US Navy 1982 - 1998. 98 ASVAB score. I already had an associates degree when I went in, so got E-3 going in. Boot & MS A school in San Diego. Was on the rifle team in boot camp. When I first saw a rifle team perform, I thought there was no way I could ever do that. 4 weeks later, I was the guy the other newer recruits were watching.
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Got orders to a carrier in Norfolk. Finished A school ranked as the #1 student, so I got to resubmit for new orders. Selected Hawaii, the Philippines & Italy.
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Got type 3 orders to Sicily. Spent 6 months in the barracks then the next year living on the economy. I tried to extend but it was denied. Great food out in town and the US dollar was strong back then, so things bought on the economy were reasonably inexpensive. Made E-4 on the first pass. Took my E-5 exam at this command.
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Next stop was a NATO command outside of Naples, Italy. Staff duty supporting a 4 star admiral. In 3 years, we had 4 different guys in that slot. 1, Art Moreau, died while in command. The comparison of Sicily to Naples is like Dameron to Washington, DC. Lots of traffic and noise. Made E-5 by the time I checked in. The duty was pretty good. We got US, Italian and NATO holidays off. We got May Day off which is a communist party holiday for workers. I had most weekends off, so it was more of a 7 - 3 job. I got to play 2 seasons of tackle football for the base team. We had to endure 8-9 hour road trips to play against the Army teams in northern Italy.
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Took & passed the E-6 exam 2 years later. That pissed off a few of my underperforming co-workers. I had orders to a ship in San Diego but it was an E-5 slot, so I had to renegotiate for new orders. They had 1 opening for an Aircrewman. The job was dependent on successful completion of Aircrewman Candidate School.
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So off to Pensacola after living overseas for nearly 5 years. At 28 year old, I was 1 of the older students in my class. Lots of PT & swimming. I had my first 4 rides in the helo dunker.
My follow on orders were to VP-30, assigned to a P-3A. This was the best duty I had by far. I got to travel all over plus get per diem while we were away from home port. Once we landed I was pretty much off until the next flight. I did 2 around the world flights with this unit. They were 13 months apart. The first one was just before the start of the Gulf War. The 2nd one was a few months after the war ended. I was our detachment's career counselor in addition to my regular duties. I made Chief on my 2nd try at this command. I was a 2 red hash mark CPO for a couple of years.
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There were rumors that our outfit was going to be relocated. We supported a lot of people from Washington, DC. I was told that the move was to be to West Virginia. So I took orders to Andrews AFB. In the end the unit never moved. Going to DC was costly as things were more expensive. In Florida I owned a home but the DC area prices were too rich for me.
At Andrews I got to fly on jet aircraft. We supported T-39s, C-9s & C-20s. The C-20 was the slickest aircraft the Navy had at the time. It was all tricked out on the inside. My ditching station was in the galley. My seat was a board that pulled out like a drawer on a cabinet. My shoulder straps were in the overhead. For the plushness of that aircraft, I thought the designers would have come up with a better seating solution than a board with a couple of straps.
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At this command I applied for and was accepted to the Enlisted Educational Advancement Program. I got orders to go to college for 2 years. I had to reenlist for 6 years. 6 months into the program I earned a Bachelor degree in Information Systems. The rest of the time I worked on my masters degree. When I was done I was 2 classes short of my masters.
Then it was back to the Navy. I wanted out of DC, so I took orders back to Florida. This time on a ship. A frigate, the USS De Wert(FFG-45). I did 2 months of a Med cruise, a Caribbean drug ops cruise, a UNITAS cruise around South America and many 4-5 day underway periods. I was the command drug & alcohol program advisor, section leader, department 3M coordinator, S-2 division officer and full time babysitter to a few of the crew.
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Coming from a squadron background, I was shocked at the quality of a shipboard sailor compared to what I was accustomed to in a squadron. Most of my division had ASVAB scores in the 30s & 40s. To say they needed a lot of supervision was an understatement. I had 2 sailors go UA, 1 popped for drugs, constant wife and babysitter problems. As command DAPA, I had to attend all captain masts. They were held on Friday afternoon when we were in port. I watched guilty sailors get over and watched barely guilty guys pay a heavy price. My experience was that the UCMJ was anything but just. I was E-8 eligible but didn't get picked the 2 times I was up.
Since the cold war was over, the Navy was shrinking. They wanted to jettison people. My rate & pay grade was on the early retire list. I applied and got picked to become a civilian. I was anxious to begin my civilian career in Information Technology. I also wanted to get my kids out of the Florida public school system. I got a job in Maryland supporting DFAS out of Pax River. They would ask me nicely if I wanted to work overtime. The one down side was I had to dress myself every morning to go to work instead of just wear the uniform of the day.
In the end, I can't complain. The Navy was good to me. Next month will be 21 years that I will be retired.
