Thoughts on Vietnam and National Vietnam War Veterans Day

I thought I was done posting for this month but then I saw that tomorrow, March 29th is National Vietnam War Veterans Day and I thought I might write a post about it. Boy did that send me down a rabbit hole. Writing this listening to Sirius CM Classic Vinyl from the 60’s and 70’s and after going through pictures and other memorabilia a good part of the day I’m numb! My mind can’t keep up with everything running through it right now. 

I found and read a journal that I wrote when I was onboard the USS America for my second cruise to Vietnam. Boy did that bring up a lot of memories. The most predominant was how much I disliked being in the Navy, being aboard ship and being away from home. Not sure how long this post could turn out to be but if I organize thoughts and pictures before I finish it could be pretty long. The reason is simple that period of my life wasn’t just about Vietnam it was about so much more that made me the person I became booth good and bad. 

I was neither for or against the Vietnam War before I enlisted on February 6, 1968. I didn’t enlist out of any patriotic feeling, not that I didn’t love and believe in this country as I still do today. I was just a kid and was like so many who hadn’t even reached their 20th birthday, I was ambivalent. That ambivalence passed when I enlisted and so many friends did too. In my group of my close friends we enlisted in all branches of our military with the exception of the Coast Guard. And Our experiences were different for each of us. 

Before going to Vietnam for the first time I went through training in San Diego at Boot Camp, Naval Air Technical Training Center in Memphis, Tennessee and then went to Lemoore, California my “permanent” duty station where I trained as an aviation fire control technician on the A4 attack aircraft. I put permanent in quotes because we didn’t spend time there except for training and getting ready to go back to Vietnam; something I did three times from my arrival in Lemoore the day after Christmas in 1968 to my last day in the Navy, January 21, 1972. 

After training with squadron VA 122 to learn the A4 Skyhawk avionics systems I was assigned to attack squadron VA 23 and on April 14, 1969 I passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on the USS Oriskany CVA 34. The Oriskany had just come out of dry dock after extensive repairs from a deadly fire on its previous cruise. 

We were gone until November 17th. When we returned back to the states our squadron was decommissioned and we were all assigned to new duty assignments which meant. Being separated from friends some of us had served with since Memphis. 

We were given leave and then sent to our new assignment. I stayed in Lemoore and was assigned to VA 122 a training squadron where I was trained on the avionics systems for a different plane the A7 Corsair. 

I completed A7 avionics training on July 8, 1970 and the next day I was sent to Travis Air Force base time take a flight to the Philippines and then on to join VA 147 aboard the USS America CVA 66 which was out of Norfolk, Virginia where they departed in April for a world cruise. I joined the squadron on July 14, 1970. In addition to our multiple deployments to Vietnam we visited the usual SE Asian ports of Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, we visited both Sydney, Australia and Rio de Janero, Brazil on the way back to Norfolk. We returned to Norfolk in December and flew back to Lemoore. 

I was hoping that after two cruises I would be done with long deployments but I was wrong about that. My third cruise was tougher because I got married to my wife Jackie and we had two boys from her first marriage. We were married June 5, 1971 and I reported with VA 147 on the USS Constellation CVA 64 in San Diego on July 30th for 35 days of carrier quals. Then we were deployed back to the Connie for our West PAC cruise to Vietnam September 28th. 

The Connie cruise started negative with protests the entire time we were in San Diego about our deployment to Vietnam. And as far as I’m concerned it was negative the entire cruise. The Navy was giving people up to six month early releases because the war was winding down. I requested an early release hoping to get out in time to move my family to Southern California so I could start back to college in the Spring. I was told that my rate, Aviation Fire Control Technician was a mission critical rate and therefore I had to stay in. My release date after four years was supposed to be February 5, 1972. 

While at sea I received orders Jan 6 back to Lemoore. I was flown home and was finally discharged January 17, 1972. Of all my Navy friends who enlisted together or those who served in VA 23 together I was the only one who made three combat cruises to Vietnam.