Adding to your comments Chuck, let me say that your service was always committed and professional. We are all better for your bottom 5 standing in your Surface SONAR Class. And it is high time that you finally admitted to missing those few contacts. But the nice thing about what we did, is that the only way to know that you missed something was because someone else eventually found it. And let me add that I loved standing watches with you. Especially the night you made third class at the stroke of midnight. Meowwwwww!!!!!!!

George,
Thanks for the kind words, I do recall the night I made 3rd class very well! I would say the "Tigers" would have lost that rumble for sure. Today we probably would have been singing the "nice kitty, soft kitty" song! To perform the mission we were assigned we had to have lots of confidence and we marched into the club that night with lots of it.
George, you and your family have a great Christmas and safe New Year.
Chuck & Linda

Same here! I will always cherish the time spent as an OTA and the places my wife, son, and I visited. When Frank Gendusa peaked my interest (seeing him come home to the apartment across from mine) with his rating on his shirt, I asked him and he could NOT tell me except I would love or hate the job. I LOVED it. It was a real trip from being at school with the fine OT'S I learned with and the fine instructors such as Phil Blauvelt! Even Mr. Arnsdt was a cool guy!! First was Antigua, and what a duty station!! My tour in Japan was wonderful and I love the Japanese people. Even the "good ol' boys and girls" in Rio Dell California but NOT the earthquakes!! OT'S and defense of our country.............like peas and carrots!!

How'd you like Boot Camp at Great Lakes in the winter Chuck? I was there a month ahead of you. Had the honor of standing the dumbest watch of my career there. A dumpster watch at 0200 in a snow storm. Great Lakes is not the place to be in the winter. I was supposed to go to San Diego but you know how that goes. All of a sudden San Diego was full and I was blessed with spending my Boot Camp at Great Lakes. Then spent another 48 weeks there in ET"A" school. Quite a coincidence us being there at the same time.

Rick,
GL was way too cold for me then and now out of the question. Grew up in the Catskill mountains snow was no big deal, but wind did not too often get as bad as GL. We has one liberty if I recall while going through Boot Camp and I was thankful my last name began with a "C" and my buddies was "B" so we made it, lots got sent back to their barracks because the wind chill was -30 below and ears and noses were freezing. Was there from Dec 65 to Feb 66, got home in time to be engaged to my high school sweetheart on Valentines Day 1966, married after Sonar A-1 school and "O" school Oct 1966, next Oct it will be 50 years. Time moves right along doesn't it?
Chuck

Chuck & others,

I actually flew to Chicago (from Albany NY) on January 14, 1959 and was put in charge of 4 others with me (I was 20 and oldest). Took a train from O'Hare to somewhere near RTC, then marched about 1/4 mile with our soon-to-be Company Commander (a GM1). First night there, woke up a 4a.m. to go out and shovel snow in a blizzard, then to chow at 5a.m. Had the old wooden barracks and racks 2-high. Just a fart sack and a wool blanket. Woke up with snow on the blanket a couple of times from blowing thru the cracks in the walls. Oh, what fun! Better days were ahead for the next 23 years.
Cheers to all for a wonderful Christmas and a blessed 2016!
Dee

Dee,
Those old wooden barracks only got worse 6 years later we were put in them for a few nights in our old stinky clothes. First time I ever saw a black squirrel was at Great Lakes outside the old wooden barracks.
You and Linda have a great Chistmas and a Happy New Year.
Chuck & Linda

Chuck -

Just couldn't resist a reply to your post.

What I forgot to mention in mine about the old, wooden barracks at RTC was - they were actually a great improvement over the home I was brought up in (a former "speakeasy" of the "Roaring 20's" that was on the main, one lane road from NYC to Montreal, Canada. It had no electricity, no indoor plumbing and not an ounce of insulation - and straddled a brook!

Cold as h_ _ _ in the winter with a couple of wood stoves to heat and cook on. Two bedrooms, one large kitchen/living/dining room.......that was it, for 9 people! Our Mom heated all bath/laundry water on the kitchen stove, washed all our clothes by hand, rinsed them and hung out to dry (summer or winter). And she hitch-hiked to clean houses for other people, the closest town six and one-half miles, north or south (further - if east to west).

All that said, I know that my parents, myself or any one of my siblings would not have traded those years with anyone, or for anything else.
Great memories!
Dee

Got it Dee, no wonder you joined the Navy. Straddled a stream in the winter, the visual is very disturbing!! Great True Story Dee.