t was another “year-in-country” or “Tam biet” [good bye] party and Wade Hamlin was knee wobbling S**t-faced. He sat slumped over the mess bar staring into a half-empty glass of Canadian and water. The cigarette dangling out the corner of his mouth had burned down to the filter.

[Read the rest of this article...]

In 1909 the first of a new class of vessels was launched at the New York Naval Shipyard. It was a 12,585-ton “Collier” built as a bulk coal carrier. Manned by a civilian crew the ship operated with the Atlantic fleet until sometime in 1912. At that time she was partially gutted and following extensive redesign and modifications at the Boston Naval Shipyard was re-commissioned in 1913 as an auxiliary repair ship.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Chief Frank Connelly was in one of his scowling morning muster moods. “What in hell is some jerk-off named “Sargent” doing in my Navy? Why didn’t the kid join the Marine Corps where he could have started out as a Private Sergeant? [Chuckles]

[Read the rest of this article...]

I caught a hop on a C-141 out of Cam Ranh Bay which was headed north to the airfield at Phu Bai in the “I Corps” area of South Vietnam. I was trying to make my way to the village of Tan My, on the coast six miles northeast of Hue City.

[Read the rest of this article...]

I was assigned to the 20th Naval Construction Regiment in Gulfport, Mississippi as Regimental Training Officer. The Regiment was the technical and military training command for Atlantic Fleet Construction Battalions and at the time, a new experimental undertaking of training Reserve Seabees in organized battalions rather than in random individual or small unrelated groups.

[Read the rest of this article...]

The end of January ‘68 brought the most festive and holiest of holidays to the Vietnamese people. South Vietnam, as in earlier war years was celebrating the lunar New Year, “Tet” during an uneasy truce with the North. It was the “Year of the Monkey.”

[Read the rest of this article...]

On my den walls are a variety of plaques, photographs and other trivia of my 30-year naval career. Among this cherished conglomeration are several faded photographs. One is of my uncle, a Navy cook who served in World War I. Following the war he reenlisted and went to China on the Destroyer Truxtun DD-229.

[Read the rest of this article...]

By Commander Ed Bookhardt, CEC, USN Retired After a two year delay from my earlier orders to Vietnam, the Admiral finally agreed to release me; I arr...

[Read the rest of this article...]

The tree house in the fork of the old Chinaberry was a formidable fortress. It was the secret headquarters of the “American Eagles.” A club founded w...

[Read the rest of this article...]

By Commander Ed Bookhardt, USN retired He stood ramrod straight, yet the lines in his pleasant chiseled features reflected the rigors of his life. Im...

[Read the rest of this article...]