NANP REUNION IN PENSACOLA, FL

I missed this years reunion,but thanks to my buddy Richard Mays, I have this link for everyone to view.

NANP reunion

I have put the video here also in case the web site doesn't keep it for us.

SCAM

I received a call from a telemarketer today and he said he was calling from the Navy Veterans Association and wanted a pledge to send packages to the troops over seas. The whole thing sounded funny to me since I have never heard of Navy Veterans Assoc., so I told him I wasn't going to do anything but go on the internet and check out the organization. Well he didn't want to stop talking and begging so I told him I was finished and hung up. Good thing I did because when I went on line here is what I found.

http://whocalled.us/lookup/8003019772

It really angers me when these kind of folks use our veterans as a cause. It is pure evil at work here and I'm afraid because of the times it may get worse.

BEWARE!

PHOTO SCHOOL

This is from a movie (actually the only one) we made while at photo school. That is me acting up. Until someone else starts sending in photos and stories I will have to bore you with mine.

I really always wanted to do film work and missed having the chance to make TV commercials by one day. I was in San Francisco staying at the Oakland Army Base for a dollar a day after I was discharged and was daily looking for work in San Fran. I answered an Ad in the newspaper for a cameraman to help shoot and make

film for TV commercials. The guy said he had just hired someone else the day before but liked my resume a lot better and to stay in touch.

When I got back to the Army Base that day I was informed that I couldn't stay there much longer because I had been discharged so I decided to check out and get a train back to Ohio.

NPIC PHOTO LAB SUMMER 1960

The back of this photo says: Technical Services Photo Lab, Summer of 1960. There are a lot of familiar faces that I can't put a name to but some See how many you can name. I found myself, Posey, Crishock, Michaels, Imes, Faust, Richardson, Manley, Gault, Dyt. Others I would be guessing at their names. I'm always surprised when I look at this photo that Pluto, Tidler and Tarr are not in the picture. It's hard to remember the time line of when we were all working together. I think that some may have been in other departments. I know Tidler was in the Map department and Pluto was in Copy Camera and Crishock was in the Library and I can't remember where Tarr was assigned.

NAVY

Why Navy Planes Have Tail hooks. After a tough day of flying they use them to hang the planes up to dry out.

A NavyPhotomate buddy back home in Tiffin, OH sent this to me. I don't know who took the photo but since it has to do with Navy I thought everyone would enjoy it.

NAVY / "BUCKEYE" FOOTBALL

A very good friend of mine in my hometown of Tiffin, OH sent this to me. He was also a Photomate and of course a Ohio State Football Fan. Go Navy! Go Buckeyes!

CWO FRANK R. FOUST, USN(RET)

Today I was thinking about CWO Foust who was the head of the photo lab at NPIC when I was there. He was a great guy and really helped me to be a more confident young man. He encouraged me and made me feel special. As an officer he was more like a regular guy, because he came up through the enlisted ranks.

CWO Foust asked me to take the college GED test (equivalent to 2 years of college) and when I passed it except for one part he said that he would see that I got a waiver on that part and asked if I wanted to go on to OCS (officers candidate school). I was so overwhelmed with the prospect yet still not very sure of myself and said "shucks no". My self esteem was still not high enough to think that I could achiever something that high. He was father figure to me and I wish he would have pushed me more on the topic.

He was one of those guys you never forget. He had a very peaceful and calm way about him. He also had a sense of humor too. I remember as we met in the passage way and I was mostly in his way he said "One ship, One passage way, One Bloom. I'll never forget this.

Another time when he had put me in charge of the copy camera team he discovered that one of my guys was absent from work. I told him that all the guys had been working hard an I had devised a plan where once a month one person would get a day off.

He looked at me funny and said "I'm the officer in charge and I can't give myself a day off". So we thought that I would have to cancel that program before someone else found out about it.

He as a great guy and a wonderful shipmate that everyone is missing to this day.

