Previously Held NEC SR-0000-Seaman Recruit
SN-0000-Seaman
SN-9740-Seaman - Other Technical and Allied Specialists
IC-0000-Interior Communications Electrician
I retired on the last day of June, 2011, the month I turned 61,
and took my Arizona State pension, then Social Security at 62.
I spent my post-navy life as a photographer and media manager.
The Navy gave me gypsy feet, and I've enjoyed them all my life.
As a result, traveling was not just a bucket list item for me.
With the way things have gone, it was a good investment.
I'm a direct descendant, tenth generation, of Joseph Loomis.
The Loomis Family arrived in the New World on 17 July, 1638.
We have defended America ever since.
Other Comments:
"Service included boots-on-the-ground in Viet-Nam"
[ One year, 365 days, 24/7 -- 7 June 1970 to 7 June 1971 ] U.S. Naval Advisory Group, Vietnamese Naval Shipyard, Saigon RVN.
I am also a Plank Owner and Shellback, USS Harlan County (LST-1196).
During my 4 years of active duty, 3 years were credited as foreign or sea service.
Technically, I was on Active Duty, USN, 3 years, 11 months and 16 days. However, I was in the Naval Reserve before that and after that, both Active Reserves and Inactive Reserves. So N/TWS has credited me from April 1969 through April 1983, 4 years active USN plus 4 years USNR and 6 years inactive Naval Reserves, and that is why my profile may occasionally show three hash marks. 1983 was my final Inactive Naval Reserve discharge date. Also, because I worked overseas, I never managed to take the 2nd Class Exam. So, actually I never wore more than one hash mark on my dress blues. And yes... there is a "V" on my Navy Achievement Medal even without having a Combat Action Ribbon because that's the way it was awarded. For more information click on the NAM w/V ribbon in my ribbon rack.
I am glad, proud, to have been born an American.
I voluntarily joined the armed forces, and for that
matter I volunteered for duty in Viet-Nam.
What I had hoped for was to not bring the violence,
the lack of value of a human life that I experienced
in Viet-Nam, back to America. It is that simple.
During my civilian career I spent over ten years as a hospital/medical photographer, two years in Saudi Arabia with Lockheed, and then two and a half decades as the media specialist and manager for a 9,000+ student public school district in Phoenix, Arizona. I feel fortunate to have retired without ever having a single unemployment or welfare check.
They say, when you sneeze your heart skips a beat. Sometimes you just spook yourself so badly it nearly stops.
I had a couple of moments after returning from Viet-Nam that were a reactions of the past year. I'd been back about a week when my brother asked me to go to the stock car races with him. I thought it would be fun and we would surely run into some people I knew, old friends or classmates. It's Wisconsin, you know, just a dirt track and a bunch of lights on poles, old modified jalopies and beer stands. We got a couple of cold Pabst beers and suddenly I was on the ground, face first in the mud. They had fired off a concussion type of fireworks that lit the night sky and boomed like a mortar over our heads. By now a crowd was standing around me as I got to my feet. Wet with mud and spilt beer, I told my brother I'd see him in town and I walked home, about five miles. ..................... About two months later I was going through A school in San Diego. One evening two of us were headed for the EM Club on base. It was a dark moonless night and as we walked through a large open parking lot I suddenly froze in my tracks. Crouching in the wide open and feeling totally exposed... the other guy kept asking, "What's wrong with you?" I whispered, "I heard a 45 slide".
There is no other sound quite like it. I waited for the thud to knock me to the ground but it didn't come. I managed to stand back up and we proceeded on to the club. All I can say is... by now, I really needed that drink. "Bartender....!"
...................February 2017....... a post Viet-Nam and a comment mass shooting in America............... Hey, this is as good a place as any... Posted - 18 hours ago
Guns. You either have one, or dozens, or you don't. I don't.
When leaving Viet-Nam I had to turn in my weapons. M-16, a 45, an M-70, bandoliers of clips, etc...
At the same time, being attached to an advisory unit, I was offered a trophy, an AK-47 (plugged and cased).
I turned down the AK-47 and since then I have never physically touched a firearm. That was June 1971.
So, you may think I am a pacifist, and you may be wrong.
I simply eliminated that from my life, like drugs or any other habit you may have. What I do believe in is:
Gun Control. Hard for many as it really needs an IQ test.
Birth Control. In case you don't; I decided not to have kids.
Death Penalty. Murder (1st and 2nd) Rape and Armed Robbery.
Euthanasia. That is the ultimate "choice" and no one else's.
So... If you make firearms available to every nut case... these stories of mass shootings will simply continue, again and again.
.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=d40e366bb55af1e70293eedccb148713 "Brown Water Navy (Vietnam)")
.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=0cb147133885c62667d8969c50b66659 "Order of the Ditch (Panama Canal)")
1 posted by 
