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.
My play takes place in the shipyard in Saigon... That shouldn't come as a surprise if you know anything about me...
SHIPYARD, Steven D Loomis 1985
Location: Saigon. Administrative office in the shipyard overlooking the dry dock.
Time: Morning tea, repeated every ten years, for 60 years. It could be New Years Day.
Office staff: A current Advisor, two translators and the tea boy, Ung Fu.
Year/UF's age - Relative events - current advisor and his country's flag... 1925/15 High Times, Roaring Twenties (foreign flags on sailing ships) 1935/25 Trouble brewing (French flag flying) 1945/35 Ticonderoga Bombing, Good-bye Japs (Japanese battle flag - tattered) 1955/45 Good-bye Frenchy, Hello Americans (French flag to American flag) 1965/55 Our Viet Nam War (American flag to So. Vietnamese flag) 1975/65 Good-bye Americans, Hello Red (So. Vietnamese flag to Communist flag) 1985/75 Standing Alone /The Dreamer Dies (Soviet flag comes down)
The shipyard and dry dock date back to 1885. Every ten years, something major changed in the shipyard. A fire, changes in the economy, changes in the advisory staff.. From the French to the Japanese, back to the French then to the Americans. Finally to the Viet Cong and their friends, the Russians. Somehow, the shipyard does not change.
Ung Fu, the tea boy started work in the Shipyard in 1925. He was 15. When I met him he was 55 and when the Russians buried him he would have been 75.
Two typewriters tap out reports.. in French, Japanese, English, Russian and of course, Vietnamese. The calendar on the wall with its date. A record player or radio plays tunes.
There is an overhead fan and lights. The windows have no shutters. The overhang of the roof shields the wind and rain. There is a clear view of the shipyard's dry dock. The only change may be the occasional desk arrangement and the type of ship and their flags in the dry dock. Sailing ships.. Tramp Steamers.. Jap Patrol & Vichy French flags, French to American, then American to Vietnamese, to the Viet Cong communists and the Russians... as they fail, too.
The advisors, one after another, address the interrupters. They giggle at the military men and their stern ways while they take dictation.
It is Ung Fu who speaks to us. Pouring tea and sweeping his floors, Ung Fu steps center stage to address the history, situation, weather, politics, and sings of hope and dreams. He speaks in his native tongue. It is one of the interrupters who translates for the audience.
...This one act play was always intended as a short, possibly a warm-up, for a grander play. I also have an outline and characters for a book which is the life of Ung Fu starting with a history of his mother and father and finishing after Ung Fu dies.
.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)")
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