CWO FRANK R. FOUST, USN(RET)

DECEASED-Aug 18, 2002

WIFE FOUST EDNA

NANP

DRIVING TO WORK

This isn't really about Navy Photo, but it could be and is about our service men and women.
We have often complained about our drive to work but we never have had to put up with something like this.
I can't remember where I got the video or who sent it to me, but this is the reality of war and be in the military.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

NPIC "SAILOR OF THE MONTH"

Here I am receiving the "Sailor of the Month" award from the Captain of NPIC. We all worked very hard at this duty station. Many many hours in the dark room making prints for intelligence. We figured out one time that we must have worked and average of 65 hours a week as we worked all day and then worked at night on our duty night which happened every third night.

I made many good life long friends while there and enjoyed living in the Washington, D.C. area. After I got out of the Navy I returned to the area and spent 33 years there raising my family and working in the printing industry.

WELL ARE YOU TIRED OF SEEING MY UGLY MUG? SEND IN SOME OF YOUR PHOTOS, PLEASE!

NPIC

Here's a couple of pictures of me in front of the large copy camera that I worked on at NPIC. I learned a lot on this job that helped me eventually in the graphic arts field of printing. These photos were taken for the newsletter, as I remember, announcing me a "Sailor of the Month".

HOME ON LEAVE

Until others start sending in stories and photos I guess this site will have to be a lot about me and my Navy days. The photo above was taken after I got out of Airman Prep school in Norman OK and before I went on to Photography "A" school in Pensacola, FL.

MEMORIES OF BOOT CAMP

What the well dressed Navy Recruit wore circa 1958. When I found this photo of me it brought back a lot of memories. Seeing the gun rack behind me made me remember how tired my arms would get doing the “Manual of Arms” exercise with on of these rifles. The other thing I noticed was I was wearing the white stripes of a Seaman Recruit and wondered at what stage of boot camp did they switch me to the green stripes of an Airman Recruit. It must have been near or after graduation from boot camp when it was decided that I would go to Airman Prep School in Norman, OK.

One photographic note. One of the things I learned after the Navy while working in the graphic arts printing field was how to prepare an old Polaroid for scanning. Use Vaseline to coat the print and it will help to restore the gloss lost through the years. It doesn’t help a lot with the finger prints but if you scan at low sharpness that can help some. One more tip while I’m on the subject of scanning secrets. If you have prints that have ink marks from maybe being in contact with another print that had writing on the back and it transferred to the front of one of your prints use hair spray to safely remove the ink.

BOOT CAMP GREAT LAKES

Before Pensacola, FL Photography "A" school and Norman, OK Airman Prep school there was BOOT CAMP. This is where your whole life changed forever. I found the photos above on line when doing a search for Great Lakes Training Center. The top photo is the front gate of Camp Moffett where I got my "boot" training back in 1958. It was an older camp with older buildings then the other camp across the road called Camp Dewey. We were in old fire trap buildings and we had heard the Camp Dewey recruits were living in new dormitory type buildings with only 4 guys to a room.

The next photo is of the drill hall where we spent many hours of learning the "manual of arms" This was heaven compared to the outside drill field especially in Dec. and Jan. when it was so brutally cold. I knew why they call Chicago the Windy City after I spent some time standing in that open drill field with the snow and wind pounding on you.

The last picture is from a site that is just loaded with things about the Navy and other things too. This photo although taken in the San Diego Boot Camp could also represent out barracks in Great Lakes. Check out this site listed on the links under Navy Sites, OLD BLUE JACKET,

PENSACOLA

Here's a photo of me taken at Pensacola by my buddy Crishock. Note the name in the lower right corner. We had to put a clear plastic piece in our film holder with our name printed on it so our name would appear on all the shots that we took. I thought that I had one of Crishock that I took the same day,but so far no luck finding it. I want to write a little more in memory of my good friend and will as soon as I get the memorial details from his wife.

MORE NPIC

Gary Tarr wrote about the NPIC Christmas card

Sarj:

Thanks. I was trying to figure out why I wasn't on the Christmas card, then I remembered I was mess cooking at Anacostia then. As to the info about Norman, OK, I was in

the last class to go through there. I left at the end of April

'59 and it closed in September.

Question: was Dave Posey the

one who showed up wearing red heart boxers under his whites at inspection one time?

Again thanks for stimulating the little gray cells.

