USS Blanco County steaming towards Viet Nam from the island of Guam.
U. S.
Navy Service
1961: Joined the U.S. Naval Reserve while attending Illinois State University
with the rank of Seaman Recruit. Boot camp at Great
Lakes Naval Training Center,
cruise on Lake Michigan, encryption school near San
Francisco; applied for Officer
Candidate School
in early 1963.
1963: Called to active duty, sent to Norfolk, Virginia,
to await orders. Worked in the base scullery for one smelly month. Orders
arrived: proceed to the USS Hancock CV-19 in San
Francisco. Stopped at home in Illinois to visit family. Accepted to OCS.
Got orders changed and went to Newport,
Rhode Island, for four months of
officer training. President John F. Kennedy assassinated in November.
1964 January: Commissioned Ensign in the United States
Naval Reserve. Dumped Audrey B., who was dreaming of “little white houses by
babbling brooks,” at Penn Station in New
York City. (And that was a load off my mind!) After
leave, reported for duty in Newport
to the USS Norris, DD-859.
1964-65: Cruises aboard Norris—Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean,
Mediterranean and Red
Seas. Promoted to
Lieutenant Junior Grade. [Red sea portion of the cruise: Reading the online history, I find the Norris was engaged in intelligence gathering and support of the Shah of Iran!]
1965: New orders: Left the Norris at Bahrain, spent one week in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, proceeded to USS Blanco County LST-344** at
Bethlehem Naval Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland, as Chief Engineer designate during the
re-fitting of Blanco
County and her subsequent
re-commissioning.
1966: Blanco County sailed from the East Coast headed for Da
Nang, Viet Nam, via Charleston, South Carolina; the Panama Canal; San Diego,
California; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Guam. Innumerable machinery failures en
route: main engines, main generators, auxiliary generator, stearing engine;
gyro compass; water desalinator—the big ones! Delivered cargo to Da Nang and to Saigon.
Patrolled Mekong Delta and served as mother ship to Swift boats.
1967: Released from active duty in San Francisco but remained a Reserve Officer for six more years. Went back to graduate school
at Illinois State
to refresh my Spanish in preparation for doing the M.A. in Spain with Middlebury
College, Vermont.
** Note of interest: The Blanco County did active service in the Mediterranean during the invasion of Italy during World War II and then participated in the Normandy D-Day invasion, landing at Omaha Beach. Hers and a sister ship's fire brought down a German fighter plane.
