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    Navy Fun, When Ronald Reagan Was In Charge, And Being in the Navy Was a Blast!
    Navy Fun, When Ronald Reagan Was In Charge, And Being in the Navy Was a Blast!
    Navy Fun, When Ronald Reagan Was In Charge, And Being in the Navy Was a Blast!
    Ebook172 pages3 hours

    Navy Fun, When Ronald Reagan Was In Charge, And Being in the Navy Was a Blast!

    By Vince Stead

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    About this ebook

    Enjoy yourself, as you step into the shoes of a Navy sailor, who travels around the world, on a Destroyer, an Aircraft Carrier, and a Submarine Tender, and visits 16 countries! You'll travel by Navy ship, and see some very interesting countries, with shopping, bars, and stories of famous Red Light district's, and women everywhere!

    See what it's like to be out to sea on a ship, working and playing, in the middle of the ocean!

    See all the Crazy and Wacky things Officer's do, and see how the Admiral lives on an Aircraft Carrier!

    Then, transfer to shore duty, where it seems the women are in charge, and there are plenty of them!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVince Stead
    Release dateOct 7, 2010
    ISBN9781516315925
    Navy Fun, When Ronald Reagan Was In Charge, And Being in the Navy Was a Blast!

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    • 4/5
      This is one person's chronicle of life in the US Navy.The author grew up in a small town in Michigan. Part of a large family, his father's attitude was that when each child reached 16 years old, they moved out of the house. A friend was joining the Navy, so the author followed him. Boot camp, held in Florida, consisted of a lot of yelling, for no good reason. When it was time to choose the area of training the sailor would learn, the author, having no better ideas, went to yeoman school. There he learned to type memos the Navy Way, and otherwise entered the world of military paperwork.His first duty station was aboard a submarine tender. It followed several submarines, and acted as their supply ship. He worked directly with the ship's Commanding officer and Executive Officer, most of whom were decent, reasonable people. He compared himself to Radar O'Reilly, from the TV show MASH, taking care of the paperwork. It was not the most strenuous job in the Navy. Later in his career, he found himself doing similar work on a destroyer and an aircraft carrier.When it is time to board a ship for your tour of duty, the ship does not come to you; you go to the ship, wherever in the world it might be. The author talks about some of the places he visited in his travels. Places like Manila and Seoul very much cater to American military personnel. There are many, many bars and nightclubs, each with many beautiful young women available for one-night stands. Even the most plain-looking guy, who can't get a date back home, could have a different woman each night, if he was interested. He noticed that things are very different in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He also visited Hawaii, Guam, Hong Kong, the Maldive Islands and Diego Garcia (which is little more than a giant military base).This is an interesting book that's worth reading. It's short, and is written in a very informal style.

    Book preview

    Navy Fun, When Ronald Reagan Was In Charge, And Being in the Navy Was a Blast! - Vince Stead

    Navy Fun

    When Ronald Reagan was in Charge, and Being in the Navy was a Blast

    ––––––––

    By

    Vince Stead

    Navy Fun

    ––––––––

    Copyright © 2007 by Vince Stead

    ––––––––

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

    ISBN:  978-1-59824-514-1

    First Edition

    Published April 2007

    E-BookTime, LLC

    6598 Pumpkin Road 

    Montgomery, AL 36108 

    www.e-booktime.com

    Chapter 1. Joining the Navy

    Chapter 2. Boot Camp

    Chapter 3. Yeoman School Training

    Chapter 4. Sea duty aboard the USS PROTEUS (AS-19) Submarine Tender

    Chapter 5. Out to sea working in the admin office

    Chapter 6. Diego Garcia

    Chapter 7. Guam

    Chapter 8. Philippines

    Chapter 9. Hong Kong

    Chapter 10. Singapore

    Chapter 11. Transit duty in San Diego

    Chapter 12. Sea duty aboard the USS DAVID R. RAY   (DD-971) Destroyer

    Chapter 13. Out to sea working in the admin office

    Chapter 14 San Francisco

    (Fleet Week)

    Chapter 15 Mexico

    Chapter 16. Hawaii

    Chapter 17. British Columbia

    Chapter 18. Mal Dives

    Chapter 19. Korea

    Chapter 20. Japan

    Chapter 21. Malaysia

    Chapter 22. Pakistan

    Chapter 23. Italy & Saudi Arabia

    Chapter 24. 4 Years Shore Duty, Finally Working with Women in the Navy

    Chapter 25. Aboard the USS NIMITZ (CVN-68) Aircraft Carrier

    Chapter 1

    Joining the Navy

    As a kid, growing up in a little town called Ortonville, Michigan, there wasn’t too many military installations around, or just about zero, that I can remember, while growing up. I did know that my dad was in the merchant marines for a short period, and one of my brothers did a stint in the Army, and Vietnam, and another brother joined the Marine Corps, and a 3rd brother went into the Air Force for awhile.

