I make my decision. Anchors Aweigh!

Part trois:

Summer after graduation continued.

My tenure as a pond monkey was short. I had made application with the US Forest Service to work on the resident Fire Crew at the Truckee Ranger station. This opened up and I jumped at the opportunity to work on the fire fighting crew.

I lived right at the Ranger station. The Fire crew bunked in a barracks type building at the rear of the compound. We were on duty seven days a week around the clock. There was some accommodation for a social life, but it was made clear that during the fire season, don't expect a lot of slack. My Girlfriend Ginger and I were able to do quite a bit and I really liked that. She was working also, but we did manage to socialize some.

The fire crew would respond to fires in and around our district and on occasion we would loan out to other districts that needed extra assistance. A "treat" for the crew was when we were inserted by helicopter to remote lightning strikes that had the potential to become full fledged forest fires. These insertions would , every once in a while, turn into a boondoggle.

The leader of our crew was a dedicated fly fisherman. He always carried a collapsible pole and associated equipment in his pack. If our lightning strike occurred near a promising Trout stream, we knew that the crew would be spending an extra day on this job. We also knew that a big fish fry was a natural consequence of this extra day. Mop-up, simply took longer than anticipated. Those native rainbow Trout dipped in flour, salt, and pepper and fried were more than enough incentive for me to accept things as they were.

One guy on the crew could imitate Elvis and Harry Bellefonte. He would get fired up after the fish fry and we all had a great time appreciating his talent. He really was quite good. I loved that job. I would have worked there forever if they would have let me.

I worked at the Ranger station for the rest of the summer and, predictably, at the end of the fire season, they let all of us go. That was a real disappointment to me, because a lot of my needs were fulfilled by that situation. There was a unit psyche that appealed to me. A great deal of inner security could be drawn upon from the group. We were all good friends and really looked out for each other. It was with sadness that I went down to hill to town.

My folks were now living in Carson City, Nevada. I went back home to figure out my next move. I bummed around for about three weeks and finally decided to follow through on my often stated goal in previous years and excercise one of the options I had given myself at the beginning of the Summer. I decided that Because of inspiration from my Uncle Gayle Sparlin, who did a hitch in the Navy, I would go ahead and fulfill that goal and join the Navy.

There was also a real world consideration going on here. In April of 1962, I had registered for the national draft at the draft board for Placer county, located in Nevada City, CA. In the luck of the draw, I had a very selectable number. I was willing to serve, but it just made more sense to me to serve in the Navy vice the Army. Vietnam was kicking up about this time and I knew where I would be headed if I was drafted. Mom liked my decision, Dad did not say to much. He was glad, however, that I was moving forward with my life. Ginger was tacitly supportive. She did understand that the draft was something young men had to deal with. Despite some self-centered behavior on my part at my send off, she remained a loyal and trusted part of my life throughout my Navy hitch. There were times, because of immature lack of attentiviness, I didn't deserve that loyalty but in the end, I was very honored that she chose me.

Soon thereafter, Dad and I went into Reno and I went to the Navy recruiting office and started the process of joining up with Uncle Sam's Navy. This process took the last two weeks of September and the first week, in October of 1962. Soon thereafter, I got on a plane and headed for Recruit training in San Diego, California.