Co 442 was made up of 80 Northeast recruits from NY, NJ, OH and surrounding states. Our company commander was first class boilerman Pitts. He was a tough but fair CC. He worked us really hard and we won nearly every competition flag in the command. We were invited to march Nov. 11, 1959, in Chicago, a high honor.

We graduated just before Thanksgiving and left for A school and the fleet. A few even went to ROTC. We were in the old Camp Moffett barracks, where ice would form on the windows at night. Overall it was a good experience. We were inducted into the Recruit Command Hall of Fame, another high honor.

Some of us went on to be honor guard and color guard in the fleet as a result of basic training. One recruit retired as a pilot and captain after 30 years.