Les Ramos:  

Here¿s my story and enjoy: After I graduated 1974, in July I joined the Navy and in September I was shipped out to Boot Camp and reported on the 30th. Now Boot camp in itself is a whole another story which I can go into detail, but, let¿s just say I¿ll save that for another occasion. After Boot camp, I was shipped out to Guam in January 1975 to be station onboard USS Proteus (AS-19). Proteus was a submarine tender which at the time was servicing Polaris submarines which was the first to carry nuclear missiles. My question was: where in the heck is Guam? I never heard of this place until I touch down in Agana Airport and I said to myself ¿I am definitely not in Aiea! But for those of you who are not familiar with Guam. It is located in the Mariana Island, is nearly 32 miles long, and varies from 4 to 9 miles wide, with 212 square miles of land area. I remained on the Proteus until I was transferred in April of 1976. After Guam I was reassigned overseas to be station in Naval Station, Subic Bay, Philippines. Being brought up in Hawaii and never left except to visit my grandparents on the Big Island, I now find myself in a strange island like Guam and now Philippines which was an understatement in that I was suffering big time from culture shock. Since I was 3rd generation Filipino which I could not speak a lick of their language, I am now in a place where I had to explain to other Filipinos there why I couldn¿t speak their language, but I¿m Filipino. So guess what, I had to learn and I got pretty good speaking their lingo where I could converse with them. Unfortunately, this brings up another episode in itself because I can tell you that many times I got in trouble saying what I thought I was saying and actually wasn¿t. Needless to say I got chased down a couple streets because I guess I said sometime about their mother in a not so nice way, but hey my intention was good. I completed my tour and in one piece, then I was transferred in July 1978 and now I was headed to San Diego, California. My assignment was located at the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado. After my assignment which the base was commonly called the Amphib Base because it was home to all the landing crafts design for coastal assaults. I was lucky to be transferred in July 1982 and be located across the street and stayed there for another 3 years to a command called FLTCORGRU One (which in Navy abbreviation was Fleet Composite Operational Readiness Group One) which really was a command design to use electronic warfare to confuse the enemy. While station there I was required to deployed for 6 month onboard USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) forward deployed in Yokosuka, Japan. After my return to San Diego, I remained there for another 6 months and was transfer in Oct 1985 to Bangor, Washington (this is where they kept the new Trident Submarines that had twice the missile capacity as the Polaris Submarine and 100 times more destructive force then the Polaris missiles-Oh joy). I remained there until Jan 1989 to which I was reassigned to the USS Rathburne (FF 1057) stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship I was on was commonly called a Frigate with about 436 men and 20 officers. The ship from bow to stern was about 536¿ with top speed of 32 knots. This was a great opportunity to be home; unfortunately my 3 years stationed onboard I was deployed more then 75% of the time. I spent so much time at sea I thought I was a freakin dolphin. I later was transferred on Jan 1991 to the Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor and remained there until I retired in August 1994. Moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and bought a home there. Thought this was ideal because of the no income tax and other tax incentive. Unfortunately, I hated the place because of what gambling can do to make nice folks mean and nasty when they lose. I myself didn¿t gamble, but enjoyed the all you can eat buffets there. I relocated and moved to Sacramento, California in around May 1996. Since I retired from the Navy I have had many jobs, and many layoffs due to company¿s bottom line. My present job, I work for the Federal Government in Department of Defense, with the University of California-Davis¿ ROTC program. I am what you call an Army civilian. Go Army! A Navy guy doing Army stuff. Oh the irony of it all! The job is great don¿t get me wrong, I get a paycheck and pay my bills and I am thankful for that considering the way the economy is. I¿ve been to most countries in the Far East (considering what the Navy commonly refers to me as a Westpac Sailor (someone who stays only in Western Pacific area). I¿ve been to Korea, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and let¿s not forget Philippines to name a few. Been all over our great US of A, with maybe a couple of states I have not been too, also been to several spots down South of US which included Mexico City, Ac...Expand for more