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An up close and personal interview with U.S. Navy Veteran and Togetherweserved.com Member:
BMC Mike Beaver U.S. Navy (Ret) (1964-1985)
PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE NAVY?
I was a pretty unhappy kid who grew up in the military and understood the constant moving. That is until my dad planted us in Albany, Georgia and went on with his time in the Air Force. I was a skinny ugly looking kid then and the only thing that's  changed is now I am trying to keep my weight down to 200 pounds. Being beat with the ugly stick stays with you for life (laugh).
Anyway, since I was not very happy I decided to run off to join the Navy when I turned 18. I had grown up on John Wayne and others who made war something of a hero worship. Death was even played down. Besides that, John Wayne always came back in a new war movie and no one ever seemed to be really dead. Stupid thinking I know.
So I joined and ended up in a short sleeved shirt and blue jeans on my way to Great Lakes boot camp. When I arrived, there was snow up to my butt and I was cold. That was the start of a very long learning experience that took about two years to get me to grow up and act like a man.
WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK.
Started as a nothing and worked my way to BMC doing time at sea on different ships learning my rate and time in 'Nam learning how to kill and in the end teaching the young that worked for me how to take charge and make their rig sing it was  so right. I was proud of my men and women.
But it did not start very well. I barely made it through boot camp and to my first ship, the USS Worden (DLG-18). In boot camp they said I would be sent to Sonar School when an opening came. As I was checking in I met the XO who said he did not need Sonarmen but did need a Quartermaster. So here I am pure country and dumber than a bag of rocks and on the bridge where all the big shots congregate. And since I was the most junior I did all the chipping and painting. Found out I could not paint and ended up painting more on myself than what I was supposed to be painting. I also had a tendency to go on liberty and get drunk. Yes, I was 18 but any sailor can get something to drink if he works at it.
Between the constant troubles I would get into and paint loaded dungarees, I did not last long on the bridge. I got fired and was put in the deck force from which I never left for the next 21 years.
After constant drinking trouble and other things that got me in trouble, I got 3 days bread and water in the Brig. One day I woke up and I was an E-1. I was rock bottom and on the verge of getting kicked out of the Navy and that day I actually looked around and noticed all my friends were gone. They had been kicked out or went AWOL. I figured I could either find someone to blame for all this or just take charge of myself. I decided to take charge of myself and grow up.
 In 1967 I was an E-3 or BMSN which back then was something. I ran the Sail Locker and did all the sewing for the ship's canvas work and what not. I had put in for a tour in Vietnam and was put on the list. We made one five month cruise to the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam. We were part of the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers Task Force 77 and launched airstrikes against North Vietnam. It was called Yankee Station. Our mission was to rescue downed Airmen who had been shot down over North Vietnam and somehow managed to make it to the sea. We picked up many downed Airmen. We were also 'plane guarded' for the carriers. We would steam behind them and if a plane did not land or over shot the carrier we would pick up the pilot.
We were on four hours on eight hours off. Every other night we would unrep fuel, bullets and food. This could take most of the night. Line them up and catch them when it was your turn. So our four and eight turned into no real sleep or even rest at times. If you did not have a day watch you would come out on deck and wash down the bulkheads of the ship getting all the salt and then chase rust and red lead it and paint it. So if you were lucky and just did what you had to do, you got maybe two hours sleep a night. By the way, I never learned how to paint but I could teach others and fix any paint machine, just do not put a brush in my hand.
When we got back to the states my orders were in. I was going back to Vietnam. Counting my five months in the Gulf of Tonkin, I ended up spending 34 months in Vietnam.
After Vietnam I became a tug master and a harbor pilot and did many other things and did them well and loved my work. My last ship I was the ships bos'n and had two divisions. I was very proud of my guys and they could do their jobs well and without all the confusion that I had seen early in my career. My standing rule was only one person talked during an evolution; it was the man in charge of the rig. Even I didn't say anything. If I saw something that was not right I whispered it to the man in charge which made him feel good and made him feel stronger and better at his job.
Altogether I spent 34 months in the Combat Zone and 21 years in the Navy. I retired an E-7 and was really burned out. I gave my all to the Navy and became very good at my jobs.
IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN COMBAT OPERATIONS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE ACTIONS WHICH WERE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TO YOU AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY.
When I got orders to go back to Vietnam, I was so full of myself and geared to go and get the bad guys and get all the medals and come back and get the girls. Instead when I got there the heat almost killed me on the spot and  the insult of all insults was being sent to Mess Cooking. Deep sink for two months. What a way to fight a war!
In the mean time I had taken the test for BM3 and found out I passed. Finally I was getting back to what I came there to do. I used to sit on the Mess Decks and watch the boat crews who had come back from the detachments telling their war stories and seeing that look in their eyes which did not match up with the laugh on their face. I would find out what that meant shortly after that.
When I went to the personal office they asked me what I wanted to do. All I said was boats. They said Okay and that's when my education started. I was a Skipper of a LCM-8 (Mike Boat) for the rest of that tour. That was 1967. I did three months down by Liberty Bridge as the only boat there. We had some Marines and Army running security watching out for our very small perimeter and the bridge.
Then I went to Hue and spent the entire five weeks of the '68 Tet Offensive where I lost one boat and cargo and one man killed and one wounded. I got wounded three days later on another boat I had taken over. I got patched up and went back to my boat.
After Tet I went to the DMZ and spent the rest of my tour there still getting shot at and still shooting back. That tour took me away from me. I was no longer a kid. Something happened to me and I became an angry drunk who wanted to be alone and stay in 'Nam.
I did one more tour on a ship and spent 5 months on the gun line, then came back again on my last tour to do 12 months as the bos'n in charge of the deck operations on a Minesweeper boat. These boats were only 57-foot long and about  10 foot wide but they could power a small city with the electricity they could produce. We swept for mines either chain drag or electric mines. Made sure the gear was put out right. I also learned and qualified to be a Boat Captain and was told if they ever ran short of E-6's and 7's I would have a boat. Never happened! The boats where shipped out to the States and the rest of us were reassigned and I became a Naval Adviser to the RVN Navy and found out just how lazy they were.
We worked at it to make it easier on them and they could actually find mines if there were any on the Saigon River. They would not approve any more tours for me. The war was just about over and I wanted to fight on. Deep down inside I wanted to die.
So that is how I grew up. I do not think I would have been much if I had not had that time to taste life and grow up and become part of something that was bigger than me. I gave it all I had and have many good feeling about it. Every so often I hear from one of them. Either pure hate or many thanks for what I gave them. That makes me feel very good.
FROM YOUR ENTIRE SERVICE CAREER WHAT PARTICULAR MEMORY STANDS OUT?
The good memories were the jobs I actually could do proudly and make a difference. Teaching my people the rate and having many of them stay in the rate and become very good at what they did. Bringing back traditions of the Navy ships I was on: The bos'n pipe,  ships bells and the proper way to run a Captains or Admirals boat. Doing impossible rigging jobs and teaching what I knew. Running tug boats for four years. You feel truly in charge when you are underway and moving barges by yourself with the most being five barges one on each hip and three on the head. Twenty-seven miles to the naval air station on the Saint Johns River in Fla. Becoming a limited tonnage pilot. I worked in three ports and could pilot ships of 12000 tons by myself using equipment such as tugs and pusher boats. My last job before I retired was ship's bos'n on the USS Boulder (LST 1190).
I loved the Navy but was burned out and my body had started to fall apart. All the beating in 'Nam and other things I had to do were catching up with me. So now I am 100% and all I have left is my great memories of the jobs I did and the people I watched grow into great leaders.
I have no idea but I have heard the Navy I was in is no more. I have been told no one raises their voice and there is a lot of please and thank you. The decks do not shake anymore when the Bos'n walks down them. And Chiefs do not take care of their people any more. The old guys told me their Navy was the rocks and shoals and no one talked to the Chief and you worked till you dropped and then worked some more. That did change some I am happy to say. But it was my generation that changed that. Chiefs took time to teach their men and women and Officers listened to the Chief about things and took their recommendations. Guess my Navy is gone, at least that's what I've been told about the Navy I joined.
IF YOU RECEIVED ANY MEDALS FOR VALOR OR AWARDS FOR SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT, PLEASE DESCRIBE HOW THESE WERE EARNED.
