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Ingleside Texas. It is/was a minesweeper base in the late 1990s. Though the facilities were new, it was in a very small town far away from the nearest city. The base had problems with the wildlife and we weren't allowed to kill any of them. Once had to call animal control for a poisonous snake in one of the dorm rooms. One jogger was frozen in place having come across a large wild cat (possibly a bobcat) on the jogging trail. We held drills for chemical leaks. Not far from the base was some chemical processing plants and several years earlier there was a chlorine leak from one of the ships transporting the chlorine. This caused the base to be evacuated. We were trained to wet towels or clothes and place them under and around the door if you cant get out in time. Oh, and a few years after leaving the base I received a collections warning because someone in the area had used my social security number to get a gas card in my name.
I remember Ingleside......well, sort of. I was long out of the Navy by that point but doing my marine biology education at Port Aransas, so passed near there in my travels, saw the minesweepers go past UTMSI, saw one of the LPHs (I think, it was a while back) take up residence in those waters as a support ship.
As to the question at hand, well, first of all, when I talk on the Net about my time in, it is done in general, without identifying specifics. I am loyal to my past commanders and while I know at least one is dead and I suspect others probably are as well, I won't speak poorly of them if I identify them. So to speak freely, I don't say specifically where or what.
The best was being a "Provost Marshal"; actually, the term is Security Officer, but said here like that so more may understand; worst was being a ship's officer. As to why in the worst, to sum it up, there were liars and cheaters and I was naive enough that I could be used by them, worn down by their resistance to do their job. For example, when my boss told me to get my crew ready for an operation but later denied that he had given the order and me, being the young obedient Ensign who was taught to always trust superiors, admitted in front of my troops that he must be right. Toward the end of my sea service I had learned but by then I was out of time.
I won't say it was all bad because it wasn't, I learned, experienced many valuable things, but it was not the happiest time of my life.
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Originally Posted by d4g4m
Spent one year of my Navy life at Kefflavik Iceland. If we wanted to leave the base, we had to wear uniform. Assigned to 'air freight'.......
Sounds like the first ship I got to where the Captain had a civilian dress code for liberty.....and those particular articles were in my other bag which took about 2-3 months to catch up with me.
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Originally Posted by stillkit
Did you know that, according to Greek cartographers, "Thule" was the most northern region of the inhabitable world?
I'll bet your Dad would agree with that, though he may disagree with the term "inhabitable."
Greek, as in current or as in ancient?
If current, it may be by their definition...........considering that Alert is 422 miles farther north.
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Originally Posted by Rhino127
Beirut Lebanon in the mid eighties.
That would be a bummer......when I was growing up as a military brat in the early 70's, Beirut was the Rivera of the eastern Med!
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Originally Posted by FutureBrennanDad
I would have to say Marine Corps Base Quantico. We used to have a philosophy in the Marine corps that the farther away from HQ the better the life was, well Quantico was in Northern VA just a short drive to the Pentagon and DC so it was so political and felt like policy changed there just to see what worked and what did not.......
That's Washington Naval District for one, where I did my Security Officer job, and hence, well, one's in a different world, to say the least. As things go, Quantico could be my visit day out of the office where I would drive to the Brig there if I had someone in, and then drive to Bethesda if I had someone in hospital there. Fortunately, I only had to do that once but those kind of duties.....it was sort of like when I was at a sick bay, filling out the paper work for a fitness for duty examination, there in my working blues with a police radio on my hip, the mic clipped to my jacket epaulet.
A retiree who saw me wanted to know if I was NIS! (as NCIS was known back then)
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 05-07-2015 at 02:36 AM..
USS Coral Sea, bird farm, CV-43. One of the older carriers in the '70's and I hated the chow lines, the chow was pretty awful all by itself (except breakfast - How bad can they really mess up eggs?). As an E-3, I did everything twice - mess deck duty, supply duty, berthing clean up duty, etc. The sponson watch every 4 days and usually the mid watch. Yep, less than stellar tour there.
My cousin was the A-Division Officer on the Coral Sea during the mid-late 60s. He once told me a story about how the Engineering, XO, or CO (whatever) was berating the assembled A division about their very high rate of VD cases in Asian liberty ports. Asked if anyone had anything to say, a Senior or Master Chief piped up with "There are no queers in A-Division". I'm not sure this ever happened, but if it did, I'm sure you'd know how the Officer giving the lecture responded!
The worst ship i ever "visited" had to be the Kearsarge CV-33 during the same period. My actual duty stations, a Korean war era LST and newly commissioned DLG weren't that bad, plus Gunnery and ASW school in Dam Neck, VA and Key West, FL, respectively, were a lot of fun.
For me, it was 29 Palms California. Absolutely nothing to do on or off the base with nothing but sand in every direction. Also, nothing worse than the CO taking us on a run around Lake Bandini when it is 100 degrees outside. If you don't know what Lake Bandini is, google 29 Palms and Lake Bandini and you will get your answer. Or, how about running up the hills behind the base and then rolling down the hills, basically making you a human sugar cookie. Then the nearest town which had any sort of nightlife was Riverside and it was still an hour away.
For me, it was 29 Palms California. Absolutely nothing to do on or off the base with nothing but sand in every direction. Also, nothing worse than the CO taking us on a run around Lake Bandini when it is 100 degrees outside. If you don't know what Lake Bandini is, google 29 Palms and Lake Bandini and you will get your answer. Or, how about running up the hills behind the base and then rolling down the hills, basically making you a human sugar cookie. Then the nearest town which had any sort of nightlife was Riverside and it was still an hour away.
It's great the first time you get there, but the one town quickly wears away on one with what little it has to offer. Further, most of it usually closes down about 10 PM.......but if you are on shore patrol, as I often was, you are on your feet for at least another 4 hours of night.
It was something like a 30-45 minute boat ride from ship to shore, shore to ship. In the summer of 1986, I was anchored there, a lot, as were a lot of other ships because the defense budget money had been eaten up bombing Libya in the months before. So to save on the money, a lot of ships were put here or there to swing at the hook, ready to go in case needed, but until then.........
I was only in the Army for two years in the early 70s. Basic training at Ft. Knox and the rest of the time at Ft. Sill.
I'm not sure I have a "worst." I wasn't at Ft. Knox that long, so I don't really have an opinion about it. Ft. Sill? At the time, I thought it was the middle of nowhere, but in retrospect, I guess it was OK. I'm sure I could have had worse problems.
My cousin was the A-Division Officer on the Coral Sea during the mid-late 60s. He once told me a story about how the Engineering, XO, or CO (whatever) was berating the assembled A division about their very high rate of VD cases in Asian liberty ports. Asked if anyone had anything to say, a Senior or Master Chief piped up with "There are no queers in A-Division". I'm not sure this ever happened, but if it did, I'm sure you'd know how the Officer giving the lecture responded!
The worst ship i ever "visited" had to be the Kearsarge CV-33 during the same period. My actual duty stations, a Korean war era LST and newly commissioned DLG weren't that bad, plus Gunnery and ASW school in Dam Neck, VA and Key West, FL, respectively, were a lot of fun.
Yup. I'm sure some of you can recall shore leave in Olongapo, Patpong and other places.
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