Memories of Navy service

Most young men, when I was growing up, grew up with the idea that the male members of the family were expected to serve their country in some way, shape or form. I was no different.

I was in high school at the height of the Vietnam conflict. I had weighed all my options. My natural dad spent 20 years in the USAF as a jet mechanic. My adopted dad spent two years in the US Army during World War 2 in the Pacific as a tank gun sight and optical repairman.

I was a big boy all through junior high school high school. I decided I would like to be in the U.S. Air Force. During my senior year I tested and found I had a high mechanical aptitude. I chose the medium armament technician field that would allow me to work on the tail guns of the B-52 bombers, but also allow me to fly once in a while to test the guns. Alas, I was 2 pounds overweight and the Air Force didn’t want me. So, I tried the U.S. Navy.

In early August 1973, I had graduated high school and married my sweetheart. I was also working on construction doing labor, driving dump trucks and running some of the heavy equipment. The winter in Maine is kind of bleak for most construction workers and since I wanted a steady income, I tested for the Navy and scored off the chart for mechanical aptitude. I took the physical and passed. The next day I was on my way to Great Lakes, Ill., and Navy boot camp.

Two fellas from the Bangor area and I were in the same unit , the last members of Company 328 of the 13th battalion of the 2nd regiment. Our company commander was Boatswain’s Mate First Class, and he was what we considered a real “sailor.” In boot camp we learned Navy history, tradition, close order drill and a myriad of survival techniques. We learned to use different small arms, and we learned that it was not a good thing NOT to follow orders to the letter as soon as they were given.

I got word that there was a need for a company mail man. I knew I could do that and remain a ghost, out of the sights of the higher-ups. I went to the company commander’s office and proceeded to tell him I would like to be the mail man. You can imagine my dismay when he told me no, he had something else in mind for me. I was told to go back to the barracks and select a squad of eight men, which I did. For the next 10 minutes, I marched those guys from one end of our berthing compartment to the other while counting cadence. I was the new recruit chief petty officer, or assistant company commander. So much for me being a ghost. It was my job to march the company to chow, class and drill, and during the drill my position was in front of the company by about four paces. Once used to it, I found it not too bad.

I was asked which job fields I would like and I had to chose three out of seven. I chose equipment operator, construction mechanic and utilities man, which was actually a plumber. The chief who interviewed me said I needed one more. I knew a machinist’s mate was a seagoing mate, and I didn’t want that, so I chose boiler technician. I thought, “Hey, where do they have furnaces at sea?” Little did I know. I received orders to BT class A school at Naval Station Great Lakes. I would be going to sea after all.

I learned thermodynamics, boiler construction, operation and repair, and the auxiliaries associated with a propulsion steam plant. I graduated number 10 of 42. My next duty station was at Philadelphia Naval Ships Engineering Command, where I participated in the Boiler Technician Class C School, 1200 PSI plant operators class. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA and certification, then was homeward bound for leave.

After leave, I reported to Naval Operations Base, Norfolk, Va. I worked for the admiral who was the overall commander of the Sixth Fleet out of Norfolk and the East Coast. On April 9, 1974, I was ordered to report to USS Talbot, a guided missile destroyer escort, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I began my time in the fleet April 11.

I didn’t take long to get into the shipboard routine and begin making new friends. I served aboard Talbot until June 3, 1977. I worked up to boiler technician second class. Then I was sent to water treatment school and graduated with a 4.0, number 1 of 14, then to Aviation Fuel Handlers School, graduating 1 of 13, and next to Pressure Fired Steam Generator School in Philadelphia, graduating 13 of 27. I was also the engineering department drug and alcohol abuse council representative as well as the human relations council rep. I was the aviation refueler for our helicopter and assistant oil and water king. We took care of fuel and water inventory aboard ship.

I received a letter of commendation from the Aviation Detachment Commander upon completion of our Med. Cruise in 1977. I was part of the Engineering Department that won four engineering excellence awards in our destroyer squadron. We became known as the go-to ship who fulfilled her underway commitments and never once dropped the ball.

I saw ports in the Caribbean, the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Some seas were mirror smooth and some would make Odin queasy. I befriended Canadian and British sailors. I grew up from a naive 18-year-old kid to a 22-year-old man with a self-confidence I never knew I had. I learned a trade and a pride in God, country, Navy and home.

Guy Woodworth of Presque Isle is a 1973 graduate of Presque Isle High School and a four-year Navy veteran. He and his wife Theresa have two grown sons and five grandchildren. He may be contacted at lightning117_1999@yahoo.com.