I am a retired Speech-Language Pathologist who worked with adult neurogenic patients in hospitals all over the DFW area for twenty-five years. I have also spent a lot of time in the classroom, both as a student and a teacher, and acquired a BA, MA, MS and the coursework for a PhD. Not much of this was the result of planning, but of just taking advantage of opportunities when they arose. Since my retirement I have written articles for The American Thinker (3), Human Events (1), Touchstone Magazine (1) and Speakfree.co (3).
1964-1965, TDV-0000, NATTC (Staff) Millington, TN, Naval Air Technical Training Command (Staff)
Best Friends Leon Ramsey, Ernie Gerrard, my Oklahoma Hombres, and an aviation marine named Kenworthy. He was a great guy, but the most un-squared away marine I ever met. He wore the same fatigues for a week at a time, spit polished his boots once a month and then sprayed them with pledge until he had to polish them again. He also had a notebook of his own creation that had an eight-ball instead of the globe, a fish hook instead of the anchor, and a buzzard instead of an eagle. Below his artwork he had written the slightly altered marine corps slogan, "Simply Forgot Us." I told him that although most discharge certificates said, "after four years of faithful service" his would have the words "faithful" and "service" scratched out and would just say "after four years."
Best Moment Finding out that I had been accepted for TD school after completing basic electronics school was a great moment, and graduating was even better. When we began TD school, we were told that, upon graduation, the top student would get first choice of duty stations, the second place student would get second choice, and so on. Leon Ramsey finished in first place and I finished right behind him. He put in for Pensacola, since he was from Panama Beach, and I put in for Corpus Christi. We both got orders to Barber's Point, Hawaii. I remember Leon saying that he told the Navy he wanted to go east and they sent him so far west that he was almost east. After a little while in Hawaii, however, we both decided that the Navy knew best---at least this time.
Worst Moment Since Memphis was fairly close to Oklahoma, four of us who were all from there used to drive home on weekends when we all had liberty. Of course, this meant that we were seriously out of bounds since the limit away from our duty station was 150 miles. The only way this could be a problem was if we got caught somehow, so we ignored that possibility in order to go back home and see family, friends, and girls! Now and then someone else from Oklahoma would pay a nominal fee to ride with us, which helped defray costs like car payments, gasoline, etc., and one particular guy rode with us quite often. The rules were very strict, in that we knew how much time it took to get back from Oklahoma City to Memphis and we all had to meet at the designated place at the designated time on Sunday morning in order to not be AWOL. On one such trip we had all gathered as planned, except that our friend, who shall remain nameless, wasn't there. We waited as long as we could and then headed back, thinking he was just delayed and would catch a plane back. On the following Monday, however, I was called out of class by a CPO who worked with base security. It seems our friend was nowhere to be found and he wanted to know if I knew anything about it. I gave him all the details, since he obviously had alread done a bit of investigating on his own, and when my interview was finished he talked with the others in our group. We all though that something nefarious had happened to him, but,as it turned out, he just didn't want to have to say good-bye to his sweetie and was AWOL for several weeks before he came to his senses and flew back to Memphis and turned himself in. Of course, he lost his school slot and was sent to the fleet after about six months of bad time in the local Marine Corps Hotel.
Other Memories Marching to school every morning. Our route took us past the "mech" barracks and we serenaded them as we went by with ditties like, "Mech, oh mech, oh don't be blue. Frankenstein was ugly too!" "If the mechs could fly around, all the birds would stay on the ground." "Mech, oh, mech, oh ain't it strange? Having 30 weight for brains!" Since they never marched past our barracks, they had no way to get even for all the insults. Also the Dilbert Dunker and the one-way ladder to the platform high above the indoor swimming pool where we were strapped into a parachute harness, swung out over the pool and cut loose at the optimal moment, depending on whether you were well liked or not. If you were well liked, you would drop straight down and hit the water feet first; if not, you would be cut loose when you were parallel to the pool and only use about an inch of water when you landed on your back! Those individuals would come out of the pool as red as a lobster, except for where the harness covered their skin.
