This is the 60th anniversary of the day I enlisted in the navy. I will never forget that day. I went to the county courthouse at 9:00 am; mom and Joyce went with me. There was a navy chief there who seemed nice enough; he told us we had 5 minutes to say our goodbyes before taking the standard military oath and we would begin our new lives in the navy. We raised our right hand and took the oath to defend our country from all enemies foreign and domestic. As soon as we did, life changed. The nice chief became a bully. He picked the oldest of us and put him in charge, gave him train tickets and meal tickets and put us on a bus to the train station. We boarded the train bound for Chicago. The train seemed to stop every few miles to let off or take on passengers. We arrived at the Chicago train station about 11:30 pm, where we loaded onto a bus for the Great Lakes naval training center. Once there, we were hustled into an open gymnasium that had nothing but bunk beds covering the gym floor. We were told to go to bed at midnight. The next morning at 5:30 we woke up to the banging of an empty steel trash can and navy life began. We were issued what the navy called watch caps (stocking caps), marched over to the mess hall and stood outside to wait in a formation that was (in navy terms) tightened up asshole to belly button.
Thus my new life in the navy began.
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