My dad influenced me tremendously. I had no prospects of getting a job living overseas. My dad did all he could to get me into the Academy. He wrote letters and made phone calls to BUPERS and NAVSTA Rota (in those times, there were no recruiters nearby). I was tentatively accepted to the Prep School in Bainbridge, MD, but I was medically disqualified when they received my physical results due to my vision. I had vision correctable to 20/20, but there was too much refractive error between the left eye and the right one. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college back in the States, so off to the Navy I went.
But before I joined up, my dad made sure I got into a field where I would have a good chance of advancement, so I took a whole array of tests and was found qualified for the ADVANCED ELECTRONIC FIELD, qualifying for either AT, DS, or FT. I signed up for six years, and I would get PO3 upon successfully completing “A” school.