Avante
11-11-2014, 10:46 AM
I joined the Navy at 19, my dad and his dad had gone that route. Back then the Viet Nam war was going on and yes I was involved in that war....sort of. I was first on the John A. Bole (decommisioned it) a destroyer and then the USS Horne, a crusier.
The thing was six months over seas/six months in port, so I spent about two years out at sea. I say almost because my time was up after about 4 months into my last WESTPAC. Coming home from Viet Nam was something else, it took me two weeks and in that time I was in a helo, a jet off a aircraft carrier, a train, a bus and a giant C-5, and a jumbo jet, ending up in San Francisco. I took a Greyhound to Visalia and walked in my front door on Christmas.
While over there our job was to shoot off illuminous shells, turning night into day so the ground troops could see. So we were safe sitting out there about 10 miles. I was never ever in any danger.
I only stepped foot on Vietnamese soil the day I started my journey home. I was heloed from my ship to a Army base where I would catch a C-5 to Kobe Japan.
I would like to highly recommend the military for any young man but being the Middle East is so fucked up today, I can't. Viet Nam was no threat to us, the Middle East is.
The memories of pulling into Hong Kong as a young kid you never forget. Looking out over the ocean as a school of dolphins race along side the ship, stays with you. Riding in a cab in Thailand passing temples and having to stop for cattle because they get the right of way, ya never forget. Walking the streets of Olongapo as you hear.....monkey meat, ya want monkey meat sailor......hahaha!!!!!
The thing was six months over seas/six months in port, so I spent about two years out at sea. I say almost because my time was up after about 4 months into my last WESTPAC. Coming home from Viet Nam was something else, it took me two weeks and in that time I was in a helo, a jet off a aircraft carrier, a train, a bus and a giant C-5, and a jumbo jet, ending up in San Francisco. I took a Greyhound to Visalia and walked in my front door on Christmas.
While over there our job was to shoot off illuminous shells, turning night into day so the ground troops could see. So we were safe sitting out there about 10 miles. I was never ever in any danger.
I only stepped foot on Vietnamese soil the day I started my journey home. I was heloed from my ship to a Army base where I would catch a C-5 to Kobe Japan.
I would like to highly recommend the military for any young man but being the Middle East is so fucked up today, I can't. Viet Nam was no threat to us, the Middle East is.
The memories of pulling into Hong Kong as a young kid you never forget. Looking out over the ocean as a school of dolphins race along side the ship, stays with you. Riding in a cab in Thailand passing temples and having to stop for cattle because they get the right of way, ya never forget. Walking the streets of Olongapo as you hear.....monkey meat, ya want monkey meat sailor......hahaha!!!!!