BACK TO THE Big "E"

In early 1970, I received orders assigning me back to duty aboard the ENTERPRISE. I didn't feel like I deserved that type duty again, and I communicated my views on that subject to the detailers in BUPERS in Washington, to no avail. So in due course, we had to pack up and leave. We had really enjoyed our tour in Panama. All of our family had been very active in things they enjoyed, and we all hated to leave all the dear friends we had made. But that is one liability of making friends when you are in service of your country. You risk having to leave, and saying all those good-byes sometimes leaves an empty feeling in the pit of your tummy.  Many friends came to see us off on the Cristobal and joined us in a party in the spacious lounge aboard ship.

We got all our furniture packed and moved a few days prior to our leaving. We had elected to return home by sea on the Panama Canal Company's ship CRISTOBAL, which makes regular trips between New Orleans and Cristobal, CZ. This way, we could carry our auto right along with us and we could drive right home from dock side in New Orleans. I had to deliver the auto to the ship docked in Cristobal a day prior to our sailing. We departed on 17 June 1970 for the USA, heading for the mouth of the Big Muddy and New Orleans. We had been in the CZ three years and 4 days. It was Ann's birthday.

We had a delightful cruise. The service was impeccable and the weather all the way was fine. We enjoyed the sun and the sea. It was the first time Ann and the kids had ever seen the great ocean, and finally, they got to experience a little of what I had seen lots of. We had a great waiter in the dining room...and the food was out of this world. All good things end, and all too soon, after about 4 or 5 days of steaming north across the Caribbean, through the Yucatan Straits, and crossing the Gulf of Mexico, we hove into sight of the Mississippi River and commenced the transit of the river to New Orleans. We moored in Algiers, on the south side of the river across from New Orleans, on 22 June at the Gulf Outpost, and after we watched our car and household effects unloaded, we went through customs and waited for our car to be brought around. It wasn't long before we had loaded our luggage, and had headed for the GNO (Greater New Orleans Bridge) and I-59 to Birmingham.  

BACK TO THE "E"

Upon completion of my tour in Panama, I received orders assigning me back to duty aboard the ENTERPRISE. I didn't feel like I deserved that type duty again, and I communicated my views on that subject to the detailers in BUPERS in Washington, to no avail. So in due course, we had to pack up and leave. We had really enjoyed our tour in Panama. All of our family had been very active in things they enjoyed, and we all hated to leave all the dear friends we had made. But that is one liability of making friends when you are in service of your country. You risk having to leave, and saying all those good-byes sometimes leaves an empty feeling in the pit of your tummy.

We got all our furniture packed and moved a few days prior to our leaving. We had elected to return home by sea on the Panama Canal Company's ship CRISTOBAL, which makes regular trips between New Orleans and Cristobal, CZ. This way, we could carry our auto right along with us and we could drive right home from dock side in New Orleans. I had to deliver the auto to the ship docked in Cristobal a day prior to our sailing. We departed on 17 June for the USA, heading for the mouth of the Big Muddy and New Orleans. We had been in the CZ three years and 4 days. It was Ann's birthday.

We had a delightful cruise. The service was impeccable and the weather all the way was fine. We enjoyed the sun and the sea. It was the first time Ann and the kids had ever seen the great ocean, and finally, they got to experience a little of what I had seen lots of. We had a great waiter in the dining room...and the food was out of this world. All good things end, and all too soon, after about 4 or 5 days of steaming north across the Caribbean, through the Yucatan Straits, and crossing the Gulf of Mexico, we hove into sight of the Mississippi River and commenced the transit of the river to New Orleans. We moored in Algiers, on the south side of the river across from New Orleans, on 22 June at the Gulf Outpost, and after we watched our car and household effects unloaded, we went through customs and waited for our car to be brought around. It wasn't long before we had loaded our luggage, and had headed for the GNO (Greater New Orleans Bridge) and I-59 to Birmingham.

A New Home

We arrived in Birmingham and visited around with the family for a day or so and went up to Cullman to see everyone up there. I had already decided to move the family to Cullman while the Enterprise was in overhaul. She was back in Newport News for her 2nd overhaul. I had almost made the complete round trip again. It seemed like my career was a sequence of deja vu's. We found a tri-level home in Hanceville that was located on a beautiful hillside, nestled in amongst beautiful oak and pine trees, that was very nice and comfortable. As soon as our furniture arrived, we moved in and set up housekeeping for the very first time in Alabama. We made sure everything was set up before we had to leave for Newport News and the ENTERPRISE.

I flew into Newport News, Virginia and landed at Patrick Henry Airport, and taxied to the shipyard. I had left from the exact same location, same pier and ship in six years earler, just a few months shy of 6 years before. I reported aboard at 1555 30 July, ready to spend my last year in the Navy aboard the Big "E". I finally wrestled my suitcases aboard and got things half way settled in.

