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This is where it all began. Chuck Strawn never gave us any bs, told us we should finish high school first, and when we made noises about the Marines, signed us up. I really liked the man and hope he’s doing well. He retired from the Navy in 1963.

Delmar F. Buhrman and I quit high school (his junior year, my senior year) and joined the U.S. Navy. The caption says the rest.

This was my Boot Camp "class photo" taken in April, 1963. I was 17 years old and thought I knew everything. USNTC San Diego, California.

My first duty station, the USS Yorktown, CVS-10, also known as the Fighting Lady. For non sailors, CV stands for aircraft carrier, and the S is for anti-submarine warfare. She is an Essex Class carrier and saw extensive action in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. She is now a floating museum at Patriot’s Point outside Charleston, South Carolina

My first duty station was the USS Yorktown, CVS-10. I had to wait a month in the receiving barracks at Long Beach Naval Station, CA for the ship to return from WesPac.

I was a photographer’s mate striker and my flight ops duty station was on the 07 level of the island, here I am perched about 40 feet above the flight deck. That camera weighs about 7 lbs. Once I was sitting there fiddling with it and the carrier made a hard turn to starboard and I lost my balance. A 3rd class aerographer’s mate (weatherman) grabbed my jersey and pulled me back.
He pointed out that it might be a faster way to go below, but I probably wouldn’t like it when I got there.

This was taken from the sponson (those little decks that bulge out from the side of an aircraft carrier) just aft of the #2 elevator, looking forward toward the bow while at sea. I loved watching the sea slide past.

And this is looking aft at our wake.

The launch crew have already removed the tie downs and cleared all gear from around the helicopter. Now the flight crew have warmed up the bird and the AB is watching for fire or other problems. The launch crew have at least one and probably two large fire extinguishers ready for emergencies. In just another moment the AB will give the pilot a thumbs up and the bird will be away.

Elevator Number 1 is down, probably to bring another aircraft up from the hangar deck. Note the belly-high barrier around the opening that pops up when the elevator goes down. On the right an A4-E Skyhawk from VMFA-121 is lined up on the starboard catapult. On the left 5 AD-1 Skyraiders of VFA-122 are tied down. Their wings are folded for storage on the hangar deck.

These are the patches of the two fixed-wing squadrons we had aboard.

The Colors and the wake from the 07 level.

A4-E Skyhawk from the Marine squadron VMFA-121 taxiing over to the catapult. The Aviation Boatswain’s Mate in the yellow jersey is directing him. Note that the flight deck is wood laid over steel.

A4-E on landing approach. The black smoke is from the Yorktown’s stack. On the rare occasions when the wind swirled it down to where we worked the stink was pretty bad.

Another shot of a Skyhawk landing. I shot this one from the catwalk that lines both sides of the flight deck. The landing officer yelled at me just as I took this, told me to get the hell below. He was right, I was still mess cooking at that time and had no business being there.

The chow line formed on one deck and then snaked down two ladders (stairways for you lubbers) to the aft chow hall. The mess deck Master At Arms gave one of these to each man as he got in the line at the right place. You surrendered it to the assistant MAA at the hatch leading into the stream tables where messcooks waited to feed you. No ticket, no meal, you went to the back of the line to do it right. I messcooked for three months and hated every minute of it.

This was taken on the fantail, that portion of the carrier that is directly under the flight deck at the back of the carrier. That is an S2-F coming in for a landing. Later in my hitch I would work around, and fly in, C1-As, which are tha same aircraft but fitted for cargo and passenger use rather than anti-submarine warfare. Joe Coffey took this picture. If anyone knows where he’s at, please let me know, I’ve been looking for him for over 20 years.

This is my buddy, Joseph Anthony Coffey from Omaha, Nebraska. Like I said; I’m looking for him.

This was one of our plane guard destroyers. I think it might be the USS Shields, but I can’t be sure. We always had three destroyers with us when we weighed anchor; one to port, one to starboard and one aft. They rescued pilots when something went wrong. This day she has a different mission…

I used to play with camera angle a lot, but it broke the monotony. On the upper weather deck you see a number of personnel gathered, most of them are bosun’s mates rigging a highline. A monkey’s fist (lead wrapped in cordage and hooked to a light line (rope)) is hurled from one ship to the other by a mechanical device where the man closest to it grabs it up and begins hauling. The line in turn is hooked to heavier line and the bosun’s on both ships quickly rig a highline, used for transferring light cargo (a spare part), mail, or like today, personnel.

I timed this shot so you can see the bosun’s chair backlighted by whitecaps between the two ships as the bodyguard is transferred to the Yorktown.

And now the stokes stretcher, securely wrapped and tied down, containing the remains of a Chief Petty Officer who died of a heart attack in the line of duty, is hoisted over to the carrier. The body guard will accompany the Chief’s body back to wherever his next of kin reside and serve as the Navy’s spokesman until the deceased is interred.

The main reason the remains were transferred to the Yorktown is that the Shields didn’t have space in any of its cold lockers for them to to be preserved until the ship reached port. Right away the rumor went though the Yorktown that a messcook in the Chief Petty Officer’s Mess (they have their own, just as the officers have their wardroom) sent to fetch steaks, opened the wrong locker, found himself staring at the dead chief, and promptly fainted. I think it was just spindrift. We had a medical deck with spaces to stow a corpse, and the dead chief wouldn’t have been taken out of his windings anyway.

The one thing this drama at sea brought home to me was that the Navy takes care of its own.

This is the Fleet Oiler, USS Kennebec. We had been skirting the edge of a major squall for about three days and needed fuel. The expert crew on the Kennebec not only fueled us, but would fuel the destroyers running plane guard for us (note in the background) at the same time. As a recent landlubber from Nebraska, I was very impressed. In this shot you see how high the ship would come out of the water, and then next one you see how low she would go…

…constantly. Not to mention, she would roll from side to side as well. About twenty minutes after these photos were taken a rouge wave caught her and slammed her into the side of the Yorktown. The steel fender welded on the side of her stern punched through her hull and ruptured one of her oil storage tanks. She immediately made for the closest port, San Francisco, leaking oil all the way. This was in the days before environmental impact statements.

Destroyer refueling at sea.

This was taken on the fantail.

Joe and I spent a lot of time telling lies and watching the wake, especially after sunset. The phosphorescence in the turbulent water was constantly fascinating, much like watching the Northern Lights as I later discovered. I think being enthralled by natural lights in the dark of night might go back further than my time on the Yorktown.

This is a Grumman S2-F just after getting a catapult shot off the USS Yorktown, CVS-10. I did not take this photo which was taken from a helicopter. I was a photographer’s mate striker (on-the-job training) and had access to a lot of images of daily life. Unfortunately I didn’t keep very many. Over time, what I did keep will end up on this page.

During my brief time homeported at Long Beach Naval Station, California (8 months) I had to go to the base hospital just once - to get new glasses. The USS Haven served as the base hospital and had seen duty in Korea and later in Viet Nam. I thought it was a pretty classy hospital.

Naval Station Long Beach also had numerous dry docks for repairing ships. This is the USS Valley Forge in dry dock.

This is her bow.

And this is me, the same day the drydock photos were taken, after I had received my new glasses.