I served 4 years in the Navy flying around the world in P-3 Orion submarine chaser and reconnaissance aircraft starting in 1973. I attended college, ran out of money and needed the G.I. Bill to finish which I did. Our home base was Moffett Field in Mountain View California.
From the Aleutian Island of Adak Alaska, with a volunteer skeleton crew, we would penetrate the Russia Air Defense. This was an exciting cat and mouse game played by both sides unless you got caught. We also preformed Sea Air Rescues and saved one soul from certain demise in the Aleutian Island Chain
An engine fire on our plane required a 45 day stay in Iran until our government could decide what to do with us since we really weren’t there. We were pretty lucky the wing didn’t burn off; a one wing airplane doesn’t fly well or long. During our stay in the world’s largest sand box we enjoyed camel rides, ate pistachios and learned why the Shah of Iran would soon be deposed. That guy was brutal!
The fall of 1974 took us to the Philippines, Australia, Diego Garcia, U-Tapao Thailand. We enjoyed rice beer and monkey barbeque on a stick from street vendors in the Philippines. The barbeque is an acquired taste.
Once you travel west of Guam you see a lot of oriental people. We also took part in the evacuation of Cambodia and Saigon in 1975. They gave me a nice medal for all my efforts. Perhaps a psychological examine was more in order. I lost a good friend Robby Ross in U-Tapao and took him home to Vass North Carolina to rest. My time in service was bittersweet.
I still have buddies from then and we talk every now and then. It’s the tightest bond you can experience. There’s nothing like it our here in the civilian world.
