John Pierce:  

I was born in Ringgold, Georgia on the 26th of July in 1950 in Doctor Stephenson's clinic. I don't remember the house we lived in when I was born. Mom would tell me about it when we drove past. For awhile the trees and weeds were growing around it so thick you couldn't see it. Around 2007 someone decided to develop the land. They cleared the trees and I got some pictures of it just before they tore it down. Dad went into the Air Force sometime in 1951. My Uncle has told me he was in a field working for his Uncle at $3.00 a day and he just walked out and went to the Air Force recruiter. The first house I remember was on a dirt road just off highway 41 just outside Tunnel Hill, Georgia. Mom and I were staying with my Uncle and Aunt. Mom and my Aunt had an argument so we moved into the house with my Grandmother just down the road from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Catoosa county between Ringgold and Tunnel Hill, Georgia. It was pretty old when we lived in it and was torn down many years ago. We had electricity but no running water or inside toilet. We had a small black and white television but we got our water from a well about a hundred yards up the road. My uncles worked in factories in Chattanooga, Tennessee and planted and harvested crops to pay for the rent. Trailways and Greyhound buses would stop to pick up people on the side of the road in those days. Mom and I caught the bus to Ringgold or Dalton, Georgia almost every weekend. Mom would go to a phone booth to call Dad. She worked in a spread mill just across highway 41 from the where the buses stopped. My Dad's first assignment that allowed us to go with him was was in Topeka, Kansas. He went ahead of us to find a place to live. Mom and I caught a train in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Kansas. I remember attending kindergarten in Topeka. We lived in two trailers and the last place we lived was in a house. Dad was sent to Germany. We returned to Georgia and I started first grade at Ringgold Elementary School in 1956 while we were living with my Grandmother. I walked to highway 41, where the bus stopped every school day. Mom always walked with me. Dad returned with an assignment to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. My uncle dropped Dad off on a main highway so he could hitch-hike his way to Florida. He found a place for us to live in Niceville, Florida. After I finished first grade my uncles took Mom and I to Florida. I rode in the back of a pick-up truck. I remember being very sad when my uncles left and went back to Georgia. Second, Third and Fourth grades (1957 - 1960) were in Niceville Elementary School. Niceville elementary was renamed to Lula J. Edge elementary school in 1962. We moved back to Georgia and Returned to Florida several times during my fourth grade year and it caused me to fail fourth grade. The schools in Florida were ahead of the ones in Georgia so I would make great grades when we went from Florida to Georgia but not so good when we moved back. As the year ended I was in the Florida school and didn't make good enough grades to pass. Fourth grade the second time was in Ringgold Elementary School in 1961. The Cuban Missile Crisis happened in 1962 and we had drills in school to prepare for a nuclear attack on the Air Force base. I was in South Side Elementary School in Crestview, Florida at the time. We practiced getting under our desk when the alarm sounded. At one time we had emergency supplies in the hallways of the school to be used if we survived the attack. Dad got orders to France. Mom and I didn't get to go with him. We moved back to Georgia and stayed with my Grandmother, Aunt and Uncle again. They were in a better house on property that my uncles owned. The bicentennial celebration and the assassination of President Kennedy happened while we were there. The construction if IH-75 took a little of my uncles land. The big dirt moving machines worked constantly for at least a year. When Dad returned from France in 1965 his assignment was Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. We all went together to Texas. We found a small two-room apartment at first. I enrolled for school in South San Antonio High School. I didn't know anyone in school. Some of the students were good and accepted new people easily. Others were not so nice. We later moved to a bigger house where I had my own room. Mom talked Dad into buying a mobile home and we moved in to Sheaffer's Trailer Park on Southwest Military Drive in San Antonio. It had mostly military families. I made some friends in the trailer park. Some of them were in school with me. I wanted to take auto mechanics in high school but the class was full. I didn't see myself going to college because I was just not smart enough for that. So I took building trades and learned to be a carpenter. I worked with my dad on the weekends and during the summer where I got paid a share of what he made repairing cars. I enjoyed working with him. I probably learned more from my Dad. He could fix anything mechanical including cars and after he retired from the Air Force he became a mechanic and learned to repair transmissions. Dad got my first car for me. He found a 1957 Chevrolet that was called a convertible hard-top because it didn't have door posts. The engine was shot so he found a 1958 Chevrolet engine to put in it. He and I worked on the car and got it ready to pass the safety inspection and Dad registered it for me. He taught me to drive using our family Ford station wagon which was straight shift and later the '57 Chevy which was automatic. We borrowed a nice Chrysler from a friend when I did my driving test. I graduated High School 29 May, 1969. Vietnam was still going and the draft. I went to the recruiter in San Antonio. Me and a friend joined the Navy at the same time just before we got out of High School. We used a program called cache or delayed entry. I went to boot camp with my friend. Another special deal called the buddy program guaranteed that we would finish boot camp together. We were sent to Orlando, Florida for boot camp in 1969. I didn't really want to study any more but boot camp, in addition to marching and physical training, was classes and tests. When we graduated boot camp my friend got orders to a ship on the East coast and I went to more training in Florida. I then went to Jacksonville Florida for Aviation Ordnance A school at the beginning of 1970. More classes and tests. After studying we spent a lot of time in Jacksonville and at the enlisted club. A couple of friends and I decided to go to Saint Augustine, Florida when we got a weekend break. As we walked around we saw a teen dance going on which was sponsored by a church. At nineteen years I was the oldest of the three. We were in uniform and when went up to pay to go in we were told we were not allowed. We argued a little because we were teenagers trying to go to a teen dance but we eventually gave up. I managed to pass the training for Ordnanceman in 1970 and left the school as a designated Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Apprentice (AOAA). I received an assignment to the USS Hancock (CVA-19/CV-19) home ported in Alameda California. Alameda is in the San Francisco bay just outside Oakland, California. I took some time off to visit my parents, who had moved back to Georgia after Dad retired from the Air Force. I didn't know where Alameda was and the ticket agent in Chattanooga, Tennessee didn't really know either. I wound up in Los Alamedos, California which is around Los Angeles. Good thing I had left early because after taking Los Angeles city buses out to where I didn't belong I had to take a Greyhound to the correct place. However, the ship was not in Alameda either. It was in Hunters Point going through repairs. Luckily Hunters Point was just across the San Francisco bay but I had to get back on a bus and go across the bay then down to Hunters Point to check in. When I first arrived the ship was in dry dock. When the bus stopped I didn't see the ship at first. I asked 'are you sure this is the Hancock' and he said 'Yes that's it'. I started walking in the direction he had pointed and finally realized the dry dock was deeper than the ship and only the island structure was visible. I went to Firefighting training in San Diego. A group from the ship all went together and it wasn't hard to find. The ship's soon-to-be executive officer was going through the training with us. While aboard ship everyone is required to go to firefighting training every eighteen months. The next job was void cleaning. We chipped and painted an area in the ship that was intended for holding water. Each morning and after lunch we lowered a burning lamp into the void to be sure the air was still breathable. I was assigned additional duties as a mess cook for three months. I assisted with the meals by cleaning and washing dishes. After I settled down in the Weapons Department I was assigned to the Hangar Deck crew which moved weapons in transit from the assembly area below to the flight deck. In addition to the bomb movement I also got the fuses ready to be delivered. I later moved to the Flight Deck crew which delivered and accepted weapons from the squadrons. I advanced from AOAA (E-2) to AO2 (E-5) during my...Expand for more