tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561631984395061740.post8061536953614172351..comments2023-10-22T06:15:30.760-04:00Comments on Boomer Musings: At Sea With The NavyDouglashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09752593286034877538noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561631984395061740.post-8951691645205659712014-02-14T16:44:19.692-05:002014-02-14T16:44:19.692-05:00Alan, don't worry about the "chatty"...Alan, don't worry about the "chatty", I welcome comments of any length.<br /><br />I knew a couple of AF guys who were on the ground in Nam. One had a really tough job (demolitions) and a number of horror stories.<br /><br />The Navy, if you didn't get dragged into river duty (swift boats, we called them), had it very easy; 3 cooked meals a day, a comfy (sort of) bed, nobody hunting you down with a gun, no snakes, bugs, or jungles, and no punji sticks and booby traps. Life was easy.<br /><br />I went on two cruises to the Gulf; December `66 to June `67 and July `68 to February `69. It's funny how we look back and only remember the good times and not the boredom and the aggravation we endured.Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09752593286034877538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561631984395061740.post-8249150295852279192014-02-14T14:33:45.322-05:002014-02-14T14:33:45.322-05:00 Doing a little blog hopping today and happened to... Doing a little blog hopping today and happened to notice this particular post of yours, particularly one of your closing statements, which in many regards, was eerily similar to my own pre-military existence. <br /><br />Although the draft did indeed hang low from the heavens over our heads as the Viet Nam conflict heated up I found my parents, particularly my mother believe it or not, putting pressure on me to join the military and learn a good trade. I hated school, always had and had just finished my first dismal year of college clueless about what I wanted to do with my life. And my grades had been quite reflective of that point to say the least. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how I might become the next Elvis and forgo all this working nonsense everyone was harping at me about.<br /><br />My uncle was a Colonel in the Air Force and I think he was the one blowing the smoke up my parent’s butts but nevertheless he convinced my parents that if I enlisted he might could pull some strings and get me into “electronics”, the next up and coming thing. He claimed the military could straighten me out and I can’t deny them their dues I suppose. <br /><br />I can relate to much of what you have said in your post regarding your stint in the military. In fact, it sounds like we might have been in the same area for a period of time. I was in Okinawa, sometimes Thailand, supporting the B-52 and KC-135 contingent and the sorties which they began flying over Viet Nam at the time. But even now from time to time when I watch some of those Viet Nam war (recently watched “We Were Soldiers” again which is what our other half were doing at the time) movies I have to seriously hope I would have had what it took to have done my duty had it turned out differently and I had found myself in the jungle with a rifle in my hand.<br /><br />Sorry if I got a little too chatty here….<br />Alan Ghttp://www.somefinalthoughts.comnoreply@blogger.com