Class "C" Gun School

I took my 30 days leave and then reported to U.S. Naval Training Command (NTC), Great Lakes, Illinois to commence training on the 5"/54 Mk 45 LWGM. Now there's a mouthful. LWGM stands for Light Weight Gun Mount. On successful completion of the school I would be a genuine Mk45 technician with an 0877 code. While waiting for school to start I became active in the Navy Yacht Club and volunteered to teach basic sailing. I can't remember all the different boats that were there, but they included Minifish, Sunfish, a couple of 23 foot O'day's and a few others. I enjoyed the satisfaction of sharing my love of sailing with others. While instructing at the Navy Yacht Club I qualified as the first enlisted Senior Skipper on the Navy Yacht, "Stormy", a 45 foot, Dutch built, steel hulled, yawl. It was great sailing Stormy down to Chicago and around the area. The warm months at NTC Great Lakes were okay but the winter was boring and extremely cold.

The school was all about electricity, electronics, hydraulics, flow charts and all kinds of stuff we would need to maintain and repair this high-tech unmanned gun mount. I remember very little today of all that I learned back then. I graduated second in my class. Three of us from the class received orders to the same command. And later I met another from the class at Seal Team Six. After graduation, I spent some leave time in Norfolk where I did more sailing on my boat. Then, reported to Pascagoula, Mississippi in July of 1979 to Pre-commissioning Crew, PreCom Nassau, soon to be commissioned USS Nassau (LHA-4).

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