Gary Tarr

Gary talking about compartment cleaning reminded me that we all did this in our barracks at the Naval Receiving Station Anacostia. At the top of the posting are photos of us in the barracks messing around.

Top photo: Left to right: Crischock, Pluto, Tarr, Tidler, Bloom and Michaels. The 5 of us on the left all ended up living together in an apartment in Congress Park an area just miles from the Anacostia Receiving Station where we lived and compartment cleaned while waiting for our security clearance. This photo and others to follow were taken in the barracks at Anacostia. This is the barracks at T9 lower south that I wrote the story on about the Fire Drill.

Next photo: I can't think of the guy's name in the foreground but I remember he was a tall big man. Behind him is Tidler (I had to close the barn door on his shorts) and me on the top bunk on left, Tarr standing in the back and Michaels sitting on the bunk.

Next to last photo: Lower bunk is Pluto and me on the top making a face in the back sitting is Tarr and the other two guys I need help remembering.

Last photo: Here I am doing a little tap dance while Tarr looks on pretending to read.

Looking at these pictures makes me think "Why would we ever want to life anywhere else but in these nice cozy barracks" Where the barracks use to stand is now a freeway. I could never find any sign of where the Receiving Station was when I passed by that area.

ROOMMATES

The above photo was taken by me probably around the spring of 1961 at the Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington VA. There four guys on the left were my roommates for most of the time I was stationed at NPIC (Naval Photographic Interpretation Center in Suitland, MD. We all shared an apartment in the area called Congress Park of Washington, D. C.. Although there was 5 of us there was never any more than 3 there at a time to share the two bedroom apartment because we had different duty days. In civilian life I you would call it overtime, but we called it "slave labor" (see our Christmas card).

Pictured left to right are Richard Crishock, Joe Tidler, Ron Pluto, Gary Tarr and D. M. Dyt.

Dyt was not a roommate buy hang with us a lot. He was from NJ and died in a car crash around spring of '62. The other bookend is Richard Crishock a wonderful guy and one of those guys you never forget. About 4 years ago I renewed my friendship with him and his wife in Arlington, VA and found that they ad been living there only miles from where I lived for 30 years in the suburbs of MD. After finding, Dick as his family refers to him, I started looking for the other guys that were left. I located Tidler, Tarr and was sure we could find Pluto because he had always lived in Pittsburgh, PA and I had talked to him once in the 70's when I was in town for a seminar.

I have more stories about "Our Gang" at another time. We had a lot of good times together and I had plans to get a reunion planned when Crishcok got ill and passed away. This was a real shocker to me and I'll write soon about Dick.

REMEMBERING DAN BOYINGTON

Not long ago Stev Pitchford and I were wondering what ever happened to some of our old shipmates from our tour at the Taiwan Defense Command in Taipei, Taiwan. Stev left in Sept 1960 and I reported aboard Sept. 1961, but 4 of the guys that Stev knew were still there when I arrived. We both knew a really friendly guy named Dan Boyington. We talked about him and Stev found a photo of him and sent it to me.

Recently Dan came up again in our talks and Stev searched the records on http://www.navyphoto.org/ and discovered that Dan had passed away and also discovered that although we called him Dan his full name was William Daniel Boyington.

I had a lot of good times with Dan (on the left) and with his wife Barbara. I visited their house in the area we called American Village.

the above photo is of Dan (on the left) and Stev and then 2 single photos of Dan in the photo lab at the Taiwan Defense Command taken probably in 1960.

Dan retired as a Chief, heres hoping that one of his shipmates from the past will see this and comment, maybe even his wife will stumble across the blog.

Navy Photomate Story

My good friend from my home town of Tiffin, OH sent in this article that was in the local newspaper The Advertiser Tribune. I was surprised when some years ago I found out that Jim Wade had also served as a PH in the Navy. He was in close to the same time as me.
The article is about his grandson who seems to want to follow in grandpa's footsteps and be a photographer.
Great News Jim and I would be proud too.
Sarj
follow this link for the full story.

http://www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/516119.html?nav=5005

Anacostia Naval Receiving Station Washington, D.C.

