March 27, 2006

  • Tell you what's a mind-boggling thought, and that's the fact these graduations occur weekly.  Think about it!  The class which just graduated only boasted 672 new sailors, which is rather small.  Alex's was around 800, IIRC, and it was considered not large.  Apparently they can reach upwards of a thousand at a time.

    Every week. 

    Since the Navy tends to remain the same size, presumably that's roughly the same number of sailors who leave the service each week.

    Gives one pause, doesn't it?

Comments (4)

  • That does give one pause. My grandfather, still doing pretty well at 97 has been drawing his Navy Pension since 1949. He is a Pearl Harbor Survivor and is mind is quite sharp.
    Mare Island Naval Shipyard is in our town and we were known as quite a Navy Town! It's closing had a huge impact on us!
    Best wishes to your son as he begins his Naval Career!
    Sue

  • Ouch! I'll bet it did.

    What ship was your grandfather on, Sue? What did he do? I've always been fascinated by the Pacific Theatre in WWII.

  • My grandfather was from Oklahoma and took his basic training at Great Lakes in 1928. From there he was with the Lighter Than Air Program at Lakehurst NJ. He then joined the USS Houston at Norfolk, Va. Roosevelt sailed with them as they went through the Panama Canal and up to SF. He joined the USS Trevor in San Diego and that was the ship he was on when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He clearly remembers that day.
    After that he was on a troop transport(can't remember the name right now) bringing troops home to US where he logged more than 135 thousand miles! He was a Chief Storekeeper and his last duty station was the commissary at Mare Island in 1949. (Hopefully this was not TMI!)
    Sue

  • Not even close to being TMI...I adored reading about it! Isn't it something to think Charles and Alex went to Great Lakes, too, and Alex was in Norfolk for his music school before being posted to Tennessee. (Still slays him...join the Navy and wind up in Tennessee!)

    When one factors in that I've been through the Panama Canal, and Don's been to San Diego, the parallels approach the point of being eerie. =8^o

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment