Notions

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.