“I entered the Navy in November of 1957 right before Thanksgiving. I was inducted at Kansas City and sent to San Diego for Boot Camp. On to NATC in Norman, Oklahoma. After Norman I went to Millington, Tenn and had my first stint of mess duty. I eventually made it to avionics training completing it (barely) at the end of 1958 (I never was a good “tweaty”).

After leave, I left home in San Antonio on the train in the winter of ’58 or early ’59 for NAS Brunswick. I boarded the train wearing a light jacket fitting for the 70 degree San Antonio weather. I climbed off the train days later in Brunswick, Maine in the middle of the night at 20 below zero still wearing my light jacket. At the time VP-21 was on deployment so I was assigned hanger deck duty under Leading Chief Dillashaw, an old WWII black shoe Boats who held little regard for airdales. I scrubbed heads and hanger decks daily until the squadron returned from deployment where I was promptly assigned mess duty again.

Once in the squadron, I worked in the avionics shop for awhile, flew off and on, mostly on training assignments. I don’t remember much about the beginning of my squadron duty. I was with the group deployed to Keflavik, Iceland. At Keflavik I roomed with Neal Stewart. Neal and I figured out how to hop MATS I9 flights to Copenhagen, Madrid and Frankfurt. It was great sport. I was assigned to a flight crew and believe the pilot was Lt. Cmdr. Trautman (I can’t remember the LH number). Once back in the states, I was assigned to a crew piloted by Cmdr Boniface, LH 9 , I believe. Best as I recall, Bill Spaulding was on radio, Manfred Lenz and Steve Kenyon were in the aftstation and Anderson was on ECM. I believe Ben Hacker was Navigator. I stayed with this crew the rest of my tour. I made AT3 in ’59 and AT2 in ’60. In ’61 I received my AC wings. My best buddies were Tom Nicholson and Neal Stewart. Other names that come to mind are: Jim Besse, Bill Scaggs, Mike Reardon, J.O. Thompson, Bergy Bergman, Lehrman, Otis “OBO” Owens, good guys all.

My enlistment was extended because of the Berlin crisis (the Russians building the Berlin wall), and I was discharged in May of ’62. After leaving Maine I headed for Amarillo, Texas where my parents were then living. After being in Brunswick for almost four years, I thought Amarillo was surely my purgatory for all the good times I had in the Navy. I went to work for Texaco loading transport trucks at its Amarillo refinery. While working for Texaco, I attended West Texas State Univ. and earned a degree. I left Texaco and went work for Gulf Oil Corp. I worked in marketing for several years and transferred to the production side of the oil business in the late 70s. At the time Chevron bought Gulf Oil, I was Division Land Manager. I retired from Chevron in June of 1999 as Division Land Manager.

My wife, Doris, and I traveled extensively until 2004 when I received a call from a friend asking if I would be interested going back to Chevron on a self-employed consulting basis. I’ve been there since. My wife and I make our home in Midland , Texas, and I have a daughter living in the Houston area. Doris and I own property in the Texas hill country near the town of Llano. We are developing our hill country property and plan to retire (again) there.”