When I entered the Navy, Nixon was the CinC. When I retired, it was Billy Clinton.
Back then girls did not go to sea. Now they are in Command. And they fly F/A-18s at sea.
The crossing of the equator, The Shellback Intiation was a difficult thing, sometimes very difficult. It was a right of passage. Now it is dinner theater.
We wore dungarees. Chiefs and Officers wore khaki. Now everyone wears three tone blue jammies. The winter blue(Johnny Cashes) and Trop White Long have been replaced with a Black and Tan with piss cutter cover. Ugly. As. Sin.
In 1974, the F-14 Tomcat was brand new to the Fleet. The primary fleet fighter was the F-4 Phantom II. It is now the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The Hornet series is also the attack platform in it’s legacy and super versions. We had the A-7 Corsair II and The A-6 Intruder. The Intruder was the finest medium attack aircraft ever built. We could hit downtown Tehran from a Deck, if jimmy carter would have let us, anyway. And the Tomcat boys needed us in the tanker mode. Those Grumman Kitty Cats used a lot of fuel.
No one I served with will ever say anything bad about Ronald Wilson Reagan. That man truly loved all of us in uniform. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton will be vilified by any who has served honorably. They are both worthless scum. This Old Sea Dog stands on this statement. I have done more for the Republic in a single day than either of those two “gentlemen” have done in their collective lives. That also applies to the current CinC, Obama.
Enlisted Air Warfare Specialist Wings
Petty Officer, First Class
Rating Device for Aviation Structural Mechanic
My Ribbon Stack
LTV A-7 Corsair II
Grumman A-6E Intruder
North American T-2C Buckeye
Grumman EA-6B Prowler of VAQ-140. Retired from Active Service in this Squadron.
About a year before I retired. Taken aboard USS George Washington, CVN73, September of 1992
