220914 A Life Changing Event

Today is the first anniversary of Joyce’s passing away. I think about the life we had together and how wonderful it was.
We were married six months after we met. I was a lowly airman apprentice in the navy making a few dollars a month. We set up housekeeping in a muddy flat, aptly called the mud huts about 3 blocks from the naval technical training center in Millington, Tennessee. We rented an efficiency apartment in a half-duplex for $40 a month. I had nothing but my seabag and two sets of civilian clothes. Joyce had 3 boxes of dishes, kitchen utensils and some clothing. We had love and little more than that.

Five months later I was transferred to Glynco, Georgia for about 12 weeks training and Joyce returned home. I finished training there and after one month’s leave at home I was off to Guam for 18 months. We couldn’t afford to get Joyce there.

I arrived back home after Guam and we went to San Diego in 1966. I was stationed at North Island naval air station. I was a third class petty officer by then, but still not making much money. I bought a car while on leave and we headed for California with everything we owned packed into a little car. That was good enough for us to enjoy life out there. California was inexpensive living back then. Our food budget was $20 a week, no more. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. After training there and working on aircraft for seven months, Joyce got pregnant in late October and I went out on my first cruise aboard the Kitty Hawk in early November for nine long months. Joyce should have delivered before I got home, but Annie was two weeks late being born. Joyce had an apartment in Glendale, Ca. while I was gone. I returned days before Annie was born in 1967. She was only two weeks old when we moved back to San Diego. I advanced to second class petty officer there and was finally making a little more money. We got a call from my parents that Joyce’s father was dying of cancer in late October. Joyce took Annie and went back to Saint Louis to be with her father and mother and I went out on another cruise in early November of 1967.

I was on cruise until March of 1968 when I reenlisted for another six years. I had no prospects as a civilian, but I did have some prospects in the navy. I left the ship and went home with a nice (for the time) reenlistment bonus that gave us our first nest egg. I had orders in hand for advanced electronics school at the naval training center in Millington, Tennessee after our leave together. I was eligible for shore duty and was selected to stay in Millington as an instructor. I was advanced to a first class petty officer in Millington. Instructor duty lasted until 1972 and we had some great times there, lots of parties and good friends.

In early November of 72 it was back to sea on the USS Enterprise for another cruise. I headed home on emergency leave when my father was dying in a Springfield hospital in 1973. He pulled through and lasted another 19 years. My orders after emergency leave were to report to North Island because the ship was pulling in there in less than a month. I called Joyce before leaving the Philippines and told her to head for California and find us an apartment. She found a place on Coronado. We spent the last 10 months there until I finished my second enlistment in March of 1974.
Thus ended our navy time. Part two, life after the navy will follow.