I remember reporting to Great Lakes Naval Hospital Personnel Office telling them "Put me to wherever you need me the worst. I want to get as much experience as possible." In looking at my Hospital School Records, they noticed that I had worked in Orthopedics, Neurology and Neurosurgery. I ended up on Neurology/Neurosurgery where I found that I did indeed get a lot of experience.
I also remember going to the beach in Waukegon, Illinois on May 30th to go swimming in Lake Michigan with Charles D. Mitchell, my best friend from Avon Lakes, Ohio. (Guess we had thoughts of seeing if we could meet any girls our age. Never thought once how cold the water would be, after all we had gone swimming in Lake Erie a lot earlier in May as teenagers in growing up, or so we thought.)
We had to run, it seemed like a quarter mile out before we were deep enough to dive in, head first. (We had seen the ice packs still drifting out in the lake but never thought much of it.) My legs were purple and numb from the cold by this time. (Polar Bear Club material?) Nope, we were several months too late to qualify. Besides had to cut a hole into the ice and then dive in was part of the requirements!
Never met any girls then, guess they wanted someone smarter than us because no one else was foolish enough to do what we had done. We then had to run, you guess it, a quarter mile back in to get to our towels. Luckily we didn't catch our death from the cold. We then decided to go change and go to get some hot coffee to get warmed up.
Several events happened during this summer that stand out in my memory. #1. My hometown school system was the 1st school system in the nation to be so noted for failure to pass major school board resulting in the school system shutting down for a while. (Unheard of at this time period.) #2. The Hell's Angels Motorcyclist gang went through one of my old stomping grounds, Geneva on the Lake. They rioted and tore the town apart. They threatened to come back the nest summer (68) to blow it up off of the map. (They never did.) Both of these announcements I heard as I just walked into the U.S.O. in Waukegan at 5pm where I could always be found helping out.
There also was another very special event that happened in June on Father's Day. My father and brother were in a car accident as they were coming back from visiting my grandparents in West Virginia. A lost salesman going 65 mph in a 45mph section of road, ran a stop sign ramming my fathers car on the passenger side. It threw my brother out of the car and drug him by his left hand resulting in him having tendons on the back of his hand severed and resutured. My father had both wrists broken. Our family dog, Champ had his neck broken.
When the paramedics came, the first thing they did was to cover my brother up thinking that he was dead. (I was told this by family, really shook me up.) My father kept on asking about his son. No one would say anything to him. Finally they heard a moan from my brother and realized that he ws still alive.
I received a phone call from my oldest sister, Jeanne, who had finally tracked me down as I was working evenings on my ward (7 South) on Thursday evening. (There was some discussion going on within the family if it was necessary for me to be informed immediately or to wait a day or two.) I was in a state of shock after I received this phone call and Lt. Commander Rosenquist saw my the look on my face and asked if everything was okay. (I just about broke down telling her about it.)
She asked me if I wanted to be relieved from duty to go home then. I told her, "No, I'll finish out my shift. I have to make arrangements to go home." The guys on the ward knew something was wrong because I was very quiet and tried to stay busy.
We had just gotten paid that day but I didn't have enough money to fly home on. (Needed $20.00 more.) I'm sorry to say that I had to go around begging (I didn't like this) friends for help. (Didn't know who else to turn to.) One of them told me point blank "I got a hot date tonight and I need all that I got for it." (Wouldn't help me out at all, very firm on that.) Another friend, finally loaned me the $20.00. Another friend who had a car offered to drive me to the airport for nothing once he found out why I was going. (Refused payment due to family emergency) He told me "If you were just going home for the weekend, that would be different. Besides, I can pick up a few guys coming back that would more than pay for my time and gas." I told this friend "That as long as we were stationed together if he ever needed a helping hand to come to me first cause I owed him a lot that I could never repay him for his thoughtfulness."
When I got off work Friday night, he drove me to the airport where I got an early flight out to arrive in Cleveland Hopkins Airport at about 3:30am Sat. My sister, Jeanne picked me up and wanted to drive immediately to the hospital in Salem, Ohio. I told her "I have to get to the bank first in order to get the money to repay my buddies back first, then we'll go."
As soon as the bank opened up I was there first in line. The tellers knew me by sight and was surprised to see me home. When I told them why I was home, they very quickly got me on my way. We then drove to the hospital in Salem, Ohio.
After visiting with my father and brother (I had to see for myself that they were okay.) I returned to Great Lakes late Sunday night/early Monday morning about 3am. The next morning I had to be up working by 7am and then caught duty for Monday evening. (Meant I was confined to the barracks and couldn't go anywhere without signing out so that if they needed me they knew where to find me.
I spent this time getting caught up on letter writing, ironing uniforms, etc. Dan came in about midnight from working evenings. He told me "I never expected to get paid back so quickly. (Dan and I had an arrangement about washing and ironing uniforms. He hated to iron and I hated to watch the washer go round and round. So we had to have each other combinations. I had put his money in his locker at 3am when I came in with a quick note thanking him.) I told him that I had promised prompt repayment of the loan. He told me "If you need to go home again, just to ask him if I needed any more money, even steven (meaning no interest)." Dan was a very good friend of mine, one I would like to know made it back.
Ole ????(the hot date guy) heard about me repaying Dan and tried to hit me up for a loan the next day. Seems like he had spent all of his money and had another hot date that night. I started low in my reply to him. By the time I was done yelling at him, the whole barracks heard every word what I had to say about him and his hot date. "The nerve of him to ask me for money for his date, etc. I had a true family emergency at home and didn't need friends like him who only thought of themselves." He moved out of the barracks shortly after this incident. He couldn't get anybody to help after this.
We as a barracks crew had a meeting shortly after this. We set up an emergency fund for anyone who had a similar situation like mine in order to help get them home. The only requirement in repaying was it to be repaid after their return. I told them all "Since this had happened to me, I don't want this to happen to another person." After I left in Dec. 67 don't know what happened to the fund.
Songs that I remember as being my favorites during this time period were Winchester Cathedral, Ruby Tuesday, Proud Mary, Mustang Sally, Hanky Panky, etc. As for favorite groups, I didn't have any since I felt if I liked the music I would listen to it. If I didn't, I wouldn't.
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