Early on a Monday morning in August 1960 I decided to join the military service. I lived about an hour from Fort Riley, Kan. I drove to Fort Riley with the intention of joining the Army. I entered the recruiting barracks and walked the full length of the old barracks, exited at the far end, got in my car and drove to Topeka and the naval recruiting office.
I completed the paperwork and was prepared to join the Navy. After a night to complete the details, I was bused to Kansas City, Mo., recruiting center to complete my physical and be sworn in. I stayed in a downtown hotel that night. It was a night in a large city with sights a farm boy had never seen. The next morning we were up early and off to the airport for a flight to San Diego via Denver.
This flight was more memorable than any other events. We were flown in a military cargo plane. After a stop in Denver, we flew over the Grand Canyon, and suddenly rain came through the overhead due to a crack!
We finally arrived in San Diego and were transported to the Naval Training Center where we were to complete our eight weeks of boot training.
The volume of recruits arriving was so large, we didn’t receive our uniforms and shots for three weeks. We had to wear the same civilian clothes. I wore out a pair of cowboy boots in this three-week period. The additional irony was, our actual time of boot training never was credited until after those three weeks; therefore we were in boot camp for 11 weeks. Additionally, my company was nearly held over for three weeks because of the conduct of several members.
I found out later when I returned to San Diego for Yeoman Navy “A” school that several of my company were doing time in the brig!