I have my very own Veteran. Ron joined the Navy in 1980 and served 8 years. He was a Navy Nuke Machinist Mate First Class by the time he got out. He worked to run the engines of a nuclear sub for a lot of years and that's where most of these pics come from.
Ron was on the boomer submarine USS Kamehameha SSBN 642 Blue crew when we got married. He would go out on patrol for 105 days at at time and be home for 95 days. It was a constant rotation and we did 3 patrols before he was transferred. At that time we lived in Groton, CT and he would fly to Holy Loch, Scotland to pick up his boat. It was hard, but we had it easier than a lot of people in the Navy. Most ships would be gone for at least 6 months at a time, so 105 days was a piece of cake. Aaron was born 2 weeks before his last patrol, so Ron missed Aaron's first few months but at least he was there for the birth.
We were supposed to go to Balston Spa, NY for Ron to be a teacher at the nuclear plant there but 30 days before we were to pack up, he got his orders changed to go to a sub tender in San Diego. Can you imagine how excited I was to be going back to the West Coast at that point? I had a 6 month old and was finally going to be close to home, only 5 hours away instead of a 5 hour plane ride! We loved San Diego and were there for 3 years. That's where Brenna was born too. It was at that time we had to make a huge decision to either re inlist or get out and work in the civilian world. If Ron were to re inlist, he would have been put on another submarine for a 3 year tour but this time it would have been a fast attack sub which meant 6 month tours. With 2 kids under 3 years of age, that didn't really appeal to either of us, needless to say.
We had about 3 months to make our decision and find a job. We decided if he could find a good civilian job he would get out but otherwise he would re inlist and do the full 20 years for retirement. You have no idea how hard I looked for a job for him. Keep in mind this was before the internet too! One Sunday I saw an ad in the paper for a nuclear power company in Texas that was having interviews that week in San Diego. The only problem was that Ron was on a 2 week deployment to Alaska with his tender. That wasn't going to stop me! I got a babysitter, dressed myself up and marched on into those interviews like I knew what I was doing and even scored an interview for myself! I explained the situation and they took his resume. 2 weeks later they called him and Ron flew to Houston for an interview. A few months later we were moving to Texas with a job at the nuclear power plant in Bay City Texas!
1988 Ron getting a Good Conduct Award
Halfway night on one of their tours. They would always have a big party and different types of contests.
Ron getting his dolphins
Ron leaning on the RX (whatever that is)
1982 Fort Lauderdale topside of the USS Kamehameha, SSBN642
This is such a great story, Pam! Thanks for sharing it, and the pictures. Those are fantastic!!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, Ron, for serving our country!