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.
Like a One Hit Wonder, I more or less a "one hitch wander"
The Navy gave me a lot and I gave the Navy a lot... It never does get out of your blood. In most cases, it is easy for me to remember the first time I did something, especially important things, and because I was in the Navy (only) four years, most events only happened once so I find them easy to recall.
I joined the Navy while in high school, I was 18.
A major factor in my getting out of the Navy was to see if I could survive without my mother ship.
But, like most people, I wondered what it would have been like to retire, or at least receive a pension when I was just 38. In part, that had a lot to do with my joining the Reserves. I spent a couple of hitches as USNR, broken by a contract in the middle east. 4 years active and 4 years reserves, I ended up in Phoenix and about the time I could have retired from the Navy I took a job with a school district, one of the last of the great pension programs. After 24 years I had all the points I needed to retire. I had planned to go for 25 as it would have bumped my retirement into the next bracket.
(...the rest of the story...)
The Arizona State Retirement Plan has a Military Service clause... You can purchase active duty time and add it to your retirement. I purchased two years (the year I was in Viet-Nam and the one I spent at sea) and this put me at 26 years of credited service.
I bet you may have figured out what was in the back of my mind as I got closer and closer to that retirement objective... It was almost as good as going back and staying in the Navy.