Hi Mike,
My 20 years had many great tours. Guam with Chuck Lohmann, Herbie Brosdahl, Rich Larson, Willie Glover, Dale Britton, Mike Franz, and too many others to count. COSP with George Widenor, Gary Peterson, Rick Ulp, and Will James. Midway with Denny Harrington, Gary Morgan, and John Ross. Bermuda with Bob Conaway, George Christian, Bob Spivey, and a host of good OTAs. All the experiences a young sailor could ever want.
I loved my tour at CNFJ. In those days (80-84) the ORSDET was located in the Command Cave along with the NAVSECGRU Det. Really good times there with Nick McConnell., Jack Boxman, Jerry Julianna, Bob Scarbrough, and a host of talented analysts. And my first Typhoon locked down in the Command Cave! Wow!
Those ORI Team days with you and Scotty Glover, Barb Desjardines, Rick Perry, and again a class group of young OTAs was a great time to remember. Bob VanAlstine's party for the team in Brawdy, Denny Harrington's introducing me to "The Worlds Greatest Lager (Carlsberg Draft), midnight dips in the pool at Pompano Beach Club, and so many others! I will never forget the time that Lyndon had been out doing a bit of post inspection partying in Gib. When he woke up he saw a mans hand resting on the pillow beside his head. He couldn't move it, so he thought it wasn't his and he had made a big mistake. It was his hand... but he didn't think it was initially. We all laughed until we were in tears. Lyndon Collins has a special place in our hearts for his honesty and good humor. Those were indeed special times.
I retired, went to Texas, and found another group of great guys and girls there who worked the Full Spectrum Program, and I had a cadre of ex-OTAs including Bobby Wisdom, Hal Cook, Mike Devine, and other talented guys. Experiences continued on in Brawdy, Whidbey Island, Jacksonville, Portsmouth RI, Pearl Harbor, USS San Francisco, USS Buffalo, Iceland, and in Norway with the Beartrap bird and analysts. What a great group of memories.
Great to hear from you again Mike! Stay safe!
Rick,
****, I knew everyone you mentioned and your comments definitely dusted off some old idle brain cells. Yeah I remember that Gib trip that we all got so hammered in the senior ranks mess 'splicing the main brace' with our Brit counterparts....I think it was *****r's Rum. I was blind drunk and had to use my watch as a brail guide to follow the walls looking for the next turn. The next morning the crystal on my watch was just jagged glass. Life's lesson. That was the same trip Rick Perry and I told the pub owner that we were Mormon's on mission to Gib...the next day we went back and all the local mormon's were there to meet us....who would have thought there were mormons in Gib? be safe my friend..ML
Mike, those were very kind comments and I truly appreciate it.
All the names you and Rick brought up were memory joggers!
I made 3 trips to Gib and the enlisted guys there always insisted on making me an honorary member of their mess. Royal Navy Rum more than did the trick…My first trip there was with a CPO and one civilian, and it was a hush hush thing back then. First night at the Holiday Inn the civilian got a phone call from his wife, lol. I asked him how she knew where he was and he said he had no idea, lying dog :) We met up with Will James, which was a bonus feature. My best intoxicated story was at Brawdy They sent me and Al Maultsby there to oversee the start up of their SCIF. (We rented a car at Heathrow and Al drove us at about 110 mph after a red eye flight) The ORI team happened to be there and we made the mistake of meeting up with them. Bad decision. Al ended up back at the hotel first and had to beat on the door to get in..the manager wasn’t pleased. I showed up about an hour later and also had to beat on the door, this time the guy was ****** :) That was about 0200 and we had to give a briefing at 0800…but made it.
Sad that so many analysts don’t have a handle on things like we did. System people were very hard on themselves from a knowledge and performance standpoint….who else was going to do it ? There was nobody else to “supervise” us so we pretty much beat ourselves up, out of necessity.
Anyway, be blessed Mike and thanks for your continued service.
Randy
Mike,
Wonderful to hear from you and see you're still in the ring. I have fond memories of our tours of duty at Keflavik (da boats) and Brawdy (the antiques and the "Command Conscious). It's been way too long. Please be in touch. I'd like to catch up. Emal jim_donovan53@yahoo.com
- Jim
I don't visit this site nearly enough, but feel rewarded for my "mouse-clicks" this morning. What a wonderful string to read through You guys still rock! Thanks for sharing your memories.
Wow, some flashbacks here...I was at CNFJ from jan 73 to jan 76 and served with a number of these (older) guys. It always cracked me up when the "other" guy standing watch with you at the cave pulled out a mattress and went to sleep on a mid. Clif Clifton somehow managed to get that sailboat sent to the site and we used to sail all over the harbor in it til we rolled it over going too far out of the harbor and almost drowned. Made the news...(bad). Prior to that Gary Hemmer was having a few on a local seawall. Fell off and had to be helo'ed out by jmsdf. That made the news also...Oh, and as the CNFJ alumni all know, the work was really KICK BUTT.