A Few Memories - page 2
By 1967 and as the Vietnam conflict steadily grew, many or most of my friends had been either drafted or had joined the military service. Approaching the prime age of “na-na-nineteen” and with my draft lottery number quickly becoming a threat of spending a year or so "running in the jungle"! Having a love of water, I decided to join the Navy in July 1967. The Navy had a program then where you could join now and report for boot camp six months later. My apprenticeship afforded only a job when you came back from being drafted, not avoidance of the draft. I worked until September 67' or long enough for my replacement to be hired. My next five months were occupied mainly with my friends and going to clubs in Georgetown in D.C., which was at the time, the music center of Washington D.C..January 3, 1968 came quickly and on that morning, being driven downtown at dawn by my Dad, I got on a military bus, dressed in penny loafers and a windbreaker, the weather in D.C. was mild that day. Throughout that day with endless papers filled out and a shot or two in the arms I and others were sworn in, loaded on a jet in the Baltimore airport and were off for three months of dreaded boot camp training. Landing in Chicago at O’Hare airport in the dark of night, in a snow storm, I quickly realized my folly in clothing choice of the day, as I marched thru the gate of the NRTC in two feet of snow with a bitter wind blowing off the lake. Jan. 3rd in Great Lakes Ill. was a world away from Washington’s “mild weather” and marching in the dark through that gate I remember thinking I had made a great mistake! So began three months of training known as “boot camp".
Boot camp turned out to be more or less exactly as I had been forwarned it would be. The lack of sleep, the constant harassment, all the fears and dreads had come true. The fact that my time in basic training started January 3rd, in Great Lakes Ill., made the weather itself a factor in hardship. Granted, the Navy did give you the clothing to go through those fridged days marching outside on the grinder, but the fortitude and endurance was provided from within yourself. It may be viewed as a culling of those men who either physically or mentally could not withstand the hardship from those men who had the energy and desire to pass the difficult and stressful test. We became a company of men working together, no longer just individuals. The first step of becoming us instead of I, was duly performed.
After graduation the last day in NRTC we were all packed up sitting in lines in a drill hall when we all got envelopes containing orders for our duty stations. Mine was to report to the Norfolk Naval Station in 30 days after a months leave had passed. Then loaded on military buses some guys were taken to train stations and some were taken to O'Hare airport for flights home and back to our families and familiar environments we had so direly missed during boot camp. My flight back to Washington D.C. was very enjoyable and filled with anticipation of coming home. After landing at National Airport and a cab ride to the E. street bus pick-up area I was soon on a familiar metro bus headed for good old, safe and comfortable, family and friend filled, District Heights Md.
My leave consisted of home cooked food, visits with friends and family and nights spent in Georgetown with friends, draft beer, and ear piercing music in the many clubs located there. In no time at all my 30 days of leave was over and it was time to get a Grayhound or Trailways in D.C. and report to NOB in Norfolk VA. as ordered. There was one major hitch in the timing of my departure. Six days of race riots erupted in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1968, following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. My orders were to report by midnight on Sunday April 7, 1968. My father risked life and limb driving me through the H St. Corridor and got me through the smoldering ruins, filled with tanks, jeeps, army trucks and streets lined with soldiers to the bus terminal.Reaching NOB on time I was assigned to a transit barracks for a couple of weeks as the USS Gyatt DD 712 was finishing up a cruise in the Carribean. When it returned to the D&S piers I reported aboard for full time duty. There I worked in the engineering division in the machine shop as an FN (fireman) or "snipe" as we were called. Talk about being lucky, the Gyatt was then transferred to the Naval Shipyards in Wash. D.C. which happened to be about 15 minutes away from where I lived at the time in District Heights Md! Shortly before the Gyatt was decommissioned in Sept. 1969 I was advanced to Petty Officer 3rd Class as a Lithographers Mate.
I was then transferred to the USS Barney DDG 6 which had no billet for a lithographer where I spent 9 enjoyable months in dry dock with no duties but for supervising the Bosun's compartment cleanup routine every morning. Then after lunch every day I was on early liberty! The Personnel Dept. finally got me orders after 9 months to the Uss Tidewater AD 31 a destroyer/submarine tender which had a print shop onboard. After a great year or so on the Tidewater I was advanced to Petty Officer 2nd Class and shortly thereafter was transferred again.
This transfer was to shore duty and I was assigned to Cinclantflt working in a very large, state of the art print facility. Having been married on May 31, 1969 to Shelley Rae (Eickenberg) Trickett our first son Aaron Scott, was born at the Portsmouth Naval hospital on May 19, 1971. I continued on my printing career as a civilian and we had two more lovely children, Matthew Edison born April 1, 1975 and Sarah Kathleen born June 15, 1977.
Here is a list of my children and grandchildren: Aaron Scott Trickett born 5-19-1971 - 5-23-2008, Anastasia Skye Trickett born 8-14-1994, Lennon Aleister Trickett born 4-21-2005.... Matthew Edison Trickett born 4-1-1975, Madelyn Paige Trickett born 1-6-1997, Alexander Gage Trickett born 8-22-2001, Abigail Eve Trickett born 2-10-2012... Sarah Kathleen (Trickett) Markins born 6-15-1977, Gracen James Markins born 6-8-2013, Jameson Aaron Markins born 2-4-2016. WFT-2016
