For me it was the United States Navy, 1965 to 1970.
I was aboard the USS Talbot County, LST 1153, from '66 to '68 which just happened to be the only freakin' LST in the whole wide world of sports that was steam powered. Can you guess who spent his watches, while underway, standing in front of a hotter than hell boiler?
Our top speed (flank) was 13 knots, or about 15 miles per hour, and in high seas she wallowed like crazy because of her flat bottom. We stuck her twice while making landings on the beach.
Our primary job was to sail to the south end of the Panama Canal and hang out. If a Panamanian revolution took place we were to help evacuate American citizens who worked for the Canal company.
I smoked my first doobie, and got my first tattoo in Panama City. The tattoo cost fifty-cents and the doobie was free.
While on Liberty we would often frequent a place called the Blue Goose. They had a pool table where we would pass the time waiting for our favorite girl to become available.
I had a girlfriend there who was the spitting image of Chelsea Brown, one of the regulars on the old Rowan and Martin Laugh-In TV show. She belonged to a gang of girls who all had Bluebirds tattooed next to their......(on their lower abdomen).
We sailed all up and down the East coast of South America. I crossed the Equator twice. Once as a Polliwog, and again as a Shellback. You Swabbies will know what I'm talking about.
I enjoyed every minute of it, but always missed home. When it got close to your discharge from active duty date you were referred to as a Short Timer. A couple of weeks before you were to leave someone might ask, "Hey, Tramp. How short are you?" Meaning how much time do you have left. Invariably I, and everyone else would say, "I'm so short I could sit on the edge of a dime and dangle my feet."
The day I stepped off the Quarter Deck and saluted the Stars and Stripes that was rippling in the breeze on the fantail I never looked back. It all ended as abruptly as it had begun.
And, I never remember even once talking about Viet Nam, while on board ship.
May all our Brothers who never came home find eternal piece.
God Bless America.
