We left Great Lakes when Janet was 6 days old. She had been home three days, when we finally made the decision to leave. She was in such good health that we were not afraid to take her and go. We got busy, went to the Housing office to have our TV and Washer packed and moved to Anaheim. On the second day, when the movers picked up those items, we were ready to go. We did. We tucked Janet between us in her basket and away we went. Cars didn't have seat belts then, but we guarded that baby, as we did all our children,  with our lives.

When we headed out of the Greater Chicago area, snow was on the ground, but the roads were clear. We headed southwest on Route 66 towards St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and San Diego again. We had an exciting trip, weatherwise. We had the most varied weather during this trip of any trip we ever took. Snow, cold, tornados, sand storms...you name it. We spent the first night in Joplin, Missouri at a motel, and watching TV that night, we saw that they had twisters in the area that night. One was reported to have struck about 7 miles from Joplin that night. If anyone follows the weather very closely, they know that the area around Joplin, Missouri is known as Tornado Alley. The clouds were certainly threatening, and we were apprehensive.

When we passed through Oklahoma City, we stopped for a visit with Melba Kilgore, who was staying with her mother, while her husband, Reg, was in the Western Pacific on a carrier. We had met them earlier while in "B" school at San Francisco. To this day, we have continued to be good and close friends with them. After a couple of hours with Melba, we continued on our trek on to El Reno, Okla. for the evening. The next day, we drove all day to Albuquerque, NM where we found a small tourist cabin across the Rio Grande on the west side of town. It was cold at night on the high desert, and we took full advantage of the pot bellied stoves that heated them. Can you imagine a motel of today having a pot-bellied stove for heat? Travel in those days was much more exciting than it is now. Regulations and laws have taken the sense of adventure out of just about everything.

Upon leaving Albuquerque, we headed south along the Rio Grande River to Socorro, where we had to replenish Ann's supply of paper diapers for Janet, then headed west across the mountains on US 60 through exotic western towns of Pie Town, Red Hill, and into Arizona through Show Low, down to Globe and west to Tempe and Phoenix. We hustled through Phoenix, and headed south to our destination of Gila Bend. All the way from Phoenix to Gila Bend, we were in a dust storm. It was of such proportions that it threatened to sand the paint off the car. Visibility was very limited and we thought we might have to stop, but eventually we ran out of it.

After a late breakfast in Gila Bend, and started our last leg of the journey to San Diego. We were going to spend a day or so with Bill while we found living accommodations in Orange County. After we had visited a spell, Bill and I went up to Anaheim to find a home

We got lucky. We found a BEAUTIFUL home on the first try. It was in a good neighborhood, had a beautiful yard, a huge double car garage, all the amenities that we had ever wanted and the price was right. It was one of the most enjoyable places we ever lived. It was situated at 1104 La Palma Circle, just off La Palma Boulevard in Anaheim.

We were attached to Naval Station Long Beach while going to school at HAC. Before classes started, I was attached to the Base Security Office for a couple of weeks. It was plush duty to while away the time until classes convened. We did the majority of our grocery shopping at the local Alpha Beta in Anaheim. We still have a set of insulated plastic glasses that we got at the Alpha Beta in Fullerton.

Our class convened 17 April 1961 in Carbon Canyon, at the Hughes Aircraft Ground Systems Group Radar Laboratory. It was back out in the boon-docks on top of a mesa above Carbon Canyon, with no habitation in sight. Hughes Aircraft furnished us bus transportation daily to the site, so we had it all laid out. It was a typical test sight, right out of the movies. We had 3 shifts of classes, in order that all of us would get ample opportunities to operate the radars and computers. Shifts ran 2300-0700, 0700-1500 and 1500-2300. We rotated the shifts, according to what our assignments happened to be.

Our instructors consisted of Sol Bialek, Ray Ramage, Al Weber, John McLeod, Jim Savage and John Rougvie. Our class (AN/SPS-33 Computer Subsystem Checkout and Maintenance) consisted of Ray Erbele, Chief Carl Spring, Bevely T. Dudley, Boyce Baker, Master Chief Paul Kimmerley and me. We had a great 20 weeks there, and during lunch breaks our pinochle games continued unabated. All of us had now been together since December of 1959, and we were to continue to be together for another 3 or 4 years. We got to be pretty close. In my immediate group, besides the ones listed above, were ET1 Richard Tucker, ET1 Bob Staton, ET2 John Fabris, Chief Hank Snow, Senior Chief James J. Johnson, and Chief Skeeters, to name a few.

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We continued our picnicing on weekends. In fact, we went somewhere every weekend. There is so much to do in Southern California. It was our favorite place to live, but woe, it has become too crowded now. Irvine Park was one of our favorite parks to picnic.  We also went to the high desert, to Salton Sea State Park, and trips up into the San Gabriel Mountains. We made several trips down to San Diego, to see brother Bill and family and our friends, Reg and Melba Kilgore. On one such occasion, his ship was in port, and we went aboard to eat Sunday dinner. I believe it was the Bennington. We value the friendship that existed between us and Melba and Reginald. The most significant trip we made during our tour at HAC was a camping trip to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Parks for a week. We first entered Sequoia National Park and camped at the Big Trees campground. The campground was sat in amongst towering spruce and fir trees. We hiked a good distance down into the forest to look at and inspect the "Dead Giant", a huge tree that for some reason or other had fallen, and was left as it fell. After we had spent several nights at Big Trees campground, we went down into King's Canyon to the campsite on the South Fork of King's River. We stayed there several days, exploring, hiking just lazing around. We spent 20 weekends seeing Southern California. We enjoyed it to the fullest, and was sorry to see graduation come. But September was upon us again, and September had come to mean graduation time and time to head East again.

We graduated from AN/SPS-33 COMPUTER SUBSYSTEM CHECKOUT AND MAINTENANCE COURSE on 1 September. A few days prior to our departure, Hughes Aircraft Corp. threw as party at a local Anaheim eating spot, where we were treated to steak, drinks and congenial talk between the staff and graduates. We were to have a close association with HAC for the remainder of our naval career. On 2 September, with a new diploma in our bag certifying that we had completed the course, we departed Anaheim for Ohio, Alabama and the USS Enterprise.