Thread: Military Service

U.S. Navy 1998-2006
MM1/SS Machinist Mate (Nuclear)

sea duty: USS OHIO SSBN 726 (yes, I'm a bubblehead and a card carrying shellback )
shore duty: Subbase Point Loma (San Diego) Subsafe QA

1965 - 69 U.S. Navy JO2 (Journalist Second Class) CINCLANTFLT; COMSOLANT Operation Unitas; CTF-43 Operation Deep Freeze; USS Forrestal (CVA-59). My avatar is the CTF-43 insignia.

Regards - Walt

Petty Officer Goodman reporting for duty Cur...I mean Sir!!!

Started out a bubblehead aka submariner (FTG3) in 1989 and ended up a glorified welder/pipefitter (HT2) to make E-5 in 1991. Got what I asked for, but didn't realize how different the surface Navy is/was. Made some special forces friends, got banged up, became a civilian in 1992. Official duty stations of the Great Lakes, Groton, Philadelphia, and Norfolk.

Edit: Just to clarify, I was not in the special forces even though I tried...just made some real good friends who were & got to play with them...just no "missions".

Quite a different system here where most of us 'regulars' serve 25 to life lol.

Long story short:
Did my draft service at 1984-85.
Joined again at 1988. Worked (or served as you say) for most of my time in Coastal Jaegers. Two years at the Guards Jaegers.
Asked a transfer to Navy at 1999. Been there ever since. Almost six years to go.
Naval service. Nowadays senior engine tehchnician/watch keeping engineer. Oberbootsmann/CPO (in German/English). 3 deployments since 1989.

Not sure about the finer things in life. There's been good times, bad times and very long years.

Never planned it this way, but man has to do something. Back then i was about to go into university but as my girlfriend (nowadays wife) had just started his studies and we had bought our first own house i thought i might as well serve for few years. Things just go like that sometimes.

my story aint so colorful. usn 1984-1990 started as a cto, after boot, stationed in a frozen piece of hell called nsga adak ak, after a snafu on my part, and some on the commands part i ended up going to the fleet as an undesignated striker, on the uss sacramento. that was from 84-87. spent the last 3 years in various reserve units in va and in pa.

Active duty US Navy LT here. I've been a P-3C pilot for the past 4 years or so after spending two years getting my wings. A few deployments under my belt in that time. To some sandy places and others. Currently on shore duty flying the P-8A

8/71-6/76 USArmy Infantry SSG/E6 11C3HE 81mm/4.2" mortars, airmobile/mechanized

1/72-1/74 Fort Richardson, AK -- Co. E, 1st Bn, 60th Inf, 172nd Arctic Light-Infantry Brigade [Mortar Platoon, Gun Squad Leader]

2/74-12/75 USAIS, Fort Benning, GA -- Weapons Dept., Mortar Committee, FO Team [Instructor]

12/75-6/76 Coleman Barracks, Mannheim, W. Germany -- CSC, 2nd Bn, 13th Inf, 8th Infantry Division [Chief of Smoke]

84-89 Israeli Defense Forces Artillery PVT 155 towed howitzer

Here and there (active duty + reserves)

Originally Posted by Ricecold

Active duty US Navy LT here. I've been a P-3C pilot for the past 4 years or so after spending two years getting my wings. A few deployments under my belt in that time. To some sandy places and others. Currently on shore duty flying the P-8A

Aahh the P-3, the surface fleets best friend at times, seen many of them while I was on adak

Thanks for your service you guys !

I was lucky!
US Navy -1959- 1964. Got out 8 days before they decided Vietnam was a war. I graduated from Electronic Technician School and ended service as E-4 as ETR-3 (Radar specialty.) The school was on Treasure Island off the Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay. Another year would have given me the rate E-5.

I had the great joy for about 2 years of a couple weeks at a time in Pearl Harbor or Midway to refit and the rest of the time bounced around the North Pacific on a Barrier Pacific Radar Picket ship. Up to 90 days at sea. USS SAVAGE DER386 a converted destroyer escort. Ask me if I know about Adak and Kiska. They sometimes showed up on our radar but were never in sight. Occasional P2V, P3Cs but usually WV3s flew over, we also served duty as plane guard for transpacific flights from the US to Asia.. Found a retired WV pilot here in town.
uss savage de der386
Got lucky, more schooling and posted shore duty to Submarine ComSubPac at Yokosuka Japan. At least this time the ships were designed to be under water, the Little picket DER wasn't but still spent time there. Think "Most Dangerous Catch, type weather!"

Service was a good thing for me, I received good schooling and there was extra time which allowed me to settle down and be older when meeting the real world and the "normal" people in it.

Do it again..at that age..YES
Thanks also to the rest of you guys especially to those that had the hard and really dangerous jobs.
Sincerely
~Richard Penney