Hello fellow airmen and shipmates. Went thru basic at San Diego & arrived at Memphis NATTC in late summer of 1966. I was assigned to MOC company (maint, operational, clerical). Worked in the admin building delivering in house mail all over the north and south bases.                                                    Those of us in MOC stayed in the old WW2 style barracks & ate at the Marine chow hall. While there I witnessed the old PX building burning to the ground. never had to stand mess duty or barracks cleaning (other than Keeping our general area clean).                                                                                   While there I hit the books, went thru AFUN-P school and made E-4. Transferred to NAS Pax River where I was assigned to the Navy Test Pilot school maintaining T1-A aircraft. Again I studied the books, took the required tests and with the help of a division officer (actually some serious goading by said officer) passed the E-5 exams.                                                                                                                    Next I was transferred to NAS Oceana and assigned to VA-35. At first I worked as a plane captain then transferred to the transferred to the powerplant shop when I sewed on my second stripe. While in VA-35 I made one west pac tour to Tonkin Gulf (69-70) on board the Coral Sea.                                                Didn't mind all the work very much. Flight deck work was kind of dicey at times, especially early 70 when our A6s were flying a lot of tanker duty. Least desirable duty was standing MAA and SP. Stood MAA duty at the student chow hall a couple of times in Memphis & SP duty twice. Once while in VA-35 and once at T.I.(San Francisco) when I was leaving the Navy. That last time was interesting: I was to leave active duty the next morning at 0700 & got stuck with SP duty at an EM club (probably Acey Deucey). Stood it with another E-5 who had just come off of a swift boat in Vietnam.                                        During my stay in the Navy I had to keep a damaged plane functioning at NAS Subic Bay and made 1 maint trip to Da Nang where I learned what in was like to survive a rocket and mortar attack.                 After service I went to tech school, got an FAA powerplant license and worked at the maint. and engineering center of American Airlines rebuilding engine components. Retired in 2003.                                      L.L. Hutchens, ADJ-2, USN.