After reading Rich May’s story about the barracks in Anacostia Receiving Station in Washington, D.C. I remembered an embarrassing event that happened to me while on watch there in the summer of 1959.
Everyone that was assigned to the barracks for compartment cleaning , while waiting for their clearance, had to also stand watch in the barracks and hallway.

One early evening I was standing watch and the OD cam up and told me to call in a Fire Alarm Drill. I got so excited that when I called the fire number I forgot to mention it was a “DRILL” . Boy oh boy was the OD and me shocked when we heard the sirens coming down the street. The OD asked me “Did you say FIRE DRILL and I said I think so?. Well it was a very embarrassing experience and I bet that OD never asked anyone to call for a fire drill again.

The next day I found a Fire Chiefs hat on my bunk. The guys when out and bought one for me to wear. I wore it once just do they could laugh at me and then threw it away.
Sarj

Norman OK Airman Training

We have been mentioning our training time in Norman OK before we went to Pensacola for A school. I have some memories of that place that still stick in my mind.
The first memory is getting to start and old Navy fighter plane. The photo to the left reminds me of the type of airplane that we actually got to start the engine on. It was surreal for me, thinking that I was at the controls of a plane all by myself. Every group had a plane to train with and there was a whole line of them just like in the photo. One person would start on the starboard side with a fire bottle and then work his way to the other side and then into the cockpit to start the engine. As you walked from one side to the other you was to make a wide walk far away from the propeller of the plane.
Down the line somewhere a sailor did not get far away enough from the prop and the instructor made him run up and down the air strip stopping at each plane and shout "I'm dead I walked in front of the prop"!
Later while in the hospital at Clark AF Base in the PI a young man of 19 was brought in on a wire stretcher that had actually walked into a prop aboard an Aircraft Carrier near the PI Islands. Half of his head was cut off, but they kept him alive for about a week.

RICH MAY "WAR STORIES"

Rich writes about his "misadventures"?

Sarj,

I was never a real problem while I was in the navy, and years later, I left the Oklahoma Army National Guard as a Lt. Col in the Military Police in 1998, but I did get in trouble twice in my career.

The first time was as a student at "A" School in Pensacola. I went to New Orleans with a PH2 buddy and we got into a fight with some Cajun civilians in The Monkey Bar on Canal Street there. Someone called the police and I took off for the bus station. I had a return ticket to Pensacola in my hand. The MPs came along and got me, taking my liberty card and I came back to Pensacola to face the music. We had almost finished our classes and I was given 30 days of resticted to my room, so everyone in the class got their orders a month before me.

The second incident was the most embarrassing. At Anacostia, our barracks was upstairs above the EM Club. After a night of celebrating, the club closed and we went up to our barracks. But instead of going to bed, we started a barracks-wide pillow fight and it was a doozy! I hid behind a locker and when someone came by, I hit him flush in the face with a pillow. I thout it was one of the other combatants, but as luck would have it, it turned out to be the duty MA, PH1 John Orsulak. I had to stand a Captain's Mast before Capt. Noel Bacon and he chewed me up one side and down the other before giving me a two-week restriction to barracks. What made it so embarrassing for me was that Capt. Bacon was a GENUINE WWII hero, having been a pilot for Gen. Chiang Kaishek, in the famed Fighting Tigers Squadron. I knew all about his war service and I felt like a big schmuck standing there. I never did get in trouble after that one.

Later,

Rich

MORE CLASSMATES

Above are some photos sent in by Rich May. Rich writes.

Sarj:

I found a couple of old navy photos that I wanted to send along to you. You may use them on your website. The first is one of me giving Ron Dickens a haircut before inspection in Pensacola. As you might be able to tell, we were both pretty well "skunked," from Spring of 1959.

The second is one of me operating a TV studio camera for Armed Forces Radio and TV Station in Keflavik, Iceland, Navy Station 568, from late 1961.

More as I find them.

Rich

MORE CLASSMATES

Long time friend and classmate (shipmate) Richard J. May wrote me more details about his service and how we were classmates at Pensacola. Like a lot of others we seemed to be intertwined in our training and duty stations.
Rich also has a web site and I added a link for you to visit his place. He is quite accomplished.
Here is what Rich wrote to me:

Hi Sarj,

What a nice surprise to hear from you! And what a coincidence, too. I just spoke last night by telephone with an old buddy from NPC in Anacostia, Eugene "Charlie" Gawracz. And I am in constant contact with Bob McKinley, whom I was stationed with in Keflavik, Iceland. You and he were at PIC in Suitland, MD together before Iceland.

