NTTC CORRY STATION, PENSACOLA, FLORIDA
September to February 1975

I flew into Pensacola airport and was picked up by Carla. She had just finished her boot camp and Personnelman school. She was on her way to her first duty station at Corpus Christi, Texas, and stopped here to see me. I got checked into the command and we ate supper before she continued on her trip to Texas.

I started CTM 'A' school here with great hopes of finishing soon. During this period, I worked three separate shifts and stood watch every five days at the main gate. The entire school was self-paced and I finished in December.

During the Christmas break, I went to Annapolis to visit a boot camp friend. Wendell Kenner was attending the Nuclear Power Preparatory School at the Naval Academy after he finished his 'A' school at Great Lakes. Gerald Matthews gave me a ride there on his way to Philadelphia. Wendell and I had a great time until the day before I left. It was the 23rd and we were riding his motorcycle. I was climbing a hill and gave it too much gas at the top. I caught my leg in a tree root and pulled my knee out of joint. The medical department gave me some crutches and sent me on my way. I flew to Texas and, when I got off the plane in Dallas, my entire family was shocked to see me limping around on the crutches.

Since I qualified to receive the G.I. Bill, I decided to take the Bell and Howell television electronics course. The educational services counselor tried to talk me out of taking it saying that it was a waste of money and I would get no benefit from the course. Stubbornly, I signed up for it anyway. I found out that it was a very difficult course but the best part was getting the laboratory lessons and having to build circuit boards. I didn't finish it until my next command when I had an entire color TV built. The mail was so rotten at times that I would be behind in my labs and I would call the company to tell them I hadn't received the material. They would send the parts again and, eventually, I wound up with spare parts for everything except the picture tube. After completing the TV, I grew bored of it and sold it and the books for $500.

After Christmas, I was back in Pensacola going to my advanced 'C' school. This was the very first class of Basic Bullseye Maintenance and it condensed three other schools (total of 92 weeks) into twelve weeks. Gerald, Emily, Mickey Thompson, and four others joined me in this class. Emily and I went to Scotland, Gerald to Winter Harbor, Mickey to Puerto Rico. Emily, Gerald and I were the only ones to stay in the Navy for more than one enlistment.