Andy Berg:  

After high school, I worked at a gas station for a while and then I got an electronics related job at Aeronutronics, a company over by Hawthorne High School. After about a year there, I joined the Navy. At that time, we had to serve for 4 years but in order to guarantee that I would get an electronics job, I agreed to sign up for 6 years. After 5 years, I realized that I didn't have anything interesting to do at home and that I liked the Navy and my place in it. I was a Sonar Technician. Sonar Technicians search for submarines and they also maintain and repair their own Sonar equipment. I spent 5 years in my first ship which was homeported in San Diego. In those 5 years, the ship was sent to Vietnam 3 times and on those cruises, I was able to visit western pacific locations as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. After leaving that ship, I spent 3 years as an instructor at a Sonar school in San Diego, which is where I met my future wife, who was a Wave. I took advantage of the shore duty to attend San Diego City College at night. I didn't know what, if any, degree I wanted so I just took a lot of general courses. I also bought my first house in East San Diego. It was a small 900 sq. ft. but it was enough for me. After the instructor duty was over, I asked for and got stationed in a ship that was stationed in Gaeta, Italy. Gaeta is located about half way between Naples and Rome. I prepared for the transfer by taking an Italian language course at SDCC. The ship's main duty was to make good will visits to Mediterranean ports, so I got to visit a lot of different places such as Italy, Spain, France, Israel, Egypt, Monaco, Sicily, Greece, etc. While stationed there I returned to the US to get married in 1978, and then my wife got stationed in Naples...Expand for more