UNITED STATES NAVY

After Farragut in Idaho I was selected to attend Aviation Ordnance School at Norman Oklahoma. It was a 14-week course and we learned every thing there was to know about bombs, fuzes, machine guns, etc. That is, all of the armaments used in Naval Air warfare. Had I had good advise I would have gone to Aviation Machinist School instead, but that is another story. Another fork in my life?

At Norman, my best buddy became a fellow by the name of Tom Bakke. He was, at the time, a lazy, lanky six and a half footer. Imagine my surprise years later to run into Tom as Captain of the Navy football team at Annapolis!

Meanwhile, at Norman, it turns out Tom had been a pledge of Kappa Sigma Kappa at the University of Oklahoma before joining the Navy. To impress me he took me into Okie City one week-end to show me how to get liquor in a dry state. What an experience that was! We went to the very worst part of town and Tom spoke to some of the "colored" folk hanging around the street. That is how blacks were called then, colored folk. One old boy told him to go in back and meet him in five minutes at the door of an upstairs apartment he pointed out. We did. Tom shelled out some five bucks for a half-pint, which the colored gentleman had, of course, indicated we must conceal at all cost. We did. When we eventually dared open the half-pint, we discovered we had been taken by the nice gentleman. He had sold us watery coffee for whiskey! So we went back to the street looking for the nice old gent. No one could tell us where he might have gone. It turned out the door to what we thought was an apartment was the door to a hall way, and, of course, no one knew the old boy.

That night Tom, still bent on impressing me, decided that we would spend the night at his old frat house on the Oklahoma University campus. Unknown to Tom, due to the fact that all the male students had gone in the service along with him, what used to be a fraternity house was now a sorority house. Tom in his usual Big Man On Campus style, with me at his side, (Don Quijote y Sancho Panza) walked into the old frat house, opened the door to his old room, and bingo some half a dozen screaming young sorority sisters in all stages of undress came running out. The campus police were called and Tom was able to explain the situation, but it did take a while. There was talk of calling the City Police and booking us into the City jail.

The fourteen-week course ended. I went to Aerial Gunnery School at Sand Point Naval Air Station in Seattle. Tom went to San Diego. Because of his size he was slated for PBY Flying Boats.

I'll flash forward a few years. The next time I saw Tom was in the fall of 1949, I went on an exchange trip to Annapolis from West Point, and guess who was Captain of the Navy football team?

Now back to my Navy service. I was slated for Torpedo Squadrons. At Sand Point one of my gunnery instructors was Lt. Robert Stack. Yea, the movie star. He taught us how to shoot skeet and trap, both prerequisites to learning how to lead or lag a moving target. From gunnery school I went to the Naval Air Station in Seattle where I was assigned to Squadron VC-75. The C stands for composite meaning that we had two different kinds of aircraft in the squadron. I believe the V stood for heavier than air. We had TBM's and FM's. The TBM's were torpedo bombers with a crew of three, a pilot, a turret gunner, and a radioman/tunnel gunner. The turret gunner manned a 50 caliber machine gun mounted in an electric turret. That was my job; in addition I was also selected to attend turret mechanic's school at Jacksonville, Florida and when I returned to the squadron I was responsible for keeping the turrets in all the TBM's assigned to the squadron in working condition. The FM's were Wildcat fighters; we had eight of them.

My assignment to Jacksonville occurred just before my father's death on September 13, 1944. Practically the day I was scheduled to return to my squadron I got word that he had passed away. I went from Jacksonville to Peñasco for the funeral and then on to join my squadron which had been assigned to the USS OMMANEY BAY, CVE-79 on the high seas with the Seventh Fleet, under Admiral F. B. Stump, who in turn reported to General Douglas MacArthur, so in effect we were MacArthur's Navy, and as such, that in itself deserves a separate chapter. So instead I will flash forward to my return to the States after surviving the sinking of the Big O, our beloved baby carrier.

My return to stateside was on February 17, 1945 and I went home on thirty days survivor's leave. Isabel did not like my sun tan! Can you imagine that! Here I was a dark skinned Mexican just returned from duty in the South Pacific and his beloved does not like my tan! I think Isabel had not realized how dark I can get when I get out in the sun. When we first held hands was on my return from Seattle just before my enlistment in the Navy. Now she did not like me any more, but some gal by the name of Margaret Sanchez did, so much so that she pulled my white sailor's hat off my head at a Peñasco dance and was going home with it. Alfonso Ortiz saw her wearing my hat and took it away from her and returned it to me the next day. He knew it belonged to me as I was the only sailor in Peñasco at the time.

My total Navy service was two years, seven months, and eighteen days, during which time I attained the rank of Aviation Ordnanceman (Turrets) Second Class, equivalent to Staff Sergeant in the Army.

My Aircrew Wings and Rank Insignia in US Navy

My Navy Aircrew Wings                          Aviation Ordnanceman Turrets 2/c

I enlisted on 4/29/43 and was discharged on 12/16/45. I attended four Navy schools; Aviation Ordnance (14 wks.), AOM Turrets (12 wks.), Naval Air Gunner's (5 wks,), and Mk. 18 and 21 Gun Sights (6 wks.). During that time I held ranks of Apprentice Seaman, Fireman 3/c, Aviation Ordnanceman 3/c, Aviation Ordnanceman 2/c, and Aviation Ordnanceman-Turrets 2/c.

Read On! Enjoy!