Wendell Garner:  

Military I am BMCS (SW) Wendell J. Garner a native of Memphis, Tennessee. I enlisted in the Navy June 8, 1984 as a Seaman reporting to Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, where they taught me the basic home training of the Navy. During my 8 week visit they taught me the entire do’s and don’t of the Navy. They took away our civilian clothes and issued us bell-bottom jeans and a blue shirt in which we call dungarees to make us all look alike. We live in a penthouse in which we call the barracks. I subsequently reported to my first mansion the USS Saratoga CV-60 as an undesignated Seaman. During my tour onboard Saratoga I was in 1st, 3rd and 4th divisions from October 1984 to April 1988. Things got a lot better here because we were able to wear civilian clothes. I got to meet a lot more sophisticated shipmates. I did my first tour of mess cranking in the scullery for ninety long hard hot days. It was so good (just like the detailer described) I went back a second time for six months as Mess Deck Master at Arms, also during that time onboard Saratoga I made two life enhancing deployments. I decided to take a small break from the Navy from April 1988 to December 1988 because the work was too stressful and har...Expand for more