CNorkusJr wrote:Randyman wrote:Along with the old boxing magazines I found these two photos from boot camp in 1972. I was 18 years old.
Company 374, Navy Training Center, San Diego, 1972
The guy on the left is Elmer Dunsing. Great guy! He went on to be a heavy equipment operator in the SeaBees after boot camp, I went on to the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier, stationed in Alameda, Ca.
My regards to you Randy for serving in the US Navy. I remember the USS Coral Sea was a very famous aircraft carrier in US history.
Did you go over to South East Asia after boot,Randy ?
I graduated HS in 1975. My friends and I got draft cards in 1975,but at that time it was the end to forward recruitment,and the beginning of the ending of the "Conflict" (they called it.).
It also explains how you ended up working for a defense contractor all these years.
Thanks Charlie. I wish I could say that I had a long and illustrious career in the Navy but the truth is I was honorably discharged from the Navy due to my hearing. I faked the hearing test going into the navy. The trouble is I faked it too good. Where as everyone else in my boot camp company got the duty of their choice I was sent to the Coral Sea, to the OI division, the radar division where good hearing is a big requirement. Also talking on the radio is almost impossible for me. Eventually there was no hiding it and I was sent before a medical review board and honorably discharged. From the Coral Sea I was sent to Treasure Island in San Francisco. The memories that I have of my time in the navy were good ones, however short it was (approximately 7 months).
If I had not done so well in the hearing test I would have been a Seaman, a Boatswain's Mate, instead of an Airdale on the Coral Sea. Things seem to work out for the best though, had I still been in the navy, I would never had met Jeri, and would not have had my children.
It's funny that you mentioned getting hired at a defense contractor. I started my career in aircraft at Sargent Fletcher's in El Monte, working on the A-10 and F-15, they also made parts for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. For some reason, on my discharge papers I was listed as an aircraft mechanic. I remember thinking "What good will this do me?" but when I went to McDonnell Douglas to look for a job I had to take my discharge papers. The guy at the desk said "Oh, you were an aircraft mechanic on the Coral Sea?" I was caught off guard but I said "Yeah, I was". I didn't know sh*t from shinola but they started processing me through a long series of interviews.
I got through all of them until I was in front of a guy I remember only as Rivera. He was asking me questions that I wasn't able to answer confidently, and he saw right through me and I knew it. Finally he asked me "Randy, are you familiar with blueprints?" "Yeah, sure". Then he says to me "are you familiar with schematics?" This time I said "no". Then he said in a stern and strict voice "If you were really a aircraft mechanic and worked with blueprints you would know that a schematic is a blueprint". I just stared. "I suggest, if you really want this job that you take yourself to the library and find out all you can on blueprints and schematics and then come back here and we'll finish this interview." It was embarrassing but I went that day to the Whittier library and checked out everything I could find on blueprints and schematics. I crammed as if I was taking my finals. A week later I went back, answered all the questions and got hired. I wasn't 100 % in yet though, I had to pass a series of test. I aced them all. Next I had to go through a school. I made it through that and was officially hired. I started at McDonnell Douglas on January 2, 1979 and I'm still here 32 years later. (It's Boeing now) Everything always seems to work out.
