I was in a dead-end job with a young family and needed to get away from depending on others to help take care of us. My father was an AF veteran, and I grew up in a heavy military, primarily in the Navy area, so choosing which service to join me was easy.
I was 18, having just finished a semester of junior college, and just had no clue where I wanted to go in life. My girlfriend broke up with me, so I thought I would join the Marines. But my cousin, who was already a USMC Captain, aviator, and Vietnam veteran, talked to me. He said, “If you join the Marine Corps, I’ll kick your a@#.” Then he laughed and said, “Look, you’d be a fine Marine, but join the Coast Guard or Air Force. They treat their people better.” Having grown up in Florida, being around water and boats all my life, I went to the CG recruiting office in Orlando, FL, where SS1 Gravett signed me up.
PS That girl that broke up with me married me four years later. We’ve been married for over 40 years now. Blessed.
I was 18, having just finished a semester of junior college, and just had no clue where I wanted to go in life. My girlfriend broke up with me, so I thought I would join the Marines. But my cousin, who was already a USMC Captain, aviator, and Vietnam veteran, talked to me. He said, “If you join the Marine Corps, I’ll kick your a@#.” Then he laughed and said, “Look, you’d be a fine Marine, but join the Coast Guard or Air Force. They treat their people better.” Having grown up in Florida, being around water and boats all my life, I went to the CG recruiting office in Orlando, FL, where SS1 Gravett signed me up.
PS That girl that broke up with me married me four years later. We’ve been married for over 40 years now. Blessed.
My draft board selected me twice for service while I was attempting to get my college degree. The first time in December 1966, I was able to receive a deferment through the end of the school year. Then, in the summer of 1967, I received the next draft notice and reported on August 27th.
It was 1965 … the War in Vietnam was really gearing up. I wanted to serve but not be drafted. My father served in OSS in WWII, both the Training and Operations Branches of that very elite Secret unit, and ended up in the Occupation of Japan. OSS was the precursor to the CIA. I had a choice to serve in any branch, so I took all the various branch tests and selected the USAF in March with a reporting date after high school graduation in June… After arrival at my first duty station, I volunteered for Vietnam and got the orders, but they were changed to Korat, Thailand. I volunteered again at Korat and was sent to Ubon, Thailand; once there, I volunteered again but was sent to Udorn, Thailand/Laos the third time.
I guess it started back when I was around 9 or 10. My dad showed me pics of him when he was in the army, stationed in the Azores. He told me about his experiences, and I was like, “Wow!”. I started playing with these little, plastic army men on the front lawn in the grass, acting out battles and everything. I even began drawing pics of bombs exploding and things like that. One time in class, a teacher caught me…but I won’t go into that.
I joined the Navy after high school in late December 1965, just as the draft was ramping up for the big Vietnam buildup. I stopped by the Air Force recruiters, but they did not have any slots until the springtime in 1966, which would be well after my draft number was called. I then visited the Navy recruiter, who told me the same thing – – with one big caveat. He had a few slots open for immediate entry. Like now! But I would have to make an immediate commitment. That afternoon, I met with one of my best friends, Bob Orta, who was in the same predicament. Because we were both apprehensive about joining the Navy and what it might entail, we thought if we joined together under the Navy’s “Buddy Program,” it would be less stressful. So Bob and I returned to the Navy recruiter and signed up with an entry date of December 30, 1965. So, on early Thursday morning, December 30, the day before New Year’s Eve, we boarded a train in Aurora, Illinois, for the short one-hour ride to the downtown Chicago Navy Induction Center. We spent the rest of the day being poked and prodded and then boarded a bus in the early evening for Recruit Training Command Great Lakes. Smack dab in the middle of winter. Incidentally, so much for the Buddy Program, Bob and I were separated in our second week. Bob had trouble passing the survival swim testing and was held back for weeks. We will never serve together again.
I completed two tours of duty as a Naval Officer serving aboard the USS Duncan DD-874 and the USS Lipan ATF-85 before considering service in the U. S. Coast Guard. Both of those shipboard tours included deployments to Vietnam, the first in 1970 and the second in 1972. I liked the Navy. I had been designated a Distinguished Naval Graduate on commissioning from the NROTC program at Oregon State University, which meant a Regular USN commission. Both of my initial shipboard tours were excellent experiences because I served under very competent Commanding Officers, and my shipmates on both ships were guys used to form my abilities and competencies as a sea service officer.
I was 22 years old and just finished my fourth year as a student in a five-year program for a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, IN. In June of that year, I received my draft notice. I went to the local draft board with my university catalog showing the program I was in was a five-year program; my parents canceled the check for the fifth-year tuition and explained that I didn’t want to get out of the draft. I was perfectly willing to serve but wanted to finish my college education and a one-year deferment.
In June of 1971, I graduated from Oconee County High School, and a friend of mine helped me get a job as a Laboratory Technician in Plant Pathology and Genetics at the University of Georgia starting in July of that year. It sounded like a neat job at first, but after a few months of looking through a microscope in a small room, I quickly realized that was not what I wanted to do long-term. I had always thought about serving in the military because of the men in my family who had served in the different military branches and some friends of mine from High School who had immediately enlisted right after graduation. The Vietnam War was on the news constantly, and I just felt the need to serve. Although the draft was still in place, my draft number was 340, so I probably would never have been drafted, but I wanted to do my part to serve my country.
I was named after my Great Uncle John Vander Schaff, who was in the Army from 1907-1911, serving in the Philippine Insurrection, Cuban Insurrection and Mexican Border Campaign; he then joined the US Marine Corps serving from 1911-1919. He served in the Peking Legation Guard and later was Marine Barracks Manilla, Mare Island and Marine Guard at Portsmouth Naval Prison. He was transferred Sea Duty in WWI, although he did not serve in combat as he was reassigned to escort military prisoners from France back to the US. He was discharged in 1919. I grew up with his often hilarious stories of his time overseas. I also come from a family where every male had served in the USA or Navy since the American Revolution, and on both sides during the Civil War, it was expected I would put in a hitch during the Vietnam War, as did all of my cousins. The big difference was I stayed in for 20 years.
In 1962, I was 19 years old, at loose ends in my life, and facing the draft. I didn’t relish infantry duty in Vietnam, so I decided to enlist in the Navy. As a Midwestern boy, I had only seen the ocean a couple of times, and when the recruiter told me I was to be sent to San Diego for boot camp, I was excited. I told the recruiter that I didn’t want to go to the Great Lakes training center in the winter. I was in luck because RTC San Diego was accepting new drafts of recruits.
