I did my boot camp in Chicago. Great Lakes is what they called it. After that they flew me to San Diego for data processing school. I was smart with that. The navy will pay for your trip when they transfer you from one duty station to another. They don't pay for your trip home when you go on leave. So I made sure that I went to boot camp in Chicago so that I could stop in Tulsa when I would be on my way to San Diego for school. Then, when they gave me a dream sheet in school, I chose sea duty off of the east coast. That way I knew I would get another free ride home before going to the fleet.
So I did the boot camp and I did the school and finally landed in Jacksonville. I rode the bus from the airport to the huge naval base at Mayport. Got a ride with the duty officer along with a few other guys going to their ships. The carriers are around the station past all the frigates and destroyers and 'small boys'. They're all the way around at the end of the piers. A few guys got out of the car at their respective ships or buildings. I was the last one on. There was a huge ship in front of us and it was the only one left in port at this end. The driver said 'You going to the Sara?' I said 'Yeah'. He let me out.
It was about 1:00 in the morning. Practically no one was around. The ship was lit up but still pretty hard to see. It was huge. Much larger than I ever expected. I hauled my sea bag and my manila folder up the gangway. A first class petty officer met me at the top snickering. 'You a new recruit?' 'Yeah', I said. I wasn't really. I had been in the navy for about 6 months already. I was really a seaman apprentice. A DP. (Data processing Technician). Fresh out of school. But I didn't bother him with that.
He took me into a small office area. 'Let me see them orders recruit.' He took my official papers. You never travel attached to the military without official papers. He looked at them. "Well shit fire and damnation, boy'. This aint the Saratoga. This here is the Sarabatchi. Saratoga's out to sea.
'Oh. What do I do now'?
'You get the hell off my ship boy'.
Then he sneered. He walked me back out to the gangway. 'See them lights over there?' About a mile away, it seemed. 'That big one out front of the little building. That's the duty officer'. Go ask them what to do'. So I walked. Dragging my sea bag and carrying my manila folder. In the night. About a mile. To the light. What a drag. Literally.
I checked in with the duty officer.
'Yea, she's out to sea on workups. Bobby, when's the Saratoga comin' back in?' 'I don't know', said Bobby. 'Well you'll just have to stay here till they get back'. He said. They gave me a room in the barracks. I didn't bother to take a shower even though I needed it. I had been travelling all day from Tulsa and it was about 3 am and I was wasted. I hit the sack fully clothed and was out in seconds.
BAM BAM BAM. 'You in there. Are you Saratoga'?
'Huh?'
'If you're going to the Saratoga you've got about five minutes to get out here in the van'. I sat up. Looked at my watch. It was 4:30 am. Grabbed my sea bag and my manila envelop (which was my total navy world). And headed out to stand next to the van along with about a half dozen other sleepy sailors. Nobody really talked much. Many of us smoked.
And we smoked.
And we smoked.
And we waited.
And we smoked.
At nine thirty a guy came over to the van and started reading stuff from the clipboard. Then he went back in. Soon he came back out with coffee for himself. He read off our names and had each of us sit in the van when our name was called.
We drove out to the runway. Mayport is not just a naval base. It's also an air base.
We were ordered to climb aboard a huge ugly World War II looking propellered cargo plane they call a COD. It was pretty small. Held maybe a dozen people. We sat backwards, facing the rear of the plane. We strapped ourselves in with seat belts and then had to strap our head in too. You use a seat belt sort of thing especially made for a human head. It keeps you from breaking your neck when the hook catches the plane as you land on the deck at sea.
'Huh'?
'We're gonna what'?
They threw our sea bags and a bunch of bags of mail into the plane too. They just piled it all up in the aisle of the plane. They piled mail bags everywhere there was space for them.
We took off.
We flew for a very long time, looking for the U.S.S. Saratoga.
After a while the pilot yelled back at us. 'There she is'.
'What?'
'Where?'
An older guy next to me. I think he was a first class (E-6). pointed for me. I could see a tiny black smudge on the water. It was very small. Way too small to land on.
'We'll be landing in about 2 minutes'.
'Everybody brace'.
'What?'
'What?'
WHAM. SSSSTTTTHHHHHSHEWHUP. SEA BAGS FLYING. MAIL BAGS FLYING.
MY GAWD.
The door flew open.
'Get outta there now'.
'Everybody out, everybody out, everybody out. OUT. OUT. OUT'.
'Just grab any bag and get going. Follow that sailor there'.
We landed in the middle of flight ops. There were planes behind us that were needing to land. They wanted us out of the plane and off the flight deck ASAP.
We were led by a sailor in a bright blue shirt. I learned later he was called a deck ape. Flight deck personnel were deck apes and literally have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
We went inside an iron prison.
We weaved and climbed and descended and ducked and lifted our feet and banged our shins and made it to Personnel. I checked in. It was a terrible place. They showed me my barracks down inside a hole. They showed me a rack. Not a bed - a rack.
I took an ice cold shower.
If we weren't at sea at the time I would have RAN back to Tulsa.
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