Navy Enlistment and Fate

This is a response to a friend who commented about me and my service being expendable back in the day. He was correct because all military members are expendable to save our country.

Any and all service members are expendable; that is a given when it comes to serving one’s country.

Vietnam and Iraq should never have happened, but they did with 58,000 lost in Vietnam and 4,500 lost in Iraq.

I don’t think the navy was intentionally putting people at risk, dangers were not known.

All navy ships since the time of steam propulsion have been hazardous due to two factors I know of now.

One, steam pipes which run all over ships, can cook a sailor like a lobster in seconds when the pipes are breached.

Those things happen in combat and during accidents.

Two, up until I left the navy those steam pipes were all insulated with asbestos.

The never-ending vibration on a moving ship causes the asbestos fibers to filter out and drop.

That can cause asbestosis and lung disease. Asbestos fibers have natural hooks in their structure.

Those hooks trap in the lungs and cannot be removed.

I do not know how those pipes are insulated these days.

I did not mean to say we were expendable, but that is the job.

In land combat, soldiers lose lives one, two or three a day in a firefight.

In a naval combat situation, fifty is a low loss number in a ten minute battle and the numbers can go up to hundreds or a thousand.

Had I known these facts, I may have thought twice before joining. All I knew was from watching the “Victory at Sea” TV series, where the navy always won and no one got killed due to the navy’s superior strength and skills.

My father said I joined the navy because I watched the TV series “McHale’s Navy”, which made the navy look like it was fun and games.

My father and mother were firmly against me joining any military service.

My father and uncle were in the army and marines in WWII and wanted no part of service life for me.

I wanted to join the navy when I graduated from high school but I was 17 years 11 months old and my parents would not sign for me.

Had they signed for me, my enlistment would have ended the day before my 21st birthday, making it a three year enlistment.

My service time would have been totally different, no technical schooling, just on the job training aboard some ship somewhere.

Odds are I would have gotten out on my birthday. I had just met Joyce and would have been gone a week or so later, making our ever getting married a slim chance.

I likely would not have ever gotten trained in the electronics that made the rest of my working life possible.

It took me years after training to actually be a valuable technician.

The civilian world does not allow for that.

I waited for my birthday, a month later and signed myself up. That month cost me an extra year on my enlistment.

By the time I signed up I was in love with Joyce and by the month after that I wasn’t so sure about the navy or about being away from her.

My time came; I raised my hand to take the oath; boarded a train for Great Lakes training center and the rest is history.

I cannot even fathom where my life would have taken me if my parents would have signed for me to join the navy.

And that is also my case for fate in one’s life. One twist made my life dramatically different.