# Duty Days



## Knight (Jun 28, 2020)

Long but not all military service is without perks. 

In the Navy duty days are when you are assigned something to do normally every 4th. day. That varies of course depending on where you are stationed & the department you are assigned to. 

Starting out of boot camp my assignment was ATO or Air Transpotation Ops. There I had 3 section duty. One 24 hour "shift" and two days off. For a six pack of beer you could get someone off duty to stand in for you. With that much time off going up to Carboneer was what I did, had a girlfriend there. At the time I didn't know it the best thing was I converted my civilian drivers license to a Navy drivers license. Certified to drive everything from an 18 thousand lb. lift capacity fork lift to an 47 passenger bus. 

When I reached E-3 I was able to request a school. I chose jet engine school in Memphis, Tenn. There after checking in I was assigned 4 section duty, difference was school during the day, duty at night for 4 hours. 8p/m to midnight, midnight to 4 a/m, 4 a/m to 8 am  Duty amounted to those of us scheduled for that time frame being posted as a "guard" at one of the many buildings. NOT me though. I drove the little bus filled with others to post them at the different buildings. Returned to the duty office to drink coffee & play cards with the duty officer. Didn't get rained on or bitten by mosquitos & could nap between checking the posts with the duty officer. 

Completed school sent to Charleston AFB for transportation to Roosevelt Roads NAS P. R. 
Lots of Navy personel waiting for transportation so no definite time set to leave. Of course I was assigned a duty section. The duty officer noted I had a Navy drivers license so he asked me if I wanted to drive for the Lt. in charge of the shipping dept. That meant instead of standing watch, bagging groceries at the PX, doing grounds keeper duties at the golf course, I had the life of leisure. Get up eat breakfast pick the Lt. up at the main gate at 8 o'clock. Got fishing gear from the recreation building and golf clubs. Stored those in the Lt's office. Depending on what I felt like doing I could fish or golf just had to be back at 4 p/m to drive the Lt. to the main gate. Sadly after a month my flight was scheduled. 

After checking in with the squadron life normalized into 4 section duty which was to bad. As the plane captain of the CO's plane I was limited to only the 8 to midnight watch so I would always have his plane ready. A nasty surprise popped up the squadron had to supply a body to the base to work in the galley for 3 months. That meant getting up at 4 a/m to do whatever the cooks needed done. Then working all day and getting off around 6 p/m 7 days a week. As all us new replacements were stading there the head cook asked if anyone had a drivers license. I raised my hand, the cook said stand over there I'll talk to you in a few minutes. Lucked out again, I could sleep in but had to be at the galley by 5:30 a/m to load the van to deliver food to the galley on the other side of the base. Off until 10:30 to load lunch food & off again until 4:30. Easy 3 months.

Last was tour bus driver and base guide for NAS Lakehurst. Everyone else in my assigned job area had 4 section duty. My duty was to drive tours of the base when the PIO scheduled a tour. I could go weeks with no tours. Easiest 3 years of duty plus a lot of thank you letters from schools and others that toured. I had the best expeience ever about the 2nd. yr. of guiding tours. An older German couple showed up at the main gate in a taxi. When they came in the office it was clear they didn't speak english. I had a friend in squadron HU4 that was fluent in German so I called him. He explained the couple was the parents of a lieutenant that died on the Hindenberg and they wanted to see where he died before they did. It was their lifetime goal. So instead of using the bus I used the duty officers car to drive them out to the apron in front of hanger #1 where the Hindenberg burned. A very emotional time for them & me. A nice surprise the base commander shared with me a thank you letter from the German embassy for completing the dream of that couple.


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## Keesha (Jun 28, 2020)

Are you an American who got posted in Newfoundland to do your basic training and if so what did you think of it?

My husband did basic training in Canada too


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## Lewkat (Jun 28, 2020)

The Navy and Marines attend "boot" camp in various venues and the Army and Air Force attend "basic" training in various venues.  I know the Marines either go to Parris Island or Camp Lejeune, and the Navy goes to Lake Michigan.  There are others, but I don't know them.  The Air Force goes to Lackland in San Antonio.  The Army goes to a couple of others.


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## Knight (Jun 28, 2020)

Keesha said:


> Are you an American who got posted in Newfoundland to do your basic training and if so what did you think of it?
> 
> My husband did basic training in Canada too


No I did my boot camp at the Navy training center at Great Lakes Illinois. 1st duty station was Argentia Nfld.


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## Keesha (Jun 28, 2020)

Knight said:


> No I did my boot camp at the Navy training center at Great Lakes Illinois. 1st duty station was Argentia Nfld.


Ahhhh. I knew you were in Newfoundland since you mentioned Carbonear. I’m very familiar with that area.


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## Knight (Jun 28, 2020)

Keesha said:


> Ahhhh. I knew you were in Newfoundland since you mentioned Carbonear. I’m very familiar with that area.


When off duty Hayfor Fongs hotel Was where I stayed. Traded him 40ounce spiced rum for a room. Bought rum for 80 cents his price was over $18.00 a bottle. We both made out. Then there were the parties my girl invited me to. WOW.


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## DaveA (Jul 1, 2020)

Knight said:


> No I did my boot camp at the Navy training center at Great Lakes Illinois. 1st duty station was Argentia Nfld.


Don't think I've ever spoken to someone who was stationed in Argentia.  Back in 1953-57  I was on a Weather Patrol cutter and we used to refuel on our way to one of the weather stations, Able, Baker Charly , or Dog and after our three week stay on station we'd refuel there again on the way home.  On occasion we'd also refuel in Reykjavik, Iceland.

They were short stays while re-fueling, but the off-duty guys would pay a visit to the Bluejackets Club.


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## Knight (Jul 2, 2020)

DaveA said:


> Don't think I've ever spoken to someone who was stationed in Argentia.  Back in 1953-57  I was on a Weather Patrol cutter and we used to refuel on our way to one of the weather stations, Able, Baker Charly , or Dog and after our three week stay on station we'd refuel there again on the way home.  On occasion we'd also refuel in Reykjavik, Iceland.
> 
> They were short stays while re-fueling, but the off-duty guys would pay a visit to the Bluejackets Club.


I was there in 1959

If you were flying the radar line in those willy victors with the giant cones on the underbelly you must have experienced at least once landing in the heavy fog that would cover the landing strip at times. It was always amazing to not be able to see anything only being able hearing one of those big birds reverse pitch on the props once on the ground. For those not familiar with the DEW line or willy victors this site is worth a look.
http://willyvictor.com/


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## squatting dog (Jul 2, 2020)

Lewkat said:


> The Navy and Marines attend "boot" camp in various venues and the Army and Air Force attend "basic" training in various venues.  I know the Marines either go to Parris Island or Camp Lejeune, and the Navy goes to Lake Michigan.  There are others, but I don't know them.  The Air Force goes to Lackland in San Antonio.  The Army goes to a couple of others.



True... Army had many places to go for Basic training. However, A.I.T. (advanced infantry training) was usually done at Ft Polk Louisiana, or at Ft Benning Georgia. The 82nd airborne was Ft Bragg North Carolina and the 101st airborne was Ft Campbell Kentucky. There may have been others, but, I'm not aware of them.


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## cdestroyer (Jul 13, 2020)

boot camp 1966 rtc san diego ca. uss england dlg22, started as bt changed rate to rm. reupped 1970 went to Nam on uss brule akl28, returned home to nas whidbey, back overseas to uss proteus as19 and that was that!


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