Jim Vockler:
CLASS OF 1965
Chadsey High SchoolClass of 1965
Detroit, MI
Wayne County Community College DownriverClass of 1981
Taylor, MI
Cody High SchoolClass of 1965
Detroit, MI
Chadsey High SchoolClass of 1965
Detroit, MI
Dixon Elementary SchoolClass of 1962
Detroit, MI
Jim's Story
Life
After graduation from Chadsey I worked for 6 months as a cook at Oakwood Hosp. before going into the Navy for 4 years in the Hospital Corps spending 2 of those years with the Marines. Went back to Oakwood as a cook until I started X-ray School in '71. Stayed at OH until '85, then onto Riverside Osteo Hosp for 7 yrs, then Children's Hosp for 7 yrs, now at Ford Motor in Medical taking X-rays. Married Dawn in '75 have 2 boys Jim the 3rd, and Paul born in '77 & '81. Looking to retire in 2009 and building a home in Pahrump, Nevada.
Military
I beat the 2 yr draft by 1 week by joining the Navy for 4 yrs.
After bootcamp in Great Lakes it was on to Hosp. Corps School.
Boot from April 6, 1966 and finished Corps School in Oct. 1966. 1st stop SOQ at USNH Beaufort,S.C. My 2nd brilliant decision was to volunteer for those rumored orders for a new Naval Hosp. that was being built in Italy, what a great sea duty station that would be, RIGHT!!!! The orders turned out to be the 2nd Marine Division after Field Medical School. That took me from Feb to Dec. 1967, until I got my orders for the Nam. My 1 orders were for the 1st Marine division but Bob Ames from my company in 2nd Hospital Battalion had a Captain's Mass within the past 12 months and couldn't take the orders for the 3rd Marine Amphibious Force so Lt Cox called me in and said he was going to give me those orders and I would spend 12 months behind a desk in DaNang. Yeah, Right! That desk turned out to be a CAP unit south of DaNang. I took over for the corpsman who had been there for 3 days before the compound was overrun. Well after 3 months at Bravo 1, I was coming back from our monthly corpsmen's meeting and while jumping off the back of a 4 by my classring caught on the rails of the truck and wound up ripping the skin from the base of my ring finger up to the distal end of the finger. After going into the compound and cleaning and wrapping my hand, I had to go and try to call my own MedEvac because the marines were too shook up and didn't know how to call for one. First I called our company headquarters and was told they didn't have any jeeps to come out and get me, so I called our support unit of the Engineers. Their Dr and Chief came out and picked me up and took me back to ...Expand for more
their sick bay to cut off my class ring before taking me into the 1st Hospital Company. The the Ortho Surgeon amputated the finger and told me to go back to my unit. Obviously he didn't know what a CAP unit was. So I went back to the Engineers and the Dr there told me I would stay the night there and they would take me into 2nd CAG in the morning. After spending a month in the rear living the good life, the Chief decided it was time for me to go back into the bush and started sending me out to fill in for the guys going on R&R. I think that lasted for about a month or so of going out to different compounds for 3-4 days and then back to 2nd CAG. I was finally sent out to another CAP unit at the end of the air field that had 3 or 4 marines and stayed there for a couple of months before being sent to my final CAP where I spent my last 2 months in country. After a month of leave once I got out of the Nam it was back to Beaufort in February of '69 for my final year. I thought I would like to get some ojt in x-ray as I had decided that when I got out I was going to go to school to become and X-ray Tech. Unfortunately, or fortunately, when I got to Beaufort and went into personel to sign in Chief Russell was sitting at his desk in Patient Affairs. He remembered me from '66 and told Chief Baker that I was going to be working in Patient Affairs, it didn't matter what I wanted to do. Great move, finally. I worked my butt off that last year, but didn't mind it because I thought Chief Russell was a great guy. As it turned out, because of all the extra hours I had to put in the Chief made sure I was voted the Outstanding Sailor of the Quarter ending in Dec. of '69 and the prize besides a trophy was a trip to New Orleans and the Super Bowl Game in Jan. of '70. THANK YOU CHIEF RUSSELL. Oh yeah the Navy was giving early outs at that time and instead of getting out on April 5, they were letting the commands discharge at their decision in Jan. anywhere from the 1st to the 31st. Naturally I was discharged on the 31st.
But you know? If I had to do it all over again, if I could be with all the same men and women I had spent my time with for those 3 years and 8 months, I would do it again in a heart beat. Thanks to everyone I knew for great memories.
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