My Navy Days

Gareth Windsor
Nice pictures, thanks for sharing. Love the guy cleaning out the ring bolts. Our lads used to have the vacuum hose taped to a broom stick.

Es-haq Khosravi
Thanks for sharing! Really nice pix!

Christian Bruer
Thx for sharing! By the way, ther's not much space in Norfolk maneuvering the carrier!?

Erik Leijdens
Cool pictures Henry! You are/were a Naval aviator?

Clifford Keesler
Nice pictures, brings back fond memories.

Robbie
We did not have PC's when I was in the Navy. We were trying to build our own (like Jobs, Wozniak) '75-'81. Oh that is a big space you have there from what little space I remember having...

Henry Milton
The Elizabeth river is deep enough and wide enough but it takes skill to get a carrier in and out of the shipyard. Going through the Suez canal is even more trying.
I was a Chief Petty Officer in supply and logistics. My specialty was aviation supply, made sure the maintainers and aircrews had what they needed to do their jobs. Not glamorous but important. Every job and every person on a Carrier or any ship is important. Takes a great deal of effort to keep a ship at sea running smoothly.
I carved that space out when I took over that part of my division. We had to reconfigure the spaces and the spot that was my "office" was needed for other things. I actual sat next to the classified equipment cage. Every time we needed to break something out I had move. It was my space no matter the little inconveniences and anyone that has been to sea on a Navy ship knows how important having a bit of your own space can be.

Cristian Bordina
Thank you very much for this beautiful pictures. For me that I have never been on an carrier it is some as a guided tour 😉

John Thomas
Very nice Henry and "THANKS". Henry was VFA 103 Jolly Rogers on board the Truman when you were on board and if so would you have any photos of them you could share? I need some up to date photos of them for a Jolly Rogers Squardon History project I am starting.

Christian Bruer
Thank you Henry for the extra tour through Norfolk harbour and the interesting information about your task in running these much complex carrier.
I just read Rampant Raider by Stephen Gray. Much interesting stuff.
Cheers, Christian

Christian Ristits
Must be great to work on such a big carrier - Thank you for sharing! Cheers, Christian

Clifford Keesler
My wife was an aviation store keeper. I was an Aviation Machinist Mate. And a hospital corpsman.

Henry Milton
John, they were with airwing 7, we relieved them and USS Eisenhower in the spring of 2010. They have a good facebook page and it has some good pics. I can reach out to some old shipmates and see if the squadron is in town I can always go down to the base and see what I can drum up at their hanger.

Clifford, MM to HM that is a bit of a change of course. Where and when did you and your wife serve?

John Thomas
Ok thanks. Any help would be great

Holger Kranich
Hi Henry,

thanks a lot for sharing These interesting Pictures!

Clifford Keesler
1982-1996, Nas Millington TN. Nas Jacksonville Fla. (VP-41) Nas Misawa Japan. Yes I got caught in the period when the Navy decided they had to many AD's so I ended up a hospital corpsman, went to fleet Marine school right out of hospital corps school, and promptly got assigned to a Marine fighter sqdn at MCAS Beaufort S.C. So I changed jobs, but did.t change jobs. I spent more time in the hangar and on the flight line than I did in my office. I retired in 1989 at Nas Jacksonville Fla. I was stationed at the Naval Hospital . I did one deployment to Yokusa Japan. and 2 cruises aboard the U.S.S. Forrestal.

Henry Milton
Sorry, AD not MM, still an interesting switch. With the exception of my first tour at Sigonella I was in Norfolk. The wife and I would swap sea shore and never had to move. Actually pretty nice and we are settled here now. Both happily retired. I am getting ready to start a job at Naval hospital Portsmouth and my wife is at the staff college in Norfolk.

Clifford Keesler
I was stationed at Naval Hospital Portsmouth for about 6 months while I went to the second half of my "C" school as a Corpsman. I was stationed at Fort Eustis, while I was in the Army. I went to CH-47 Chinook school there went I switched from UH-1's to CH-47's. I spent 1/2 of my career in the Army and 1/2 in the Navy. Am now retired and live just outside of St. Louis, near Scott AFB.

John Thomas
Hey Henry, I went to the Jolly Rogers Facebook page. Lots of nice photos. Thanks for the tip.

Henry Milton
Clifford,
Do you do any shopping at CRM hobbys. I have know the owner for a number of years. Also Chris Mrosko is in that area. There is a guy you can pick up some pointers from. Are you planning on hitting the AMPs or IPMS Nationals this year?

John,
I will swing down to Oceana and see what else I can dig up on VFA-103. May be a bit but I will get down there.

Gareth Windsor
I loved visiting Sigonella. I was attached an anti-sub helicopter squadron. Not so happy about being stuck in the derelict hangar right at the end. Also had a really nice trip to Norfolk too, mind you, that was helped by being on a hospital ship for an exercise and the hospital sectioned was fully staffed with young nurses.

Henry Milton
Sig was fun. I lived near Lentini, had a place close to the cliffs overlooking the bay of Catania. The facilities there were catch as catch can. The Italian side has some real dog facilities but man did they have good chow. We would go down to their galley every now and again for lunch. I worked at the AIMD building next to the P-3 hanger. Life was good. Norfolk has been home since 95. My daughter was born at the naval hospital and we just never needed to leave. We now have mixed gender crews on all our ships. I did the first mixed gender cruise on Roosevelt in 96-97. Good and bad as with most things but today I could not imagine an all male crew.

Clifford Keesler
Henry, no I did not even know about CRM Hobbies, I will have to check it out. No I won't be going to either, that I know of right now.

Henry Milton
The address for CRM is 5101 Eichelberger St, St. Louis, MO 63109. Next years IPMS nationals is in Omaha, might be a bit easier to reach than Columbia, South Carolina.

Clifford Keesler
That is for sure.LOL.

Henry Milton
My club hosted the nationals in 2014. I met so many great people, it was a great time. I took a group of folks on a tour of the USS Roosevelt. The XB-47 drone was on board and they got to see it and take pictures along with the normal carrier tour. I am looking to go to the AMPs nationals next month in Sumter, South Carolina. I have a pending job offer that, if they want, I would start before the show. We shall see.

Clifford Keesler
I have been to Sumter a few times. My wife and I often talk about going back to Beaufort, it holds a lot of fond memories, my kids live in this area also and even they talk about Beaufort,for the most part they grew up there.It was my next to last duty station. Spent my final 3 yrs at NAS Jacksonville.

Henry Milton
I found out yesterday that I can attend the AMPs show. Full speed ahead on completing my last project before then.

Clifford Keesler
Good Luck.

Henry Milton
Thanks. I will post some shots from the show.

Clifford Keesler
Looking forward to them.

Henry Milton
Added some more shots of Truman when we were leaving the shipyard in 2009.

Christian Bruer
Great photos, thx for sharing 👍

John Thomas
More outstanding photos, thanks

Andy W.
Really nice Pics Henry. Especially the Last one

Henry Milton
That photo was taken from a Liberty launch heading back to the Truman during a port visit to Fort Lauderdale in 2007. I was on that launch and watch the lightning storm, it was amazing. The strike never came close to the Truman but the photo is still impressive.

Andy W.
Thank you Henry for this Information. This Pic is really impressive. If it's OK for you, i would like to use this Pic as a Background Wallpaper for my Tablet-PC.

Henry Milton
By all means, go ahead. I actually thought I had lost that photo some time back but as I was clearing up files on my Laptop I found it.

Andy W.
Many thanks. I know this problem. So many pics on so many Harddisks