John Krajeski:
CLASS OF 1966
Waite High SchoolClass of 1966
Toledo, OH
John's Story
OK, this is the second try here. I really do not like computers. You touch one wrong key and everything just disappears like it was never there. 30 minutes of typing - GONE in the blink of an eye. Hell, I don't even remember what I typed. Oh well, here we go again ....
I was actually in the class of 65 and a half - I graduated in January of 66 instead of June, so I didn't make the band picture for the 66 yearbook. I am in the 65 one though (if anybody wants to look).
When I left Waite, I went to the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS where I majored in music, planning on being a high school music teacher. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), I came to my senses and realized I didn't really want to do that. So in early 68 I quit college and signed up for the Navy. I went to boot camp in May and Hospital Corps School in July. This was during Vietnam and almost all Corps school graduates were being sent to "the Nam". As luck would have it, I was selected to go to the Navy's X-Ray School at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in late 68. While I was in x-ray school, I met and married a girl from Minnesota who was a Navy nurse.
After Philadelphia, we went to Quantico, Virgina and Stephanie got pregnant with our first child. At that time, Navy nurses who got pregnant could not stay in the Navy, so she got out. After the baby was born I got orders to the Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni, Japan. During our 3 years there, Stephanie gave birth to our second daughter.
When we returned to the States, we were stationed at various places beginning with the Naval Regional Medical Center Long Beach, California. From there, we wen...Expand for more
t to Marine Corp Base, Camp Pendleton California where I was sent to Field Medical School to learn how to be a Field Medic with the Marines. I was then assigned to the First Force Service Support Group (1st FSSG) for 2 years as a Marine Corpsman. Next I was transferred to the Navy Hospital at Camp Pendleton (same base so we didn’t have to move). After 4 more years there, we went to Okinawa Japan for 4 years. Okinawa is the largest island in the Ryuku Island chain south of Japan. It’s very hot and humid there. Even in the winter, the temperature never went below 65 degrees or so.
My last duty station was the Naval Hospital Pensacola, Florida (about 60 miles east of Mobile, Alabama). While stationed there we had a house built to retire in. navyret dot net/FloridaHouse dot jpg I retired from the Navy in 1990 and we lived in Pensacola until 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit Pensacola. Our house was damaged during the hurricane and after fixing it up, we sold it and moved to Stephanie’s hometown of Richfield, Minnesota to be near her Mom who had breast cancer.
From April 2005 to May 2006, we lived with Stephanie’s Mom while we looked for a house. We finally found one only 8 blocks away so we could keep an eye on her Mom but still be close. navyret dot net/MinnesotaHouse dot jpg and navyret dot net/MinnesotaHouse2 dot jpg.
We’ve had dogs and cats and birds but the cats have been the best pets ever. Over the 46 years we’ve been married, we’ve had ten cats, four of which are still with us – two 16 year old Ocicats and two 18 month old Siamese. navyret dot net/Fancy&Baby/index dot html.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Thanks for reading and have a GREAT day.
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