Aviation

In part one of this series, after competing “A” school, the orders came through assigning me to the Naval Missile Center Command located at Point Mugu Naval Air Station near Oxnard, California. In June 1962, I reported for duty at Point Mugu NAS to be attached to the Naval Missile Center, but that had to wait until (as new NAS reports will testify) I was attached to the Naval Air Station Command to be washed through the usual menial chores duty of a new report.

My first assignment was to be attached to “Compartment (Coop) Cleaners” in the barracks on the Naval base. Of course this involved “swabbing decks” and general clean up of the areas where the station personnel resided. It was totally unrewarding save for the acquired skills of running a mop, a floor buffer and a broom. I still treasure those skills even to this time in my life, and use them in our daily maintenance of Casa Casandro here in Arizona.

After a few weeks of “coop cleaning,” I got an assignment to the base “Security Infantry” whose purpose was to augment the Naval Station’s Security force. Upon reporting to the barracks where about sixty of us had been assigned, we were indoctrinated to our new billets as security force members.

The Security Infantry program started out with a daily routine of calisthenics followed by compartment cleaning, training exercises (with M1 Garand Rifles) and other interesting classes with topics such as survival of a nuclear attack, dealing with biological warfare and protection from chemical weapons.

We all were made available to the base security force as gate sentinels, Colors Crew (Flag raising and lowering), post watches (guarding the perimeters of the NAS 24/7) and so forth. We were on a “port/starboard” duty cycle, with one day on duty and one day off and a 48 hour liberty pass every other weekend.

We served the security force for a total of two months after which we were to be assigned to one of the several departments of the Naval Missile Center. Our experience with the Security Infantry had many benefits including live time on the firing range with introduction to M1 Garand, Browning Automatic Rifles and Handguns (1911 .45ACP). The time in Security Infantry was of great value to me, such as to be equivalent to advanced basic training (boot camp).

When my tour as a Security Infantryman completed, I got myself assigned to the Targets and Drones Department of the Naval Missile Center. More about how that came about in the next part of this series.

This will be the first in a series of posts that address my memories of serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve. My original enlistment (at age 17) was for six years as a reservist with two years of active duty with the regular Navy. The timeline was

1. finish high school as an active reservist
2. go on active duty for two years
3. muster out of active duty and transfer to inactive reserve

This first installment covers 1) and the beginning of 2) above.

I pulled some old records out of the hard copy files we keep here and scanned them in to PDF documents for posterity. Electronic files can last a lot longer than their paper counterparts.

Since I had the hard copies out of the file folder, I scanned through my service records and came to realize that my Naval Service was more of an adventure for me, rather than a job. I can think of quite a few highlights that took place in the span of about four years. My recollections follow below.

I enlisted in the US Naval Reserves in 1960 while I was still in high school. I attended weekly evening drills at the Naval Reserve Center in Santa Monica, CA. During my active reserve time before going on active duty I went to serve for a couple of weeks in USN Boot camp – NTC San Diego and also a couple of weeks on an amphibious Navy fleet vessel, the USS Pickaway, APA-222, during what the USNR referred to as “cruises.” What a contrast to what is considered a “cruise” today. I got my transfer to active duty delayed by a year in order to attend Junior College and work part-time my first year out of high school. I also got my private pilot’s license during the first year out of high school.

I reported for my two-years of active duty in June of 1962. I had a brief stay at the US Naval Station in Long Beach, CA on TDY (temporary duty) pending assignment to an eventual duty station. That service was interesting since it introduced me to Navy life as a full-time sailor. We (there were a lot of sailors on TDY) did odd jobs which included working at the commissary (base grocery store), cleaning up the barracks and even being selected as a shakedown cruise crew member for a vessel being transferred to the Iranian(!) Navy.

Finally, the interim duty at Long Beach was concluding and I had an interview with a recruiter to determine the remainder of my active duty assignment. I opted to extend my service by a year in order to attend “A” School at the US Naval Air Technical Training Center, NAS Memphis, TN. It just so happened that my older brother was on the staff of the USNATTC as an instructor, so we could be close and in touch during my schooling.

In August of 1962, I arrived at NAS Memphis for “A” School Training. While attending school, I went to church every Sunday to sing in the Bluejackets Choir which, conveniently, got me some perks (like light duty) for the duration. School went well and I scored number four in my class of 96 students in Avionics Fundamentals school (AFUA), and as number one in my Avionics Technician Com/Nav (ATNA) class of 26 students, I got to choose my next duty station as a result of class standing. I chose somewhere on the west coast of the US.

My orders came through and I found myself assigned to the US Naval Missile Center Command, Point Mugu, CA, which was located just 44 miles from my parents’ Mar Vista home in the West Los Angeles area. I will report more about my tour of duty at NMC and NAS Point Mugu in the next part of this series.