First of all, I graduated from high school on Friday the 1st of June from Greenfield High School. My graduating class was only 37 people, a very small high school indeed. I grew up in the rural midwestern town of Jacksonville in central Illinois. Jacksonville is known as the birthplace of the ferris wheel and in the town's main intersection of Morton Ave and Main Street there is an old ferris wheel that was built during the town's heyday. When I was a junior at Jacksonville High School my parents decided to buy a house 21 miles south of Jacksonville in a little hamlet called Athensville.
Athensville is a small farming community and is located about 10 miles north of Greenfield. My time at Greenfield High School was consumed with my attempts to fit in and since I came from the "big city" of Jacksonville I was able to partially reinvent myself. My senior year was a wonderful time - I actively involved myself in sports, the plays, quiz team and the high school life. The good times kept coming and I enjoyed every minute of my senior year....however, I had a damocles sword hanging over my head and that was the summer before I joined the Navy and was on delayed entry for a whole year while I finished high school.
In 1983 at the age of 17 when I joined the Navy in the delayed entry program, I was only interested in one thing and that was impressing my father. He was an Iowa farm boy that joined the Navy shortly after the end of World War II and before his enlistment was up he got caught up in the Korean War. He was a Machinists Mate and served onboard the USS Bexar, APA 237. The USS Bexar was named after Bexar County Texas, the site of the Alamo. I grew up with my dad's Navy stories and was enthralled by them. He was a proud man who never went to college and managed to work his way up to store manager in Jacksonville of a large midwestern grocery chain and he felt that college was a waste of time and pushed his children into believing this as well.
Anyway, June of 1984 comes along and I graduated from high school on the 1st of June, I was very happy to be done with school and on the 2nd, my parents held a party at our house in Athensville for our graduating class and parents. My dad bought a keg of beer and even though the drinking age was 21 in the state of Illinois, nobody seemed to care. I didn't have time to breath because on the 6th of June, I left Illinois (at the time didn't realize it was for good) for bootcamp.
The morning of the 6th of June started early for me. I had to be at the recruiters office in Alton - 50 miles south at 7am for my trip over to the military enlistment processing station (MEPS) in St. Louis for 8am. My mother took me to the recruiters station and as she dropped me off, she was crying and this is the first time it really hit me, I was leaving home!
The morning at the MEPS station was spent in-processing for the military and at the end of all of this I was given a plane ticket to Orlando where bootcamp awaited me. There were about 3-5 of us going to Orlando, others were going to Great Lakes or San Diego or if they were in another service, elsewhere. Our small group formed a tight group as we departed for St. Louis International for the Ozark flight that was awaiting to take us to our fate. I remember arriving in Orlando late in the day, catching a bus over to the Recruit Training Center (RTC) and once we got off the bus being yelled at. We were issued bedding and sent to a temporary barracks where I assume now was a holding area until there were enough recruits until a new company could be formed. For the rest of the evening, more recruits were coming into this temporary barracks so it was not peaceful. Obviously the company was complete by about 3am because this is when we were introduced to our company commanders. I was awoken by the sound of a 50-gallon garbage can being thrown down the aisle between the bunks, getting screamed at to collect our personal belongings and bedding, being lined up and marched to our new barracks. That day I became a new recruit in company C173. That morning we received our haircuts, issued uniforms, immunizations and packed up our personal belongings to ship back home. We also were required to prepare and send to our families our first letter informing them that we were alive and safe in the world's greatest Navy. Then we practiced more marching, PT and getting yelled at. This was undoubtedly the longest day of my life!
I had a plan of just getting on with things and keeping my head low in bootcamp so I could pass my time and get on with things. In order to do this, you need to volunteer for just enough to not be classified as a slacker but not too much where you get "volunteered" for a leadership role in the company. The leadership structure in bootcamp was as follows:
Recruit Chief Petty Officer (RCPO) - The recruit responsible for everything that happens to the company 24/7. This person is always on the hotseat!
Chief Master at Arms (CMAA) - The recruit responsible for everything that happens in the barracks.
Port and Starboard Watch Petty Officers in Charge - These two recruits were responsible for half of the recruits when marching.
Several other minor roles which included the one that I volunteered for - religious petty officer.
In this role it was my job to ensure that literature of all faiths was distributed within the company and I also escorted the recruits that wanted to go to church on Sundays to and from church. Going to church was a real escape and I enjoyed doing this. Because of this duty, I was exempt from several of the "ash and trash" duties, like mid-watch around the barracks and other tasks that took away from precious sleep time. This job was bliss!
At the time bootcamp was 8 and a half weeks long. Each day was denoted by the week and the day of the week fore training purposes. So if it was the second day of the 1st week of bootcamp it was known as 1-2 day. Our goal was to get to 8-3 day which was the last day of bootcamp. On 1-5 day, we had our first barracks inspection. This inspection was an open invite from our company commanders to all other company commanders to come in and inspect us. This is a hell day and we all knew it going into it. What they made us do was stand at attention in front of our racks and they proceeded to walk up to us, scream at us, tear up our racks, provide us with a personnel inspection and check for us to flinch - discipline in ranks. If they found something wrong with us, they would make us speak to every recruit. In actuality I found it quite amusing but did not let it show. I stood there ramrod straight until I was the last (out of 84) recruits standing. They actually told me to leave the barracks room and stand down because they could not find an issue with me, my rack or my military bearing. My company commander told me this was the first time in his time as a company commander that a recruit made it through. The following week on 2-2 day we had our first academic test. This test was about the Navy's culture, traditions and customs. I aced the exam and once again was the only one in my company to do that. I had by now, blown my strategy of just "getting by" in bootcamp and on 2-3 day while we were out marching they asked our RCPO to halt the company, called me out of the ranks and gave me the anchor for the RCPO position. Holy cow did I screw up! I was now in charge of the entire company and was going to have a very long summer!!!! I couldn't wait for June 1984 to end!
Shortly after moving to Tampa in 2015 my wife and I went to Orlando to find the location of the RTC. The base closed several years ago due to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. In its place is a subdivision (Baldwin Park) and Bluejacket Park. This park is dedicated to the Sailors that passed through the RTC and Naval Training Center (NTC) Orlando. While none of the infrastructure exists I could still see in my mind exactly where everything was and took my wife on this tour. I salute the thousands of Sailors that passed through those gates hoping to better themselves and also as a first step to serve their country.
Oh yea, one more thing - my company commanders whom I will never forget, they are true Americans and were a very positive influence during my initial two months in the Navy.
Boiler Technician Chief Cotham and Boatswains Mate Chief Capaldi.
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