NAVY BOOT CAMP – NOT AT HOME ON THE RANGE
NOT AT HOME ON THE RANGE or WHY I (HAPPILY) DIDN'T QUALIFY FOR A MARKSMANSHIP RIBBON Amidst the daily drudge of PT (Physical Training), marching on “the Grinder,” learning to tie knots, and basically scrubbing and polishing anything that held still long enough, there were few...
Navy Mess: Chicken Salad Sunday
There is a particular day in boot camp that stands out for me, and not in a good way: Chicken Salad Sunday.* I arrived at US Naval Training Center Orlando for Boot Camp in June of 1977. Florida was hot and muggy, very buggy, and a...
Abandon Ship Drill or…
Around and Around and Around She Goes… In 1980, I was assigned to serve aboard the USS Jason. This was the first time in US Naval history that women would officially be part of a ship’s crew. Women were not allowed to serve on combatant vessels....
My Top Ten Navy Boot Camp Lessons (Good, Bad & Ugly…Smelling)
My Top Ten Navy Boot Camp Lessons (Good, Bad & Ugly...
US Navy Boot Camp-Day One: Welcome to RTC Orlando
Boot Camp Send-off? I really don’t recall the first leg of travel to Navy Boot Camp. A lot of things fade after 40+ years. I was twenty years old and already out of the house when I joined. I had also signed up a month or...
USS Jason: Rainbow at Sea
During my time aboard the USS Jason (AR-8), I was assigned to the R4 Division. We were mainly Electronics Technicians (ETs)—often called Twidgets. I have never quite discerned why. Although, the story goes that it had to do with the tools we carried for tweaking...
US Navy Boot Camp Spontaneity: Improbable, Not Impossible
Having a spontaneous moment at The Port Discovery Children’s Museum in Baltimore, MD.
Spontaneity is not really my strong suit. With as busy as I am I have to be proactive. In order to manage all of my responsibilities I need to plan ahead. So, it is difficult for me to do anything on the spur of the moment these days. There was, however, a time when I was not as structured, when I did impromptu things, to use a cliché, at the drop of a hat. The odd thing is that the last place I would have expected to experience that kind of spontaneity would be US Navy Boot Camp.
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