I was born and raised on the prairies in Canada and moved to the United States in 1961 with my family. My father, having been in the Canadian Air Force during WW II, had for many years told me how being in the military had given him a direction in life. With those thoughts in mind I decided during my junior year in high school, that I too, needed some direction in my life. I had never seen the ocean until moving to Everett, Washington in 1962, and soon developed a desire to become a sailor. During my senior year I met with a recruiter who thought it was little crazy to have a young man wanting to join the US Navy, when so many were doing everything they could to avoid the draft. I was still a Canadian citizen so the draft board deemed me exempt. But I was determined to become a sailor. See the world “Join the Navy” the posters said. Enlisting in the USNR in 1965, I had that vivid image of seeing the world in my head. Little did I know, but boot camp in California would be the place my world journey would begin. It was the first time I had ever been away from home for more than a weekend, and the home sickness showed early on. How I made it through boot camp, I will never know. But I did and without any discipline issued and left there on my journey.
I sailed on the USS Ruff; I think it was MSC 54, as my first “See The World” journey. We sailed around Puget Sound playing war games. At the time I was a Fireman Apprentice, and operated the engine room controls, under the direction of a very firm Chief Machinist Mate named Tom Hudson. I really think he hated me as he had several impolite words for me when I screwed up a couple of times. If this was the world I was going to see, I needed to do something different, as being below deck just didn’t offer the world views I was looking for.But I soon realized part of that direction in life my father talked about was not always going in the direction you wanted to go.
When called to active duty 31 Jan 1967 I was sent to Long Beach to report for duty aboard the USS Conflict. I made one tour to Vietnam aboard the Conflict. My first reaction to being at sea was the constant sea sickness. Worst feeling in the world, nothing but water all around you, and your stomach trying to exit your body through your mouth. Oh what fond memories. It took a while, but I finally got my sea legs.
They say being aboard a ship with experienced seasoned sailors will really force you to grow up fast – I know it does because I experienced it first hand. You could say I had a compass in my head that spinned continuously, as I really spun out of control a few times. Looking back I thank Chief Yeoman Joe Binet, XO Joe Procopio, Ensign Dennis Gallagani, and many others for helping me get some purpose going in my life. I truly came to respect the minesweeper family and grew as a man with their help. Had the opportunity to work in the engine room, on deck and finally landed in the ships office working with Joe Binet. Met the criteria for Petty Officer 3 & 2, as Boatswain’s Mate and Yeoman, but could never get my head together enough to advance in either area. Entered active duty as E3 and left the same rank.
As most of us do we look back saying to ourselves, “would sure do it different if I could do it over”, but would we. My time aboard the Conflict did give me the direction my father talked about, and I believe it made me a better more responsible person in the long run. After that tour to Vietnam, the early out offers were made. Of course, I took it, not realizing I probably needed to stay in longer, to get the advanced “direction training” I still needed.
Ken “Rat” Ridgley and I headed north in his new Malibu out of Long Beach the first week of Oct 68 towards our home state of Washington where the after service journey began.
I was able to get a job working for the Great Northern Railroad in Everett, Washington, and started working 10 Oct 1968 I married Chris in 1970 and we have two children, Jeff 39 yrs (adopted), and Jennifer 35 yrs. In 1978 I became a US citizen while living in Everett. Have three fabulous grandchildren, Alicia 14 yrs, twins Bergyn and Burke 8 yrs in Dec 07. Being a grandparent definitely gave my life a different direction.
Having found the Navy Minesweepers site one day a couple of few ago while fooling around on the computer, I found I still have another big family out there.
I worked for the railway for 38 years, 35 of them in various management positions and retired in June 2006. After retiring I decided to get a full physical and ‘lo and behold’, a heart condition was discovered. Ended up having a five way heart bypass surgery 10/6/06. Since then I feel like a new person – more energy, more enthused about life in general, and relax much easier now. This did evolve into becoming a diabetic so entire lifestyle changes were necessary. In the past we only took out of town vacations whenever I could get a week or so off my job, now we go somewhere once a month for a few days – true liberty in my book.
