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