Larry Gordon:  

Left high school in 65 as we all did. Enlisted in the us vavy in 66 before I got drafted. After boot camp in Great Lakes iillinois I requested shore duty on the east coast and got orders to a ship in San Diego, calif. went to Vietnam in 66 and again in 68. Did search and rescue along the north Vietnam coast rescuing pilots that were shot down and were able to parachute over the Tonkin gulf. Rescued 6-8 each cruise. The navy was kind enough to take me to Hawaii several times, Midway island, Guam, Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Brisbane and Sydney Australia, and Pago Pago in the American Somalian islands in the South Pacific. Messed up a few times which cost me being restricted to the ship on one of our r and r trips to Hong Kong. Was awol once in the Philippines and missed ships movement. I was incapacitated one night and woke up the next morning, ,I didn’t know where I was but the ship left the naval base in Subic Bay, Philippines and went to Sasebo Japan. Took me 9 days to catch my ship. Needless to say our captain wasn’t to happy which he showed me by giving me a captains mass which would be equivalent to a Court Marshal in the army..I don’t know how I got promoted but left the ship in Dec.. 69 with the rank of 2nd class petty officer. (Same as a buck serg. In the army. I was a gunners mate on the ship. Not much use in civilian life. Once out of the navy I was still full of p—- and vinegar as we said back then. My plan was to save my money in the navy and buy a new corvette. Well to much excessive partying and hell raisin left me with only $900 in my pocket. Spent all that continuing to party. Finally had to get a job and floated around between a couple of jobs. Finally when I had nothing in my pockets but lint I had to get serious about a job, ...Expand for more