Gender
Male
Powell Butte, OR
Birthday: March 16
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Gender
Male
Location
Powell Butte, OR
Birthday:
March 16
Rank
Petty Officer First Class
Enlisted Rating
Machinist's Mate
Where were you or your family stationed?
West Coast / Hawaii
Veteran of Foreign War
The Cold War, Iran
Current Status with the US Navy
Retired
Start date of your service
October 16, 1975
End date of your service
October 31, 1995
Comments
Hey Brian, I really don't have many stories that would mean much to anyone but me.. only one "there I was, thought I was gonna die" story. Got lots of shooting stories. From 45 pistol to the 3"50, my favorite. Boom M_____F____ Boom! LOL! Up front 90% of my service time was boring or BS. But the 10% was exhilarating, magical abosolutely priceless. If you get hard up I can help you out. But my stories will probably be pretty ordinary. Looking back on some of it, man this farm boy was stupid. Good luck with the book
I got off active in Nov of '76 and at that time scuttlebutt was saying that El Paso was going back into the yards (she came out of a refit in '74) to have the aft mounts replaced with BPDMS, but at the same time scuttlebutt was also saying she was going on a North Atlantic cruise, which is what actually happened. She went in the yards after that and a forward and aft CIWS added but kept the forward mounts. I believe one of the aft mounts was eventually demiled and put aboard the Intrepid museum ship in NYC. When I was in NYC with my wife in '08 we went aboard and I swear the 3"/50 on display but roped off was my old mount 34 because of some distinctive marks on it. We had a recoil spring shatter in '75 while doing NGFS training with our Marines and it left a gouge in the steel of the barrel. Not enough to warrant replacing the barrel but enough to be noticed from a distance. I'm almost certain I saw that gouge on the Intrepid mount but couldn't get close enough to be sure.
Looks like you served on one of the sister ships to the gator I served on, USS El Paso LKA-117
Thanks for the reply Brian. I'm looking forward to reading your second book when it comes out. Memories from the days in blue are what I like.
Welcome aboard Brian. Glad to have you along. It looks like you've got a good start on sharing. Keep posting, we like that.
Welcome aboard Brian!