Bob and I are both life members of NANP (National Association of Naval Photographers) and we are going to be at the annual meeting in Pensacola in October of this year. We certainly hope that you are there too.... especially since you already live in Florida. Go to www.navyphoto.org for details.

I joined the Navy on 2 November 1958 and did my boot camp at Great Lakes, Company 491. After boot camp, I was sent to Norman for "P" School, and I'm pretty sure that Norman is where we (you and I) first met. From there, I went to Pensacola, and I'm positive that we were in the same "A" school class together. (Don't ask me my Class #, because I don't remember it.) I left there in August of 1959 for NPC. Chuck Swassing and Bill Newby were also in the class with me and both went to NPC also. Swassing still lives in DC and in fact, he went to high school in Council Bluffs, Iowa with Bob McKinley. Bill Newby retired from the navy as a PHC and lives in Pensacola now. We hope to see him at the meeting.

I am forwarding this to Bob McKinley because he will want to get in touch with you also. By the way, my website is: www.richauthor.com . And I really like your website!

Stay in touch,

Rich

More Classmates

Here are 2 of photomates taken in winter 1958. Top photo shows L-R Stan "Crow" Ballenger, Donald "Abe" Lincoln and I don't know the one on the right but both Ballenger and Lincoln went to the FDR shortly before I did and I'm still in touch with them. Stan is in #2 as well. All are admiring those wonderful old Speeds we used. Either no one had their name in the film holder or it was cropped out. Lincoln sent these to me several years ago.
Larry B.

More Classmates

More photos from Larry B.
Top photo: Left to Right, is James T. Hardee, Scot Cary and myself in the lab aboard the Forrestal, I went over to visit thus all in undress blues, while she was visiting in Mayport around the time you were in Photo School. The 3 of us were in the same class and trained as PHA but were assigned to ships as were all the aerial trainees while all the PHG trainees went to squadrons.....go figure. Cary and Hardee went to the Forrestal and I went to the FDR.

Bottom photo: Our class marching at photo school. Only names I can pick out besides the 3 of us is Howard McDonald who I was in Norman with and who also went to the FDR.

Pensacola

Here's a photo of the Beach at Pensacola sent in by Larry Blumenthal PH3



Larry writes

The nicest beach I was ever on with the exception of Cuba in 1949 as a kid.
The only one I can name is Cary.

Photo School

Larry Blumenthal who has a couple of Navy web sites http://www.usnavyphotos.com/ and http://www.ussfranklindroosevelt.com/ (see links) sent in these two photos that he took in May of 2007. The building really looks in great shape.
Here is his comments.

Here's 2 of the school I took in May 2007. It was still being used as a school but it seemed like there were foreign military personnel attending.
Larry

What is it?

All you "Old Salts" or better known as Real Photographers will recognize this reliable piece of equipment as our trustworthy Speed Graphic.
It was also a weapon at times. When there was a crowd of news photographers at a press conference or a dignitary arrival no one got in your way after you bumped them on the head once with this camera.
The Speed Graphic was a great camera and very versatile. Using the wire "sports finder" you never missed a shot. The lens was good for close-ups 1:1 and did good portrait work too.

Naval Photographic Interpretation Center

Here's a Season's Greetings Card from the crew at NPIC Naval Photographic Interpretation Center in Suitland, MD where I was stationed after "A" School.
The front of the card has the names and rank and the inside has the photographs of us "prisoners". I enlarged this more than the outside so you might be able to recognize some of the faces if you don't remember the name.
I don't see a couple of guys that I thought would be in this photo, but I remember that not all PH's were assigned to the Lab.
I remember a couple assigned to the Library and some assigned the Map Dept.
I hope that you can see an old PH buddy here.
I was not yet a PO (petty officer) as you can see, but I was a po (pee on)
Stev please note....ED Atchison is on the card.

David Posey

OK ,Here is one more of our friend David Posey. He now has his 15 minutes of fame.

