The Christy Collection
Military Stories and Articles
I joined the Navy in 1968 and was able to get the choice of what I wanted to do in the military. During World War II, my father was in the Navy, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. From my hometown of Odessa, Texas, you had to drive at least a hundred miles in any direction to find a river or lake.
Many things. Growing up my father owned the local movie theater where we lived. The top movies in that time were war movies, so I grew up with movies like: “The Fighting Lady” and other such. Audie Murphy was a personal friend of dads as well. Another personal friend of dads was in the Merchant Marine during WWII and his stories were exciting to me when I was a teenager. I also had relatives that served in the Navy during Korea. I guess it was really the relatives that served in the Navy that really made up my mind. Dad got out of the Army as a 1stSgt and he would have liked to see me go into the Army but said he would back me whatever branch I decided on. He went with me to see all the different branches The Navy was the only one who didn’t PROMISE me the moon. They told me it was up to me and my abilities. Dad and I both liked that.
Pictured: L to R, Richard the Merchant Marine, Me, and Dad.
As a young man, I had no father figure in my life. My father passed away at the early age of 37 (I was 7 at the time). As I was entering my teenage years, my mother dated a retired Air Force Colonel who got me thinking about joining the military. I joined the ROTC Corps in high school and was mentored by a World War II veteran and a Viet Nam veteran, both retired Master Sergeants.
During my senior year in high school, my mother married the man who I consider to be my father. He pushed for me to continue my education in college. With his help, I got through college in only four and a half years. William “Chile” Childers assisted in putting my gold bars on and received my first salute. In exchange, he got a 1932 silver dollar from me.
In essence, it was not one person that influenced my decision to enter the service, It was a host of people. My high school instructors, a retired Air Force Colonel (Robert Hull) and my dad. All were equally responsible for my career.
My step-father was a mining engineer and shift-foreman at Ray Mines, Arizona, and they appeared to need a timber-helper underground. I got the job, and worked lm tunnels and adits some 400 feet beneath Ray, for over a year, and in 1941, as a tool dresser in the Candle House, resigned to try for radio school at Port Arthur College in Port Arthur, Texas.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
In the early morning hours of 20 June 1969, my life was drawing to a close. Part of my skull had been shot away, with brain matter protruding from the void. My outer right forearm was torn free and dangling from the wrist. Because I had been shot in both knees, I found myself unable to walk or crawl. My rifle had been destroyed, along with my radio. I was quite disheartened. The only people aware of my location were those intent on killing me. With death knocking at my door, I heard the din of a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog heading my way in the darkness. With no way to communicate, I believed the Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft pilot wasted his time trying to come to my aid. Yet it gave me a little satisfaction to know, somehow or other, the US Air Force might exact retribution on those who killed me.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
My buddy Louie and I served together from 2000-2002 aboard the USS Supply (AOE 6). After I got out in 2004, he lost my number, and we didn’t speak for a couple of years. In 2006, I created my profile on TogetherWeServed.com, hoping to reconnect with some old friends, but I didn’t find anyone I knew. One day, Louie found my profile and, through my bio, discovered that I had moved back home to New Jersey. He couldn’t find my number, so he started looking for people in New Jersey with the same last name as me. After some online searching, he came across the contact number for someone named Claudia. He cold-called this person and asked for me. “Al who?” the woman answered.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
This is my response to my friend Robert Pryor’s post.
Friday, June 20th, 1969, is a day I’ll never forget! In two weeks, I would be on that Freedom Bird heading home.
I was Air Force Captain Dick Gerry, the Air Liaison Officer (ALO) and Forward Air Controller (FAC) at Song Be, Phuoc Long Province, assigned to MACV Advisory Team 67. I flew the O-1 Bird Dog, and my call sign was Rod 11. Approaching the end of my tour, I had more than five hundred combat missions under my belt.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
Recently, I reconnected with Lance Corporal Darren Foster, with whom I served in the US Marine Corps in Kaneohe Bay, HI. While in the Marines, we were together every day like Frick and Frack. There were days we’d take the military excursion bus (provided by the base) to Waikiki every night after “work.” After partying in Waikiki every night, we’d get back on the base bus and barely make it to formation in time. And, we’d be in formation “leaning,” meaning we’d be so hungover we’d be unable to stand up straight correctly due to a headache, stomachs boiling in the hot Hawaii sun, and “reeking” of alcohol. Our Staff Sergeant would just laugh and say, “Broyls, Foster, you’ll ‘tied one on” again last night?” And we’d reply, “Yes, Staff Seargent.” And at times, he’d come over yelling in our ear, knowing we’d have a headache, and sometimes call for our daily PT right after formation, knowing we’d be struggling!
To reconnect with Darren means we’ve found a wonderful “best friend” with whom we can share photos of our wives, kids, and grandkids now and reminisce on our crazy Marine days. When we 1st reconnected, Darren asked, ” You finally found someone just as crazy as you to marry your crazy a**?”
LoL…Good times.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
In 2010, because of TWS, I was able to locate one of my best friends from Vietnam, Bob Hillerby. We served together in the 69th Signal Battalion Combat Photography Unit. As a result of our reconnecting, I was able to write and publish two books on the role of military combat photographers in Vietnam.
Bob was my co-author of the first book, “Shooting Vietnam,” and between Bob and I, we were able to share hundreds of photos taken by us and a third writer, Tony Swindell, along with our first-person accounts of our experiences.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
After I joined TWS, I was contacted by a Marine I went to MCES Electrician’s School with at Court House Bay, Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, NC. His name was Ronald Barnes, and he was from Louisville, KY.
Ronnie used to travel with me to NYC, my hometown, on weekends, and we shared a lot of memorable adventures. We went overseas together and wound up in different outfits. I left the Corps after 4 years. Ronnie stayed in over thirty years and retired as a Sergent Major. My wife and I went to visit him and his wife in Florida, and it was a memorable reunion, which would never have happened except for TWS. The attached picture is of Red Beach at Camp Garcia, Puerto Rico, about a mile from our power plant.
After graduating from Charles D. Owen High School while living in Black Mountain, NC, 1968, my family moved to Danville, VA. I attended Danville Community College for a year and a half, but my heart wasn’t into more school at the time. I was a better draft avoider than a student. Quitting school several times, my 2S (student) deferment was changed to 1A (ready for immediate induction) and I was called for a physical.
I was unsure what I wanted to do, and how to start my adult life. Going to college was a long-term path. Working low-paying jobs that didn’t require experience was not satisfying. Without a commitment to school, I faced being drafted.
My older brother, Sgt Frank J. Zeman III, had completed five years of Air Force service and elected discharge in June 1970. My twin brother, SMSgt Ronald F. Zeman, USAF Ret., and I were in the first group for the new (December 1969) draft lottery and our draft number was 161. Without a deferment, I would have been drafted with numbers 195 and below were called.
My Army Recruiter SSG Constantine. He went above and beyond the call of duty to get me to join. I was a hard-headed, troubled teenager.
