Tomcat Boogie

I joined the United States Navy while I was in school. I departed for boot camp 3 days after I attended my high school graduation. What a shock! Just watch the movie "Full Metal Jacket" . This will give you a sense of what I went through. My Recruit Company Commander was a chap by the name of Pie...Petty Officer was his first name or MS1 to his friends. This guy could cuss! Every other word was profane and he would string the filthy words together in links of six to eight words. I, for one, was impressed. It is hard to admire some nasty mouth man with a horrible disposition, but I did. He did a good job and the reward for suffering through this was Quartermaster A school in Orlando, Florida. I would finally see Disney World!

Quartermaster A school lasted about 8 weeks. I was so proficient at reading charts and plotting positions that I graduated with honors. This meant that I would be given first choice of a ship from a list. I picked an aircraft carrier...mainly because my father always wanted to go aboard one and look around. Also, I thought about sea sickness a lot back then and this way I was sure I would avoid it's unpleasantness.

The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was America's first super-carrier. Built with an armored angled deck, she could launch and recover aircraft at the same time and the deck could withstand hits from hostile bombs and such. Her length was over 1,000 feet and her width was 252 feet. She carried over 80 aircraft. I was in awe of it all the day I came aboard and for weeks after. The above photo is of a F-14 Tomcat. This is how the aviators flew...on the edge. Honing their skills was a must during that era. Those days seem so distant now, but I can still go back in my mind and smell the jet exhaust and hear hear the roar of those big war birds.