Ahoy Matey's!
On this date 56 years ago at age 22, I was released from active duty at Naval Station, Charleston, S.C. (now closed). I had spent the past 2 1/2 years (JAN67-AUG69) as an RM at NAVFAC Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico. During my time at NAVFAC Ramey, I started as an RMSN, advanced to RM3, and was a duty section supervisor in Comm for the last year while there. At about 3 years of active duty, I passed the test for RM2, but was told that I didn't have enough time left on active duty to accept it, and needed to extend for 7 months. I refused, because I wanted out. To this day, I regret not extending for those 7 months, but that's all water over the dam now.
NAVFAC Ramey was my only "permanent" duty station, because prior to being there, all of my Navy time was in BE&E school and RM 'A' school except for a 6-month period at NAS Patuxent River, MD., waiting for an opening at BE&E school.
NAVFAC Ramey was good duty. Even though it was considered by the Navy to be foreign and/or sea service, being on a huge Air Force SAC base, it didn't feel isolated at all. It was like living in a small city. One thing about being on an Air Force base: their chow was NO COMPARISON to Navy chow ANYWHERE:grinning: .
One of my last memories of when I was separated at Naval Station Charleston, was when I was walking out of the transient barracks lugging my seabag to get into a taxi to go to the airport to come home. 'My Cherie Amour' by Stevie Wonder was playing on someone's radio in the barracks. That song was #4 on the Billboard Charts for 10 weeks. To this day, when I hear that song on the radio, it takes me back to my last day in the Navy.
I am proud to have served in the SOSUS system and was able to contribute my small part to it, and I have many good memories of my time in the Navy.
That is all.
At ease.
Yo Ron,
I remember you. Although I was an ST/OT1, I spent a lot of time in the Comm Shack. Rm1 Roger Lacy was the Comm Sec 4 Supervisor. The following probably happened often in the Comm world but in Sec 4,
the ST/OTs and the RMs would have a contest as to who could type a saying "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs back (or something like that. Passed a lot of mid watch time in the shack competing,
Ron, just recently, I wrote a post here asking if anyone remembered or knew the location of STG3/OT3 Robert "Bob" Stewart. He was in My section (4) and as you did, he got out after his Ramey tour.
You're right about Ramey being a good/fun duty station. Living on an AFB is a pretty goof deal.
Good to hear from you. Hope you're doing well.
John Ellis (ST/OT1 while at NAVFAC Ramey
Hello John -
Enjoyed reading your response. Am sorry to say that I do not remember you from Ramey though, but as I get older, my memory on some things isn't so good anymore. I do remember Roger Lacy though. Some people do stick in your mind. Sometimes we'd call him Roger Gene. When I got there, he was an RM3. We all laughed at him because he had a front tooth missing and he would use that opening to hold a cigarette. He was quite a character. I think he was transferred somewhere else while I was still there and must have been reassigned back there again after I left Ramey. I saw his name on one of the Vet Finder websites one time and that he had made Chief, and was reassigned back to Ramey to decommission the unit..
Sorry, but the name Robert "Bob" Stewart does not ring a bell in my mind, either.
Yes, the phrase you mentioned that was used on the TTY was often "altered" too. One version was "In the land of the blind the man with one eye is king." Never forgot that one.
Tks. for the response and hope you are doing well also!
Oh how things intertwine. I was an Air Force brat at Ramey 64-67. Lived on Light house drive. I played at rifle range beach next to the navfac. Fast forward 1975, OT3 Clower returns to Ramey with a new bride. I bought a 175 Honda twin from RM1 Lacey, spent more time pushing it up Rifle range hill than I rode it. Indeed good times
Hello Terry -
Had to laugh about you pushing your motorcycle up the cliff road. That road was a killer, for sure. Us guys at the NAVFAC supposedly had special permission to take our motorcycles or scooters up & down the cliff road due to the location of the NAVFAC, but no one else was supposed to do that, at least that's whet we were told.
I had a little Honda Super 90 that would make it up the hill, but it struggled. Later on, I had another Honda - 120cc I think it was. That base was so big that lots of us had either a cycle or a scooter to get around on, because I don't think they had busses for people to get around on the base. I think I ended up giving my little 120cc Honda to my roommate when I left there. Like most of the cycles and scooters on base, each one had several owners and none of them were worth a whole lot anymore, but they got us around.
YUP - good times for sure!!!!!
Yeah, if you are gonna live on an Island, living on an AFB is the way to go. Personal residences were first class, every lawn looked like a professional was taking care of it, 1st class sports facilities, especially fast pitch softball. 68-71 remains some of my fondest memories of my career.
But, I/we lived at 325A, Circle E (funny I can remember that when I can't recall what was for breakfast). If you're not familiar with that location, it was fairly close to being the facilities nearest the main gate. So living there we had to learn to live with the alerts that would empty the base of B52s and KC135s. They would be hitting max thrust right in front of our residence. What a racket!!! First time i heard it, I told Pat we would have to move. A year later, I would sleep through the entire alert.
and yep, the "NAVFAC hill" caused more than one sailor to "crash and burn" when going down and then sometimes have to push their ride going up the hill.
Wonderful place at the time. Wouldn't trade that 3 years for anything.
In 1984, My Boss (CAPT Pete Catalano) and I were on a trip to/from the West Indes. The return trip was to make a stop in Puerto Rico and I talked the Commodore into taking a break, renting a car and taking a side trip to the old AFB. Its something I wish I had not done.
Obviously, there was to be change but the condition of the remaining houses, the perfectly prepared lawns were all a thing of the past. The Golf course (which was a primo course in 68-71) had grown over with weeds and grass to being almost unrecognizable.
Oh well, nothing stays the same. Thanks for listening.
John
Hi John,
Am very late responding to your message. I am guilty of not visiting this site very often. Actually did see your message when you sent it and was going to respond, but have been keeping busy and would forget, so here I am finally getting back again.
Anyway, yes - living there on Ramey AFB was good, for sure. Being from northern Indiana, I loved the hot weather there and not having any cold weather. I can remember that during the winters there, us guys in the barracks thought that we were going to freeze to death when it go down to 65 at night, because there was no heat in the barracks and only crank visors on the windows. LOL
I crashed and burned at the bottom of the hill one time on my little Honda motorcycle, missing the almost 90 degree turn and the bottom and ended up in the brush at the bottom of the hill. Got a few scratches and bruises but otherwise was ok, and my cycle didn't get damaged.
Regards the keeping of the yards, I think there was a Puerto Rican guy named'Primo' who kept up the grass at either the NavFac or the barracks. His "lawnmower" was a machete! LOL
Always wanted to revisit the place, but never made it there in my travels after I got older and retired. I can only imagine how the houses, etc., have gotten run down. In past pictures I've seen of the NavFac, it was in total ruins, but some Puerto Rican outfit got ahold of it and fixed it all up and cleaned up the grounds, but I have no idea if it stayed that way or not. Always sad to see old bases be closed and abandoned. Several years ago, I made contact with one of LCDR Gilchrist's boys on the internet. He had something online about how he and his brothers lived there as small boys which would have been when I was there from 1967-69, and he has his own website called "On This Planet Earth" and he had a video of the NavFac that he went back to see years later, and the building was totally and completely stripped of everything to the extent that I could not even recognize anything on the inside from his videos. When a base or building is closed by the Navy, they have teams come in and strip everything out of it, from the wiring and right down to bare walls.
That Ramey Golf course was a gem at the time. Almost unbelievable how you say it has been allowed to get overgrown.
Well take care, and thanks for responding to my original email!
Ron