Toribio (Buddy) E. Gomez, Jr.:  

Life After high school graduation, I spent my last summer in San Antonio before leaving for boot camp in San Diego, CA because I joined the Navy. While in the Navy, I was stationed and lived in CA, LA, CT, SC, GA, VA and TX. I also was stationed at NAF Midway Island and Naval Station Rota, Spain. Made a couple of Western Pacific (WESTPAC) deployments, and a North Atlantic and Mediterrarean deployment. Volunteered for submarine service and was in submarine duty from 1985 until 1992. In 1992 I was returned to the surface Navy, actually the Mine Warfare Community. I took an Mine Countermeasures (MCM) ship, made of wood with reinforce fiberglass ("Iron men and wooden ships" these are real sailors..lol), from the construction site at Sturgeon Bay, WI to Ingleside TX. Then in the spring of 1995 I made my last deployment from Ingleside TX to South Hampton, England (30 days to get there going 8 knots and refueling about every other day) where we joined a NATO Task Force. Visited Denmark, Germany and St. Petersburg, Russia while in the the Baltic Sea Area, and Portugal, Spain, and Italy during our southern trip of Europe. Returned to the States in August 1995. After serving a little more than 20 years I was told to retired by President Bill Clinton, the catch phrase was "right sizing." Therefore retired in September 1996 out of Commander Mine Warfare Regional Support Group, Naval Station,Ingleside TX; stayed in the area until December 1996. Returned to San Antonio Metro area because of a better job market and work envirnoment. I worked for awhile, Admin Asst for a commercial company called CENTEX Advertising, then as a Clerk for Southwest Winners, Inc. and Project...Expand for more