Alaska, because it was deemed hazardous duty (desolate location and extreme weather conditions), you couldn’t take any spouse which is why it was only one-year duty. This was perfect I would put in for Adak, Alaska, go away for just one year, then select a place stateside where June and I could be married and she could be with me. So Adak was top of my list along with Hawaii (hey why not) then Winter Harbor Maine. I figured I would live in Alaska, hunt and do other outdoor activities I loved, it wouldn’t be so bad and one year would go by fast. Well, my orders came in and to my surprise, not one of my choices would be my first duty station. Instead, I was being sent to Okinawa Japan for an 18-month tour of duty. What?? Where?? I had never heard of Okinawa Japan, never knew it existed. Okinawa is a tiny island off the coast of China. June had heard of it because her dad was on a ship during WWII that bombed the crap out of the island. The battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest battles of WWII and now it would be where I would spend the next 18 months of my life. The thought of spending 18 months away from June was something I could not even think about. So with that our plans started to change. I asked June if she would consider getting married and coming with me. I knew it would be a big sacrifice for her. She was going to school at the time and being away from home especially that far would be difficult, but she agreed. We agreed to get married, but I would have to go to Okinawa first, come back, get married then bring her back with me. We both liked the idea and figured we could get married sometime in November. Though first I had to tell her Dad. So while I was home on leave I went to tell him. I remember he was in the backyard sitting with his next-door neighbor Mr. Principal talking. I walked out there and asked if I could talk to him about June and me and our future. I remember Mr. Principal sort of expecting what was coming next and said “oh-oh I think I will excuse myself” and left. So, there we were just June’s dad and me, a man I really hadn’t gotten to know very well to that point, sitting in her backyard. I then began to share our plans for June and I getting married and taking her to Okinawa with me. I remember he sat and listened to everything I had to say, but barely said a word. I think he asked me some questions but for the most part, he was very quiet and respectful. I think back at that and feel it must have been tough for him to listen to me. I gave him the hardest news he would probably ever had to hear at that point in his life. He and June were very close. June was sort of a tomboy growing up and did a lot with her dad. Now here was the prospect of his daughter only 20 years old, marrying a sailor only 18 years old, someone he really didn’t know well, then leaving home for the first time ever, and live overseas. She was about to go off for one year to live on a small island in the Pacific over 7,000 miles from home, a place that he last saw probably smoldering in the distance from all the bombs his ship had just blasted it with. So on May 15, 1976 (my sister Carolyn’s birthday) I got on a plane that would take me halfway around the world to live for 18 months, leaving all the wedding details to June. I was about to begin the next chapter of my life, overseas in Okinawa Japan, and would be gone for the next 6 months, until our wedding day on November 13, 1976. A new experience was about to begin.
