Letters to Grandma: 9 March 1990

[Note: Read this post first for an introduction.]

A few months before this letter was sent, Rudy, the family Dachshund of 13 years, died while I was visiting on holiday leave (a post for another day). My parents soon got a Golden Retriever puppy from my aunt. Named C.J. (for “Colonel, Jr.”) he would be a faithful dog for a a half-dozen years or so before succumbing to cancer. My parents never got another pet.

I did get time pierside at San Diego but not the 18 months that I speculated about in this letter. Out of the three years I spent on the USS Elliot, over 18 months were spent on deployments and several weeks were spent doing donuts off the coast, leaving less than 18 months to be moored at San Diego Naval Station (or in the NASSCO shipyard next door).

Korea remains one of the coldest damn places I’ve ever been.
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