Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Nostalgia

Service Record Post Part 1
  Naval Reserve and Schooling

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.

27 Aug 2024 by Aviation Military Nostalgia Notions

Ancestry Anomalies – Part 3
More than “Kissin'” Cousins

This is the third post regarding anomalies in our family tree. I discovered that my 3rd Great Grandmother, Sarah Ann Fleming, had parents that were first(!) cousins to each other. In the tree segment below, you may notice a bunch of “Fleming” surnames. The Fleming Clan (literally, a clan) originated in Scotland in the 14/1500’s; our branch of the clan settled into what is now West Virginia.

Looking at the family tree segment you will see Sarah Ann linked to her parents Alexander and Mary Eliza Fleming, my 4th great grandparents. In the next column to the right you can see more Flemings; the names of interest here are Mary and Nathan Fleming who were brother and sister. Their parents were William Fleming and Jane Frame who appear at my 6th Grandparent level twice. Of note, Alexander Fleming at top right was a Fleming, but only distantly related to William; as a consequence of this distance, Matthew Fleming who married Mary Fleming, was probably only her distant cousin.

I asked ChatGPT how many ancestors a person has – this is the answer I got:

The number of ancestors a person has depends on how far back in their family tree you’re considering and whether there is any overlap due to shared ancestors. Each generation back doubles the number of ancestors because each person has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on.

For example:

  • You have 2 parents.
  • You have 4 grandparents.
  • You have 8 great-grandparents.
  • You have 16 great-great-grandparents.

So, if you go back 10 generations, you would theoretically have 2^10 = 1,024 direct ancestors. However, this is a simplified model because it doesn’t account for intermarriages or instances where distant relatives are common to multiple lines of descent, which can reduce the actual number of unique ancestors. Additionally, for practical reasons, tracing back all lineages accurately for many generations is often impossible due to missing records or incomplete genealogical data

There was no mention of the fact that if you go back in the progression 2^x that eventually the number would exceed the entire population of the planet. That’s an interesting concept.

23 Feb 2024 by Ancestors Family Nostalgia Notions

2023 Annual Cops Cruise

Damsel and I attended the annual “Cops Who Care” Cruise and Toy Drive today at the community center downtown. There was a pretty good turn out of folks who brought their prized antique and classic cars to the event. Each one of the attendees was required to bring an unwrapped toy as a gift to our underprivileged kids in the area. We brought four unwrapped toys (not required but just to help out) as we usually do for this event.

Image above: Damsel posing next to a 1927 Ford farm truck.

We stayed for the better part of an hour, taking photos and gawking at the goodies on display. Here are a couple of photos of classics we deem to be very cool:

Image above: 1957 Red Chevrolet Hardtop Coupe

Image above: 1960’s Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird

We headed back home to prepare our Sunday Dinner which was a Keto version of Ham and Spaghetti Alfredo. Yummers!

03 Dec 2023 by Charity Nostalgia Photography

Ancestry Anomalies – Part 2

This is the second of three posts about some of the anomalies we discovered while researching our ancestry and family tree. Part 1 covered a part of the family tree where one set of my great-great grandparents were first cousins twice removed.

In this part, we discuss the union between a pair of my third-great grandparents, William Burl “Squire Billy” Snodgrass and his wife Mary Joliffe Snodgrass. Her unmarried name and his were the same, since Billy’s father Francis, and Mary’s father John, were first cousins. Francis and John’s fathers were brothers, so Billy and Mary were second cousins. Brothers William and Charles Snodgrass (Billy’s and Mary’s grandfathers, respectively) appear in the third column in the (clickable) tree image below. Their parents were John Snodgrass and Hannah Vernon, appearing twice in the fourth column. Maybe that makes John and Hannah my double 6th great grandparents? I’m not sure how that works.

I can understand marriages between related people might have been common since the population in 18th century Virginia may have been limited to the pioneers and their offspring residing there at that time. These marriages took place just after the American Revolution and before the mass influx of more settlers from Europe and abroad.

“Squire Billy” and Mary Joliffe Snodgrass were the parents of Civil War Veteran (W. Virginia Infantry) Enos Snodgrass, who was my Dad’s Great Grandfather. Pictured below are four generations with Enos (seated), James (my great grandfather), Mary (my grandmother) and Jack (my Dad at about age six or so). Clickable Photo circa 1920.

Thanks to my cousin Erin, who provided the photo above a couple of months ago when she and her Dad (my first cousin Kim) met up with us here in town for the first time. We might have never been in touch except for the DNA results from a couple of on line sources, which showed us our close relationship and put us in touch with each other.