    I was going to go into the Army, but my friend said, Hey, I’m going into the Navy, why don’t you join up with me? I said O.K., because to me, at that particular time, all the military services were just the same, I was 18 years old, and ready to get out of dodge, and get my life going in some direction, so the Navy sounded just as good as any of the services to me.

    I knew as a kid growing up, that I would have to fend for myself. Most of my older brothers and sisters, which there were 7 of us in all, and one step brother, that would make 8 kids in all. My dad was not paying for anyone to attend college, that was not an option. The rule with my dad was, When you turn 16, you were supposed to move out of the house, he always said.

    I was lucky enough to have a good job as a kid. When I was very little, my first job was using a butter brush, and putting butter on pans, so the loafs of bread would not stick to them, in one of the bakeries my dad owned at the time. When I was 13, I got a job in a restaurant washing dishes and being the bus boy. That was a good job, because some other kids from school also worked there. When I was 15, I got a job working in a grocery store, and they were a chain store, and I was in the union at 15, and got good money at that time.

    My neighbor, who lived across the street from me, and was older than me, also worked at a grocery store, but just a different chain of them. I talked him into getting an apartment with me, when I was 16 years old.

    When I was telling my dad how much money the grocery store was paying me, he said, That was great, I would be able to afford my own place pretty soon, and then I told him I had already gotten an apartment, and would be moving out on Saturday.

    I was the only kid that did not get thrown out of the house. My older brothers and sisters usually got thrown out, with their clothes right behind them. Back then, I don’t think there were any child protection services, like they have today, or at least, my dad did not believe there was.

    The pay was better than most kids my age were making, and my manager knew my situation, and let me shine the grocery store floor isles at night, so that I could still go to school in the day time. I did that as my schedule, and still had time to drink, and run around with my friends back then. The rule at the grocery store was, you could only work every other Sunday, because Sunday were always paid as double time pay, but my manager always let me work each Sunday, so that I would make more money to live off.

    We had had, our apartment for awhile, and it was party central. We did not ever bother to lock the door, or someone would just be knocking. It was parties every weekend with the same 30 or so kids at each house party we would go to. We would all start out at our apartment, and then hit the house parties, or bomb fire field parties, and every weekend it was the same group of people, same parties, just different locations usually.

    By now, I had already worked at the grocery store, for about 1 1/2 years already, and was getting bored with the grocery store also. It was a business, that you could only move up, if you spent most of your life working there. My dream I realized was not going to be spent working in a grocery store all my life, so I did some thinking.

    I had some help deciding what I was going to do. I had a really nice hot rod muscle car in high school. It was a GTO, burgundy color, leather interior, crager rims all the way around, I had N50 size tires on the back, that look just like big slick tires. I had air shocks on the back, to keep the fender wells off of the tires that stuck out. Well, one day, a police officer pulled me over, and he brought out a tape measure, and said my rear bumper was to high off the ground. To lower my back bumper, I would have to take my tires off, since the fenders would sit on the wheels and ruin the car. I decided to just sell my baby, and use the money to try something different.

    I decided to quit my job, and sell everything I owned, except for a new cheap car I bought, and drive to Texas. It was known thru out all the kids my age, that anyone could go to Houston, or Dallas, and get a good job, easy, and make good money. I was one of those kids that had to find out for myself how the boom town was.

    I spent about 6 months in Houston, Texas. I had one guys phone number that was already living down there and supposedly doing good. When I did get down there, I drove a beat up old car my sisters husband had gotten ready for me to drive, and it made it. I slept in the back seat of that car for several days.

    When I got to Houston, my friend, who I knew from the grocery store, and had quit his job, months earlier, to go to Texas also, was doing good for himself. He was staying with someone else, and there was really no room for me, as I did not even let them know I was coming. I stayed one night at their place, and then I stayed in the local motel 6, and looked for a job from the Texas Employment Commission.

    They set me up with a job the next day, and it was the same job I kept the whole time, until I left Texas about 6 months later, to go back to Michigan. I had a job making concrete curbs. It was a hard job, but the people I worked with were really cool.

