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.
LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN: AUGUST 1973 TO AUGUST 1977. Four years, almost to the day.
I got discharged in June 1973 and enrolled at a technical college in the fall. One night I chipped a tooth, big time. So, I went to a local dentist, with my empty pockets, and he asked me... "When did you get discharged??" -- "About five months ago" --
As luck would have it, he had been in the Navy, as an officer and dentist. According to him, I was covered for six months after my discharge. Well, a crown, actually two, one with a root canal, and the removal of my wisdom teeth, he billed the government. Not long after that, I got this letter, and a bus fare, to report to the VA across the state in Madison, Wisconsin. OK, I can still follow orders... I got there, sat in the lobby, was finally brought in and all they did was to look at the work that had been done and then they sent me on my way. All they wanted to see was that what they got billed for had been done. End of that story.
My first OKTOBERFEST was 1973, La Crosse Wisc. My apartment was on 3rd Street and State Street. Dead center of the festival.
WWTI, Western Wisconsin Technical Institute, AAS Visual Communications. 1973 to 1975, graduated with academic honors.
126 1/2 3rd Street at State St., appts 11 and 15. 803 Cass Street apt. B., 922 Cameron Ave., 502 14th St. So. at Madison St .
St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Audio Visuals for the Department of Education and Staff/Medical Photographer. April 1975 to August 1977.
Naval Reserve Center La Crosse, August 1974 to August 1977: Chief Shipfitter Frank W. Moulis, USNR. Frank also owned the South Avenue Liquor Depot in La Crosse.
I left the La Crosse area in August 1977 for a two year contract with Lockheed Aircraft International in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. When I returned I enrolled in the University of Wisconsin at Platteville and resumed my Naval Reserve duties in Dubuque, Iowa.