One of the first things I did was go up to the 06 level where the OE Division office was and meet my new Division Officer and introduce myself. It was the same office that I had left, with very little change, if any and the same office layout. I was to occupy the adjoining desk to the one I had earlier. Only this time, I was sitting with a different task to accomplish. Last time, I was an ETC and had the job of Division Training Chief, but this time, I was the Leading Chief PO, the boss of all the enlisted men, and there was about 100 of them, including CPO's.

I had known two previous LCPO's of the OE Division. The first one was ETCM Brinson, back when we were commissioned and I was an ET1. The next one was ETCS Peter Kice, who had relieved Master Chief Brinson, and was LCPO when I left earlier. I never, ever in my wildest dreams, ever expected to hold that job. It was probably one of the better jobs in the Navy for a Master Chief ET, in terms of power and prestige, but the job demanded a lot of the person holding it.

A couple of my chiefs had been PO1's alongside of me on my previous cruise aboard. Now here we were back, me as MCPO but they were still struggling CPO's, still trying to make the grade. As I went to work in my new job, old memories flooded back to me of things that had gone on almost 10 years previous. Even old memos and papers were found in files that I had originated on my previous cruise. As I lived and worked, I was homesick and alone, as I had never been alone like this since I had married Ann.

This was to be the longest year of my life, although I have to admit, it was all my fault. I again had really screwed up and let my so-called smartness get the best of me. I should have moved Ann and our family back to Hampton, and might have, with the exception that the Navy had told me that they were only going to be for approximately 3 more months. That three months turned into over 9 months, as they had encountered unforeseen problems in the refueling process. So Ann and I both suffered a long period of uncalled for loneliness. Although I was flying home every few weeks or so, and getting to be known on United Air Lines, it wasn't like going home to my family every evening.

I was also keeping AT&T busy, calling collect to 205-352-6067. At least one thing in my favor...Ann accepted all those collect calls, even though I had messed up again!! We enjoyed the weekends we had together that Fall. We enjoyed the football games at Hanceville. We made all that we could. We rooted Doyle Baker (Hanceville's quarterback) on to several victories. It was the first time we had ever been to high school football games, and we really loved them, especially on those cold nights when we had to roll up in our blankets. We had several of them.

I took 16 days annual leave on 18 December to spend the holidays at home. During that holiday, the old Alabama Hotel in Hanceville burned to the ground. Dad and I went down to see it while the coals were still hot. It had been there as long as I could remember Hanceville, another proud old landmark gone forever never to be rebuilt, similar to Birmingham's proud old Tutwiler Hotel, Terminal Station and Mobile's Battle House. Up until the mid-40's Cullman had 2 fine old hotels, the Alabama Hotel and the Cullman Hotel. They are both gone now. Even the Rexall Drug Store is gone. Where will it end. In Europe, cities seldom change and people can see their heritage of homes and buildings that have stood for centuries. Is Cullman more progressive, now that there are no hotels in the city? Excuse me, I got off into another of my famous sermons!

In February, we finally got underway, and headed for the ship's homeport in Alameda, California. Here I was going back to the west coast again, but this time, taking the l-oooo-n-g way there. Our trip was going to take us across the equator along the same path we had traversed earlier on our "round the world" Operation Sea Orbit, except this time, we were going in the opposite direction. We stopped in Rio for a week, and it was during the week of FESTIVAL, or as they call it in New Orleans, MARDI GRAS. They really have a ball down there. We went to one staging area where they were building some floats. It was really something to see, all those cariocas working on those floats. It was so colorful. Of course, we spent lots of time on the beach at Ipanema. That is the beachfront you see in all the pretty pictures with the beach lined with all the beautiful hotels. The Assistant DivOff and I hung out in a couple of those sidewalk cafes, drinking beer and sightseeing. We saw some pretty good sights.

That's when I decided I had better buy Ann a pretty ring. We went to one of those stores that had branches in Switzerland, Paris, New York, and Amsterdam which specialized in diamonds and gold jewelry to buy Ann a ring. I think I got her a pretty one. I should have had her birthstone put in it, though I don't know whether I could have or not.

Of course, it was summer in Brasil. We had departed Newport News in early February, arriving at the Equator on the 12th at 30ø53' longitude. We celebrated the normal raucous rites of entering King Neptune's domain and Davy Jones Locker again. I have been crossing it since the first one occurred onboard the USS Shannon DM-25 while we were headed for Recife, Brasil.

We left Rio, and continued south to round Cape Horn again. We were supposed to stop for a week in Santiago, Chile, but political considerations nixed that visit. I was disappointed, because, I had always wanted to see that beautiful country. It is said to be reminiscent of Switzerland.

Eventually we arrived in Alameda, and my time on the Enterprise was getting short. We made several cruises of short duration. We took one trip to San Diego, where I went on liberty to get a good meal and to visit Lee and Pat Carpenter, some good bowling friends from the CZ, but other than that it was more or less staying aboard, reading and playing cards. Once or twice the Assistant DivOff and I went ashore in the San Francisco area. On one occasion we went to Pleasanton and had doughnuts in a coffee shop bakery in the downtown area of Pleasanton. It hadn't grown much since we had lived there in earlier.

Amplification of the good times in the Assistant EMO's own words......