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.
1970: During my tour in Viet-Nam, June 1970 to June 1971, I was assigned to the Vietnamese Naval Shipyard which still stands on the Saigon River just north of the downtown. Between the downtown and the shipyard was the Vietnamese Naval Command Headquarters.
The responsibility for delivering messages and the mail fell on the office staff which consisted of a YN1 and PN2. But, as the junior man in my unit I was often called on to deliver those messages and mail to (COMNAVFORV) U.S. Naval Forces Headquarters and to the Vietnamese Naval Headquarters in Saigon. On average I did the mail run three times a week and would stop off at the RVNN HQ at least once a week. I enjoyed getting out of the shipyard and driving around Saigon. It was one of the reasons I knew the city as well as I did.
In researching images of the shipyard, over the years, I've also collected a few images of the Vietnamese HQ. I have at least one of my own photographs, from 1970, and with the coming of the internet I was able to find several old postcards. When I returned to Saigon in 2003 I took additional photographs which I will list here... (in this photo album)
2003: My return to Saigon was very therapeutic, more than I could have hoped for. With me was my wife Barbra. She's English and so her views on Viet-Nam are very different from mine. The year I went to Viet-Nam she went to Zambia, in Africa, with the British Foreign Service. We are the same age so our time frames are interestingly the same, yet so very different. We met while we were both on contracts in Saudi Arabia in late 1977.
What it amounts to is that I was able to show "my Saigon" to my wife. We walked to dozens of the locations I had known more than thirty years earlier. I was very pleased with my sense of direction and ability to locate places. Additionally, our hotel and airline booking included a half day tour guide and car with driver.
Our tour guide started out with the normal... church here, post office there, city hall... blah blah blah. When I asked about the shipyard his eyes widened and as soon as we were away from the driver's hearing I admitted I was a returning Veteran and he told me he had been a RVN Marine and had worked in the shipyard about the same time I was there. He also told me he had spent six years in a re-education camp. I felt sorry for him and wondered how my own counterpart had fared.
When we passed the old Republic of Viet-Nam Naval Headquarters I asked if it was still use? His response was interesting. "Yes, but as accommodations for North Vietnamese Officers, only. A benefit for their service". Wow.. I had gathered that the Viet Cong had not fared well at all. And it appears that they got nothing after the communists took control. I believe they were considered "traitors" to their own country then, and so... "who would trust a traitor?"
A note about our hotel, The New World. On the south-east corner of the hotel is the swimming pool. I believe this was the location of the Le Loi Hotel (BEQ) if you knew Saigon you may remember it.