After my leave period, I flew to Chicago and took a taxi to the Naval Training
Center at Great Lakes. I didn't know what to expect but was looking forward to
going back to school. Immediately upon arrival, I decided that I didn't like
this area. It was dirty and run down with broken windows in the store fronts
and lots of boarded up doors. This was my first real experience with slum
areas.
I got on the command and was given a room in the ET barracks with one roommate,
Tim. He and I became friends after we learned that we both played pinochle. I
started Basic Electricity and Electronics on a Monday and finished that
self-paced course in four days. Most people took anywhere from three to six
weeks to finish it. Everyone had to complete this course before they could go
to their follow-on schools, i.e., Electronic Technician, Electrician,
Machinists Mate (Nuclear), etc. Since I finished it in four days, I got a
three-day weekend and had planned to go to Chicago. As it turned out, I was
given barracks duty Friday night and Sunday morning.
Fortunately, I elected to attend the lock-step course of Electronics
Technician, Phase 'A1', instead of the self-paced version. I learned a lot in
this class but had a hard time with transistor theory (now which way do those
electrons flow?). My class advisor was CTMC Wilson who was from Oklahoma. He
found out that I was a CTM student and from Texas so I had two strikes against
me already. He decided to make me the class leader, which, as it turned out,
meant that I had to attend extra sessions, schedule clean-up, attend division
quarters, stand duty on two watchbills, and was expected to maintain higher
standards and grades than anyone else in the class. Fortunately, I finished
first in my class in this phase.
The second phase, 'A2', was not much different except that two classes combined
and I wasn't the class leader. There were about two weeks of this class that
dealt with radar theory that was completely useless to any CT. Here, I met
Emily Ropp and Gerald Matthews. Both were designated as CTMs and I would be
stationed with both of them later.
At the completion of this phase, I was advanced to CTM3.
While here, I had the opportunity to travel to Milwaukee, Kenoshe, and Chicago.
Each town had its own character but Chicago had everything. I toured all of
the museums and the planetarium and visited Wrigley Field. Kenoshe was
important since we went there to buy beer. The drinking age in Illinois was 21
while it was 18 in Wisconsin. Milwaukee was fun because it was a college town
and we got to spend time with girls our own age.
I put in for leave over the Fourth of July so that I could visit home. I flew
to San Angelo and spent a relaxing two days until I had to get over to Austin
for my ride back. J. D. Pigg was from South Texas and we took his car back to
Great Lakes. We drove non-stop for 22 hours to get back, traveling along US
highway 89 for the most part.
On another weekend, Tim and I drove to Memphis to meet his parents. They came
up from Quincy, Florida, to go to the Grand Old Oprey so we went to visit them.
Tim drove through Indianapolis during the 500 so we got to see how many people
are in the area for that race.
The base had a lot to offer, especially if you were broke. The movies cost
$0.25 and a coke was a dime. Out in town, the same items were $2.50 and $0.35.
But the base was crime ridden. Tim and I had our room broken in and our
wallets were stolen. We were both in the room and asleep at the time. The
Navy investigator interviewed us and said too bad. Usually, we didn't have any
money in our rooms but it was the night after payday and we were planning on
going to Chicago the next morning. Needless to say, we stayed in the barracks
that weekend.
I was in a three-section duty and had to stand watch every three days. The
watch consisted of standing at the front door of the barracks, checking chow
passes, I.D. cards, and liberty passes before allowing anyone to enter. Or, I
would be roving the barracks, looking for fires. The other duty I stood was a
four day rotating watch where I would be at the school helping other students
with their homework. I liked that duty even if it meant not getting to eat
during the watch.
Here, I made an amazing discovery. Most of the people who were going to
electronics schools were science fiction fans. It was eerie that almost all of
us had a liking for that genre of literature. My Machinists Mate friends had
almost no interest in science fiction or fantasy and they mostly read Louis
Lamour or mysteries.
