Page 102 - Stand Down Vietnam

After Boot Camp, I went to Norfolk, Virginia. I was
stationed on a communications command ship; the USS
Wright.

We serviced communications back to the White House. An
example was a Summit Conference that President Johnson
did in Uruguay.

We furnished all the voice and transaction
communications from Uruguay back to Washington, D.C.

I was the head diesel mechanic on the ship. I had two
emergency diesels that I was in charge of; if something
happened to the power, the generators would come on
automatically; in 5/10ths of a second, we’d have full
power. We had to make sure that, at all times, the
diesel was ready; it would start-up and get to full
power as quick as if you’d flipped a light switch.

I didn’t have that much training before going into the
Navy; I was more or less a backwoods mechanic. I
worked with my brother on engines a lot. When I went
into the Navy, I scored real high on my mechanical, so
they asked me if I wanted to be a diesel mechanic, I
said yeah.