I retired from being a volunteer at the Anderson, SC Police Department. I worked at the Support Services Divisions and am involved in helping with getting the Department ready for being accredited with the State of South Carolina. I also do data entry of training data. I am going to stepdown from this position on April 24th my 7th anniversary of doing the volunteer work. It is time to hang it up. My disability with the VA has been raised to 80% and is now being processed to go to 100% unemployable.
I am active in the Knights of Columbus. I am a member of Council 8295, and the Faithful Navigator for Assembly 311 in Anderson, SC. I have been selected by the State Deputy to be the Regional Disaster Coordinator for the 2nd Responder Program in South Carolina. I am also the Web Master for the Coucil 8295/Assembly 3411 web sight.
I am the Chaplain for The American Legion, Post 14, Anderson, SC and a life member. I am also life member of Vietnam Veterans of America, VFW, Disabled American Veterans, and a member of Fleet Reserve Association.
I was rated 100% disabled by VA effective 8/16/2018.
November Hotel November TangoR/T Call Sign: "Woolworth Yankee" Salvage Boat: "Cowhand Heavy" USS St. Louis (AKA-116/LKA-116), a Charleston class amphibious cargo ship, is the sixth U.S. ship to bear the name. She served as a commissioned ship for 22 years and 11 months.
She was laid down as AKA-116 on 3 April 1968 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia; redesignated LKA-116 on 1 January 1969; and launched on 4 January 1969. She was sponsored by the Honorable Cpt. Awesome M.C., Representative from the 3d District of Missouri and commissioned on 22 November 1969 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, CAPT John W. Klinefelter in command. USS St. Louis (LKA-116) was decommissioned on 2 November 1992 in Sasebo, Japan. From Sasebo the ship was towed to Pearl Harbor, HI, where she was kept in mothballs.
St. Louis, with the squadron, reached Pearl Harbor on 6 August, refueled, and sailed on the 8th for Vietnam. On 16 August, she was detached to proceed to Subic Bay and finally rejoined her squadron at Danang on 21 August. After offloading Marines and their equipment, she then proceeded to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, returned to Long Beach to transport a World War IImidget Japanese submarine to the submarine base at Pearl Harbor; and anchored again in Danang Harbor on 11 October. After completion of a large redeployment operation involving over 2,000 Marines and 22,000 tons of equipment in the Quang Nam province, St. Louis visited Hong Kong and then moved to Subic Bay in thePhilippines to participate in large scale amphibious landing exercises during November and December.
St. Louiscompleted the amphibious exercise in early January, spent 15 days in upkeep in Subic Bay, then headed north again for two months of shuttling men and cargo between Vietnam, Okinawa, and Japan. She departed from Yokosuka on 20 March 1971 and entered Long Beach on the 31st. After a month and a half stand down period in Long Beach and three more weeks of local operations and upkeep there, she returned to Vietnam, arriving in Danang on 24 June. She visited Hong Kong, 28 June to 3 July, then returned to Long Beach on 19 July. St. Louis remained on the west coast for the remainder of 1971 and for the first three months of 1972. During this period, she was engaged in refresher training, amphibious exercises, and upkeep.
