Jim Branchaud:  

"From not-graduating in 1964, I "hid" from the draft thru 1965 at The College of San Mateo. Academia was never my strong point. I was surfin' and workin' rather than learnin'. So in late 1965, with plunging semester "credits", the draft notice arrived. That very same day, I immediately ran to a recruiter and joined the Navy. They offered me a '120 day catch' program and I signed up. This gave me another 4 months to screw off before having to serve my country. Yippee! more surfin'... Checked into Travis AFB for our flight to San Diego boot camp in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. Didn't know they had closed that facility, overnight, due to a meningitis outbreak. So on my Birthday in April 1966 I arrived at Chicago's O'Hara airport, in 8" of new snow. O'Hara was closed to vehicles because of the snow so we were bedded down in an empty luggage claim area. Unfortunately all us California boys were freezing for our lack of clothing. Enter a call to the Red Cross. The next day, and looking like street people, we were bused to the Great Lakes Training Center, in Waukegan, IL. (California dreamin') Completed boot camp in June 1966. A very small group of us were immediately assigned to a military support group at Camp Perry (Sandusky) Ohio for the NRA's National Rifle and Pistol Matches. I worked in the Entry Office with one civilian. A grand 'growing up' experience! At the end, I was given choice of duty and I requested Hawai'i. It was September 1966. I, and a fellow bay area Californian, drove a 1958 Ford station wagon non-stopped to California, some via Route 66. We paid $75 for that Ford from the proceeds of our 'cashed in' California airline tickets. An interesting vehicle, it burned more oil than gas. After replacing the left front axle, somewhere in Nevada, and costing us everything we "saved" by this stunt, we made it to San Mateo. Broke! But we saw the country, sorta. A week later, in September 1966 I boarded the USS Forster (DER-334) a rusty 305 foot WWII destroyer escort. Primary duty was blockading the Vietnam coast in Operation Market Time and chasing Russian trawlers. I started 'over the side chipping paint' as ordinary seaman but ended up as its leading Radioman 2nd Class. As R&R from our duties on the Vietnam Coast, we visited many times' the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and my favorite, Hong Kong. By the end of 1969 I was sharing an a...Expand for more