I do not talk about most of them that much. Most were for combat of some kind with a few were for things such rebuilding two 20 ton nuclear cranes and finding design flaws that were changed on other ships with the same cranes. The only time I wear my medals is not for me but for the ones that died in my arms and many others  who were the true heroes of that war. I am no hero. I do fight for the real heroes who cannot talk for themselves.
OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, QUALIFICATION BADGES OR DEVICE YOU RECEIVED, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE ONE(S) MOST MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND WHY?
As I said before unless you have been there, my medals by themselves mean nothing because I do not think I did anything to earn them I just did my job. I do wear them proudly for the many real heroes who I knew or died doing their jobs. Giving one?s life is what a real hero does. The rest of us just carry their water. Whatever we earn is theirs and we wear it for them and salute them when we can.
WHICH INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM YOUR TIME IN THE MILITARY STAND OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOU AND WHY?
Actually there were two. Both BMCM's one was like a teacher and leader to me in Nam. He taught me my job not driving the boat but remembering my crew came first and the boat came second. He let me talk to him when I needed to not that he  could cure anything but he would listen. He had been in Nam for five years and seen it all. He like a lot of us could never do well during that time in the states. We were drunks and hell raisers and loved to fight. But in Nam we were brothers and took care of each other.
The second was also a BMCM who was in charge of the tug in Mayport, Fla. I was a BM1 when I got there. I should have been a BMC to be a tug master but he put me on an YTM 404. A smaller tug very old served in the pacific during WW II independently and was only 1000 hp. I learned every inch of it. He inspected the boat and crew once a week and was very hard on me. But in the end when he put me on an YTB 756 a 2000 hp as skipper I understood why he was so hard on me. He made sure I knew my job and could work right alongside the BMC's and be respected for my job.
After he retired he still used to come down and check us out to make sure everything was operating as it should. Both these men were the best the Navy showed me in all my years.
WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY SERVING, WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY?
 I attempted to be a civilian cop and even was on a GRT team, like a SWAT team. When I could not do that anymore I went to college and got a degree in social work. In 1996 I could no longer do that job anymore and had to stop working all together.
Now I am a stay at home husband working in my shop when my body will let me. I make things takes a lot longer because most days my hands stop working as they should after about 4 hours. But I do enjoy what I do.
WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? WHAT SPECIFIC BENEFITS DO YOU DERIVE FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIPS?
I am a member of the DAV and Order of the Purple Heart. Do not do much on the computer because a lot of the military or military affiliated sites are very political and driven by the philosophies of the originators. I also believe a few of them are run haphazardly without vetting the members, resulting in a lot of wanna bee's and phony Nam vets. I pretty much stay clear of those. I get angry very easily when the hate starts spouting.
I like the TWS site because the members are checked out for who they say they are. I have never had an argument with anyone on this site. I am sure there are those who do not agree with my thoughts but isn't that what we fought for?
IN WHAT WAYS HAS SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CAREER?
It has taught me to be responsible and accept me for who I am and always try to do what I can and not complain about my busted up body. I thank God he has given me enough of a body to do the things I do enjoy.
BASED ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY JOINED THE NAVY?
Learn your rate, teach your rate as you advance and leave the Navy in better shape because you served and taught those who will follow you. Bring respect back and find out it's not just for tradition; when your superior asks for your thoughts on something that means he or  she respects you and knows you know your rate. It makes you and him/her look good. I discovered most good officers what a strong chief who can carry the ball and be in charge and take care of his or her troops.
It's not just a job: You have to love it and learn about it and be the best about it. Know your rate, do not guess.
I also hope the young of today's Navy are growing up to be good people and hopefully understand what war is and how destructive it can be to not only our country but to each of them also. My generation of combat vets is damaged for life. I do not want to see that happen to the new younger men and women of today's Navy.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU REMEMBER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FRIENDS YOU SERVED WITH.
I have met some people that I served with and enjoyed all the things the site allows me to do and share and seek advice about. It's the best naval site I have ever run across.
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TWS VOICES
TWS Voices are the personal stories of men and women who served in the US Military and convey how serving their Country has made a positive impact on their lives. If you would like to participate in a future edition of Voices, or know someone who might be interested, please contact TWS Voices HERE.
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