46 years ago!
Wow, the time sure flies when you are having fun!
Since Independence Day has come around again, it is time to bring this to the top again.
I am having lots of fun lately. I have tried powder coating my Boolits. Now I am preparing to Hi-Tech coat my Boolits! Lots of casting. Lots of loading. A fair amount of shooting.
How can it get more fun? I’m going to test them! I might even post some results and photos.
Happy Independence Day!
These photos are from my enlistment on July 4, 1974, Independence Day, at Independence Hall at Knott's Berry Farm in California.
It was a rather nice affair with 21 of us enlisting in the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy. The third photo is just the Navy enlistees.
These last two photos are from my retirement ceremony on USS Nimitz in October 1994.
I can't say my service hurt me at all.
When I enlisted, I had to leave work as a restaurant cook at Colony Kitchen to swear in. My manager called me a "lying sack of ****" when I told him why I needed to leave then and couldn't come right back to work. So I was a little greasy when I got to the ceremony. Long haired, too!
While I was in I got to learn a whole new way of life and I served with some wonderful people.
I had this wonderful vision of learning electronics and opening "Ron and Dan TV Repair Shop" with my best friend Dan after I retired.
I thought that was such a big plan back then. I can see farther now!
I learned electronics and got lots of experience while on active duty. There wasn't much excitement during my career. For Operation Desert Storm, I was the Radar Work Center Supervisor on USS Nimitz (CVN-68). USS Nimitz arrived in the Persian Gulf after the Kuwait liberation was already complete.
I still repair electronics now. Lots of varied equipment spread over a rather wide area. It pays quite nicely, too, so I can play around in Helping Hands and still buy new toys for me.
I am a disabled vet, but I am not very disabled at all. It is mostly a matter of I was a perfect specimen of health when I enlisted at seventeen and not quite so perfect when I retired at thirty seven. When I go to the DAV meetings, I am the healthiest person there. I feel humbled when I see how many of my fellows at that meeting are missing limbs.
Happy Independence Day!