    My boss was a riot. He would always let me take the company truck out, and even use it for the night sometimes, to sleep in, when I needed to, in the beginning.

    I slept in my car for about the first 3 weeks I was in Houston, Texas. I would sleep one night in the motel, and then the next night, I would sleep in the motel, but out in my car in their parking lot. Finally, one of the guys I was working with at the concrete job, also had a brother, that was not working with us, but he also came from Michigan. The brothers were from way up state Michigan, and they also had gone to Texas, to find jobs. Back then, the saying on lots of cars bumper stickers were Would the last one out of Michigan, please turn off the lights, because there was lots of talk of booming jobs in Texas.

    On one of my last night’s sleeping in my car, I was parked on the side of the road, with a little hill next to it. Well, it must of been about 3:00 am, I was in the back seat in a sleeping bag, and I woke up, to see a truck had backed up down the hill, and was trying to now tip my car over, with me inside. I started yelling, and I could hear someone yell, Hey, there’s someone inside the car, and it took off. I got outside the car, and the car had slid about 6 feet across the ground, and was dented all across the side now. I decided I could not live in a car any longer at that moment.

    When I told one of the guys that I was working with, that was also from Michigan, he said I could stay with him and his brother, but that the place is empty, and there is no furniture, in the apartment they are renting. They were never planning on living in Texas for a long time either. They wanted to work, get some money up, and then head back to Michigan.

    Well the three of us shared that apartment, and no one had any furniture. My section was in the living room corner. I had a lounge type lawn chair, and all my clothes, and whatever else, right there next to me, on the ground. The other guys pretty much lived the same way, no furniture what so ever, and no intention of ever getting any.

    After thinking about it, I thought to myself, What are you doing? Your family is in Michigan, are you going to live in Texas for ever? You just wanted to see what Texas was like. So I decided that I would go back to Michigan, to see my family for a vacation, and then I would join the Army. Well I did get back to Michigan, and I stayed for about 2 months. Later, my friend talked me into joining the Navy with him, and I did just that, and the rest of the story is as follows:

    ––––––––

    Chapter 2

    Boot Camp

    Before I joined the Navy, in May of 1982, my friend Jerry, introduced me to his recruiter at a public park, where they were cooking out some hot dogs, and drinking some beer. I shook his hand, and ate a hot dog, and just kicked back.

    We did not really even talk about the Navy. I told him I wanted to go in, because I knew I was ready, and that there were not that many doors open to me, at the moment. I was surprised when he said I would have to take some tests, and other things like that. I said, Fine, just tell me what to do, and where to do it at.

    After going down to Detroit, to take a bunch of tests, physical exams, and tons of paperwork, there was just one more test. One of the recruiters, who was straight as an arrow, and had a rule book in his pocket, probably, asked me, When was the last time I smoked marijuana? I asked him, Why? He said that I had checked it off on one of my forms, that I had smoked marijuana before. He said, If you have smoked it within the last 6 months, you cannot enter the Navy.

    I told him, It was 6 months ago, since I had smoked marijuana. This guy brought out a calendar, and went back six months, and asked me, Was this the date that you smoked it? Like I could really remember anyway. As a kid growing up in Michigan, most all the kids I hung around in junior high, and high school, had all did the same things together. Almost every weekend, there was a party, and plenty of smoking and drinking. I’m sure it was just a day or so, when I went in there.

    This guy was too much, when I picked the date on the calendar, he told me I was one day shy of the 6 months. He told me that I would have to get a waiver to enter the Navy. I told him, Fine, let me apply for the waiver. He said, You will have to meet with a psychiatrist." I met with the psychiatrist that same day. I was asked a lot of questions by the psychiatrist, and he gave me a clean bill of health, and I was able to join the Navy.

    I was taking a trip from Detroit to Orlando, where I would be attending boot camp. I was kinda surprised, because the Navy had a boot camp base, at Great Lakes, IL, and it was all guys, no girls, at that boot camp base. Why they spent more money, sending me farther away, I don’t know, but I liked it. The nice thing about Orlando, was it was co-ed, at least there were girls going to be there. They tried to make sure, no one could get close to each other, but they could never keep the boys away from the girls, or even the girls away from the boys.

    They put all of us that were going to Orlando, Florida, for boot camp, on one plane. I was seated next to a nice pretty girl close to my own age. She was on her way back home to visit her parents. The flight was terrible, it was only the 2nd time I had flown on an airplane, and this flight from Detroit to Orlando was turning into a carnival ride, and I hate carnival rides.

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