frank lentz:
CLASS OF 1973
Valley High SchoolClass of 1973
Las vegas, NV
Chaparral High SchoolClass of 1975
Las vegas, NV
frank's Story
Jeezus! Can I have those 38 years back? Let's see, I did graduate in 73, I'd just turned 17 in march of that year and in may was set free. I went to California that summer to start college at a community college near my grandparents (Cuesta College) in San Luis Obispo, with the plan to continue on at Cal Poly. Never happened, I was only 17, the Vietnam was was winding down, I was going to school with a bunch of Vet's going to school on the GI bill and I didn't want to miss my turn. So in December of 73 I went back to Vegas, convinced my parents that college was not my path at that time and I actually tried to get them to let me join the Marines. Suffice to say my only options were the Navy or Air Force if I was to get parental consent (being only 17), rather than wait till march I went Navy and in January was in boot camp.
I did make it to Vietnam, only it was for the evacuation and fall of Saigon in April of 75. I then made another deployment in 1977, both of those were onboard the USS Coral Sea. By the end of my enlistment in 1978 everything changed. My parents were divorced with my mother in California and my Dad still in Vegas. My plan was to do my 4 years then get out and go to school on the GI bill but now I'm in this moral dilema, if I go back to vegas my Mom's feelings are hurt and vice versa for my Dad.
So, my out was to reenlist, getting orders for shore duty at Fallon Nevada, where I made second class. Fallon was ok but not my cup of tea so I requested to terminate shore duty and in 79 I'm on the Kitty Hawk, where I made first class, sailing the south china sea. I was there for the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 - 1980. I spent 5 years, long years, felt like half my life years on the Kitty Hawk. I left The hawk in 1984' going to the USS McKee, a Submarine tender in San Diego. That year I spent on the McKee was probably the BEST year out of the 20 years I was in the Navy.
I did a tour of recruiting duty, where I made Chief, all in San Diego (NRS El Cajon) then going back to Sea onboard the USS Acadia, a destroyer tender. I did 2 deployments there, one of them Desert Shield and desert Storm. I left Acadia in ...Expand for more
1992, going to Naval Hospital Balboa. I was an engineer (think startrek captain kirk: Mr Scott, I need more power! Mr scott: Captain I'm givin ay all she's got, she's gonna bolw up!) that kind of engineer. Now I'm working in a Hospital? I wanted to be the guy doing mamagrams, but no, I was doing interesting things but nothing clinical. March 1994 I retired from active duty.
Thru all this time I was married and divorced and then remarried (not to the same woman). I finally did get to use my GI bill AND I used every dime of it. In 1997 I finally went back to work full time as a contractor working for the Navy on ships and have been doing so ever since. I split from my second wife in 1999, finally divorcing in 2009, that was EXPENSIVE.
Most exciting place I went to: I'd have to say Dubai in the UAE. Not that it's anything special, just that I was standing on a corner and I hear somebody yelling, I look around and see some Arab yelling at me pointing a pistol that at the time looked like a cannon right at me. The light turned green and off he went and I'm thinking jeezus, I'm not dead? Talk about you're life flashing before your eyes...
Most fun place, got to be Phuket Thailand.
Worst place: Hands down Karachi Pakistan. If the world was given an enema, here's where they'd stick it.
Best place: Perth Austrailia, great people, great country. Every American should take at least one trip to austrailia in their life.
where else: Pusan Korea, Phillippines, Hong Kong, Mombasa Kenya, Bahrain, Singapore, Seyschelles, Diego Garcia. There's more just not that memorable.
Those first years were pretty hard to get vegas out of my system. It seemed like I went home almost every weekend when I had the chance (and the money). Now I'm there maybe once every couple of years. I tried to reconnect with some of the guys I used to hang out with back in high school back around 2000. Time is a cruel master and people move in different directions. I guess it's better to be thankful for what you have and not remorseful of what "May" have been.
Anyway, I check in here every now and then and I'm on facebook "flentz56". Wanna know more hit me up there.
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