I am working on Ancestry Anomalies Part 3 which might be the final chapter in my anomalous genealogy.

08 Jul 2023 by Ancestors Family Nostalgia Notions

A 1947 Pontiac Woody
Station Wagon Anaglyph

This is a throwback to Saturday, November 08, 2008 when the Coast Guard Lighthouse at Point Vicente on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Southwestern Los Angeles County, California held an open house. Damsel and I were attending the open house on a nice sunny November Day.

Other than the lighthouse and grounds tour, one gentleman drove his 1947 Pontiac Station Wagon (not a true “woody,” but with painted on planks) onto the lighthouse station as an exhibit. I used a little pocket camera, a Canon Powershot A510IS to take an image pair to later render into a 3D image.

You will need your red/cyan 3D glasses to view the above anaglyph image. If you don’t have a pair, then you can view the 2D version here.

The encounter with this old classic was very nostalgic for me since I learned to drive in a 1951 version of this car, a Pontiac wagon with a straight-eight engine which is the same type of engine that was in the classic wagon seen above.

25 Feb 2023 by Bob's 3D Stuff Classics Nostalgia

Gold Rush Days 2023

Our little town has an annual event called “Gold Rush Days” in honor of the town’s reason for being: the discovery of gold in 1863 by Henry Wickenburg. Vulture Mine became the most productive mine in Arizona history. This weekend marks the 75th celebration of Gold Rush Days.
The festivities included a Rodeo, a carnival, a giant flea market, a classic car show and a parade.

The carnival featured food concessions, fun houses and a number of rides from gentle kiddie merry-go-rounds to full-on vomit comet rides. The midway completely encircled our town’s community center. We walked through the midway but did not participate in either food or rides. We took a lot of photos, though.

The flea market had most of the usual stuff like home-made arts and crafts, souvenir vendors, apparel vendors and a myriad of other interesting things to see. That’s Damsel in her big shade hat perusing wooden pots and bowls.

We toured the classic car area on Friday afternoon. The usual cars were on display. There were a lot of old classics, some Hot Rods and a couple of rare cars.

The parade started at ten AM AZ time on Saturday Morning (02/11/2023). Damsel and I saw the whole parade of equestrians, local organizations, classic cars on parade, a politician or two and law enforcement/fire department vehicles. The parade went for over an hour.

Damsel and I enjoyed our visits to the exhibits, vending, classics and who doesn’t love a parade. Between the two of us, we took a thousand plus photos this weekend. There are only a few of them shown here. Click on any image to enlarge.

11 Feb 2023 by Arizona Entertainment Nostalgia Photography

The 2023 Wickenburg
Fly-In and Car Show

Damsel and I attended the Fly-In on Saturday morning (01/21/23). This event Changed from October to January for unknown reasons, but regardless there were lots of people in attendance. There was so much traffic and cars that we wound up parked in the boonies several hundred yards out and had to walk into the airport proper.

There were hundreds of old and special cars and dozens of fly-in aircraft. Damsel and I took a lot of photos, but only four of the more interesting ones appear below. Click on any of the photos to enlarge.

1947 Consolidated Vultee L-13

This was the most interesting fly-in of the day. It is a 1947 Consolidated Vultee (now Convair) model L-13 fixed wing single engine. The Engine is a LYCOMING R680 Reciprocating Radial producing 215 Horsepower. The Weight is Less than 12,500lbs and the cruising speed is 92mph. As you can see from the photo above (courtesy Damsel), it was a very popular exhibit.

Shelby GT 500 KR

Shelby GT 500 KR. Some references to this muscle car show that these could produce 900 horsepower. That is a lot. This one was nice with blue racing stripes over light gray. Photo Courtesy Damsel.

Medevac Air Ambulance

This helicopter usually parks at the helipad next to our local Wickenburg Community Hospital. We often see it flying in and out of the area since our house is less than a mile south of the helipad. It is a 2004 Eurocopter (formerly Aérospatiale) AS-350B-3 single engine air ambulance configured helicopter. I spoke with one of the pilots who said they are “keeping busy” with routine and emergency transports.

1954 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe

And finally, this very clean 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe was nostalgically reminiscent of the borrowed Chevy Bel Air Convertible I used to fetch my date to the Senior Prom in high school days (1961).

Damsel and I both had fun with our outing this year in spite of the crowds and parking situation. Our next outing will be “Gold Rush Days” in February. Stay tuned.

22 Jan 2023 by Aviation Classics Nostalgia

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