Likes and dislikes while in the Service

[Rick]

Seeing some of the post I thought I would ask what you liked about the service and what you hated.

I had great officers and leadership on my ship the USS Independence. The food was good, and everyone worked good together for a common goal to get aircraft safely in the air and then to get them back down again.

I didn't like the long family separations and would rather be at war than standing inspections in peace time. Also discipline was not distribute evenly between the races.

[mike24d20]

Well since I started a rats nest on the other post, I will say I liked my CO at the 48 shop in San Diego. He was a mustanger. Liked the chow at the sub base. One dislike was after getting back off leave, you would find youself in another div. Was strange beign a ex army nco from the nam era stuck in with a bunch of kids who had never fired a shot. An I hated the weekly inspections an extra duties on base.

[JohnMOhio]

Loved the work on the Bom/Nav System for the B52 E. Hated Barracks life. Worked with a great bunch of guys, NCO's and Officers, with only a couple of exceptions. If promotions had not been frozen when my enlistment was up, I think I would have stayed in. Was guaranteed Staff but beyond that was very much in doubt in 1963 in SAC with the most promotions going the Atlas guys.

[joem]

Dislikes? Cold showers, mouldy boots and cloths, high humidy and mosquitoes the size of humming birds. Other than that not bad.

[jon_norstog]

The 4-8 watch on a 3-section watch list. You get up at 3:30 AM, relieve the mid waTCH at 3:45, get relieved at 7:45, late breakfast so the eggs are cold and the raisin bran is all gone, then work a full day, then stand another watch at the end of it. Drop in your rack exhausted. Repeat, until the watches are rotated.

jn

[Griff Murphey]

I loved it. I got to shoot, enjoyed serving with the Marines (Army ROTC came in very handy) as a dental officer. When I was a dental student at Baylor a next-door neighbor was a USMC Vet and he predicted "They are gonna treat you like a king!" and he was right. Had the Navy end of it being out on DUBUQUE, DULUTH, DURHAM, BLUE RIDGE, OKINAWA, and NEW ORLEANS. Visited Cambodian and Vietnamese coastal waters (maybe not voluntarily on those), as a "tourist" I experienced Okinawa, PI, Singapore, Hong Kong, Oceanside, San Diego. Couple of examples of how the Marines treated me. My cabin on the DURHAM became the 1-4 Arms room which was no problem with me but it was a small hassle as people would come in at 2 AM to get a shotgun or pistol. I put a note on my door (hatch) saying "Please be quiet when retreiving weapons." and the next day they had MOVED THEM someplace else on the ship to avoid bothering me. We left for the Vietnam evacuation on Easter Sunday 1975 and my BOQ room was full of my models and model building projects including a craftsman-built 5-car HO (La Belle wood kits) passenger train almost finished, 1:1200 ship models, a couple of big scale plastic models like a 1/300 SHINANO, etc. I was told "Someone from the Battalion will pack up your Q room!" OK, fine, that's war. I met the guy in the Philippines who had that job about two months later. "Doc," he told me, "when we went in your room and saw all of your stuff, we really did NOT want to pack it up and store it. The base was not THAT short on housing. So we just locked your room up and it will all be there for you when you get off float." Another funny story, when I got on NEW ORLEANS my pack seemed heavier and bulkier than normal. There was a big bottle of Chianti in it. Gift? Attempt to get me in trouble? Whatever, it was enjoyed! My only criticism was I lost two years in building a practice, and the dentistry was not varied. But I did get VERY good at fixing badly broken down teeth and I can still fix teeth today, 36 years later, that the kid dentists today would extract.

[phil441]

My main complaint was with the E-1 and E-2 office types who with a careless stroke of the typewriter could cost you a much deserved leave or even a promotion. When the CO put you in for a promotion and the promotion list came back with your name left off, well, you started to get a little bitter.
Even when the CO got you a promotion at your next duty station, the time-in-grade was shot to hell.

[TomSudz]

I liked breakfast. I disliked having to wake up early enough to eat it!

[dave]

Politics played by many, especially senior NCO's, may not have been universal but I was working mid nites with a couple 5 stipers who were very early into secound tour, 5 years or so. I was a 2 striper and went thru the routine for 3rd stripe, writen test, oral board, etc. I was a radio repair tech guy while the NOC's were radio operators. To keep awake and cause they were always talking about how good service was, a couple times I pulled their chain about how I had a job waiting when I got out and would make more then them right off ( it was true). I really was going to re-up (the job was a lousy one). Well the CO called me and said how well I had done BUT he was holding up promotion cause "I was talking against the service"! So those two SOB's went behind my back and complained like a couple 6 yr olds instead of telling me to shut the f**k up! 3 months later my promotion came thru, 3 mo. lost time-in-grade! 3 mo. more time was up and I got the re-enlist talk and promise of 4th stripe, which was a damn lie cause T-in-G was very strick in my MOS. Oh well, I did miss Nam!

[Michael Tompkins]

I loved the food, especially the SOS. I loved the excitement and challenge that came with being a divisional MP (sometimes it was too exciting!). I loved the guys I hung with. I loved the German people and their culture.

Hate is such a strong word, but I hated the 24 hour shifts. I hated the kiss-asses. I hated the alerts. I hated the bull-sh*t. I hated the O.D. green permanent-press uniforms. I hated responding to the traffic accidents and domestic disturbances. I hated that I didn't travel more.

[Kirby]

I pretty much liked every thing but I did not care for Dept of the Army civilians and having to work with ring knockers.

[raymeketa]

What is not to like? Being an 18 year old American Sailor, with American Dollars, a free ride to Europe, the Mediterranean, and South America in the post WW II years, good chow, good shipmates, beer, and girls.

I vaguely recall that were things that I didn't like but I'll be danged if I can remember what they were.

Ray

[Dan In Indiana]

Three R&R's in Bangkok, 'nuf sed!

[Rick]

We got I & I ( intercourse and intoxication) instead of R & R although I think it the same thing.

[TomSudz]

The buddies. You lived together, ate together, drank together, laughed with each other, and suffered when your brother did. With few exceptions, nowhere in life will you be closer with non-blood relatives. Their backgrounds didn't matter (unless you were poking fun) and their skin tone meant nothing. We were willing to die for each other and just might have been dumb enough to do it. I think about some of those times and always smile. One of the most vivid memories is from a road march. One of the guys managed to get a couple of HUGE blisters and they popped. You could hear the blood squishing in his boot every time his foot hit the ground. He was in pain- bad. We gathered around him and two guys shared his gear while two others helped him walk. We switched off carrying his gear and helping him walk- for 15 miles.