[Note: Read this post first for an introduction.]
I sent this letter a month before my first deployment, PACEX 89. I had just completed my first foreign port call at CFB Esquimalt, outside of Victoria, though I never updated Grandma on that visit. Probably because I remember so little of it.
You can see me already griping about sea life, but by the end of my tour I became quite attached to it. I simply didn’t care much for being the low man on the totem pole or living in a cramped, crowded berthing area all the time. You can also see my discomfort with California though, like life at sea, it would also come to grow on me.
I had forgotten that at this point I thought I would study law. That didn’t last too long (as did studying anything in college – besides the women!).
From:
J.M. Turner
USS Elliot (DD-967) OZ
FPO San Francisco, CA 96664-120513 August 1989 [age:20]
Dear Grandma,
Sorry it’s been so long since you heard from me. Last week marked the beginning of “refresher training,” three weeks of drills, drills, and more drills – the biggest test I’ve had since boot camp, I guess. The first week didn’t kill me so there’s hope. I must say I’ve learned (or “remembered”) more last week than I have since I got to San Diego.
Yes, I finally got to go to sea! In fact I go quite often now, about every other week. At first I thought I’d get seasick but this ship is large for a destroyer and it takes quite a lot to get it rocking. Now being at sea offers a refreshing change for me – doing my job at sea, where I’m supposed to be, is fun and exciting, too. Not that San Diego is a boring place. I’m just saving my money to get a car so I can get a better look at it.Well, after only six months of California I can say the West Coast is a great place to visit but I definitely don’t want to live here! The weather here never changes its just too perfect. Today was sunny, hot and humid at 87 degrees, but on most days it’s around 80 degrees and breezy. There’s no such thing as a warm breeze here and the water temperature stays around sixty-five degrees, a lot colder than I’m used to. Since most of the guys in my division have loved there time spent training in Pensacola (like me …), they are all itching to get stationed there on their way off the ship. Oh, by the way, there are at least five other hard-core Florida State fans in my division of 17. I’m waiting to get my FSU shirt out of storage!! Hopefully Dad will tape a few games while I’m away to watch in the middle of the Pacific.
I’ve been quite active since I left Florida. I got my amateur-radio license in March around the same time I got my scuba-diving certification. I’ve used my “ham” license a lot but haven’t had much change to go diving here in California yet.
I spend most of the early morning taking pictures of the infamous “Exxon Valdez.” The big tanker is in NASSCO shipyards, right next to the base. It generated a lot of publicity when it pulled in last month. It’s really mind-boggling to look at that ship and think of how much oil it takes to put it low-in-the-water the way I’m now used to seeing passing tankers. It’s draft line is sixty-five feet from the keel and it takes three miles for it to stop from full-speed. Makes my ship look like a rowboat next to it.
I have decided to go to college once I get out of the Navy. I’m considering taking law at the U. of South Carolina or someplace else close to home. While I’m in I plan to take advantage of as many college-level correspondence courses as I have time for. Four years of sea-life is enough! Oh well, had to see for my self, as usual.
I’ll keep you posted on my future travels. Wait’ll you hear about Victoria, BC!!
Love,
Mark