I believe I took this picture while we were stationed at NPIC together.

ABOUT THE BLOG

I just wanted to take this time to let everyone know that I am still learning how to manage the blog and make entries etc. I have been concentrating on the Photo School Building and classmates for now but if anyone has anything they want to share during their time of service please feel free to send it in to me. You might not have been a PH but you have some photos and stories that relate.
Maybe you even knew a PH and have photos or stories about him or the Photo Lab where you were assigned.
There is going to be different Labels assigned to every category, so if your subject is not about the
School or Classmates I will still publish it and in the archive it will come up under a category that pertains to what you sent in. I hope this makes sense.

Photo Classmates

Sarj,

Here are a couple more Pensacola scenes.

At top is the pool just up the hill from our barracks.

Below we have Richard? Moll and Roger Olds polishing the floor in our barracks.

Stev

Photo Classmates

Sarj,

If you look closely at these, you might be able to recognize your buddy and my Pensacola classmate. These are of Dave clambering around Fort Barrancas. If I remember right, we ignored some signs that said to stay out of the fort.

Stev

Above are some more pictures sent in by my buddy Stev of his classmates and my life long friend David Posey who was stationed with me at Navy Photo Interpretation Center in Suitland, MD.
The day Stev sent these in I was on the phone with Dave and he was thinking of calling me to ride along with him to MD. We both lived in the Washington D.C. area for a long time before he moved to the Clearwater FL area and I moved to Jacksonville area.

Photo Classmates

I made a mistake on the name of the guy in the middle picture that Stev sent in of his classmates in photo school. See my comment. I thought his name was Richard Atkins but it was actually Ed Atchison from Tacoma Washington.
ED wrote his name on the back of this washed out color photo I guess so I would remember. After blowing the print up I am convinced that it his him in the center photo getting his hair cut by Roger Olds. This photo was taken in "The Bad Lands" of South Dakota on our way to CA where Ed took a tain norht to home and I went on to San Fran to ship out to Taiwan.

I found some more photos of the school building. I am still amazed that the Navy would let a building get so worn down and dirty. I know that everyone in the Navy knows how to paint and clean. Anyway I am glad to see it is looking better today, thanks to photo from
Randy and the video clip on You tube.

Hello,

Came upon your Photomate stuff and thought I'd share this with you. Recently flew into Pensacola for vacation and kinda sneaked past the "no visitors" sign and took a couple of pictures. The building looks fine. Taken 6-24-09 about 7:00 am. I graduated November 1974 or there about.

Randy Searcy

photo classmates

Stev wrote: Sarj here are some pictures of guys in the same barracks as me. The first guy is Roger Olds, who you thought maybe you knew. The next picture is of Roger cutting someone's hair. I can't remember his name.
The last picture is a guy we called our chauffeur because he was the one with the car. I think his last name was Moll and his first name might have been Richard.

The Navy Photo School in Pensacola, FL

Here is a video that shows the Photo School building, the back entrance ,the hallways, class room and one of the "Heads" the content is kind of silly but at least we can see that the building looks in good shape.

This is me cruising into the Big Lagoon from the base rec center.

Stev

Stev Pitchford a fellow PH sent this in today.

I came to Pensacola in February, 1959, from Aviation Prep School in Norman, OK. I spent my first three months in Pensacola as a mess cook, so while I don’t remember you there Sarj, I probably dished out some food to you in the mess hall.

After mess cook duty, Pensacola was a pretty good duty station. The Photo School was in a nice setting. Our barracks was just down the hill from the base swimming pool. On the weekends, a couple of us would rent a boat from the base rec center, cruise up the Big Lagoon, and land somewhere on Perdido Key. We’d cross to the Gulf side of the Key and swim a little and get sun burnt. When we got hungry, we’d go back the boat and ride across the Lagoon to one of the boat-in hamburger stands on the mainland. Cruising up and down the Lagoon, we’d almost always have a few dolphins swimming along beside us.

I left Pensacola and the Photo School in July, 1959, for a little leave at home, then proceeded to Taiwan Defense Command.

This is me cruising into the Big Lagoon from the base rec center.

Stev