Bootcamp Over

From September 6th through November 19^th seemed like an eternity, but it was finally over and done with, and I was considered regular Navy now, and not some insignificant boot trainee any longer.  I was advanced in rating from High School Airman Recruit (HSAR) to High School Airman Apprentice.(HSAA).  That meant I had joined as a High School graduate, and as such I had been promised a Navy School of some sort.  All Navy personnel were forbidden to hitchhike, and I was required to buy a ticket on some sort of commercial transportation to my home of record, or next duty station.  However if I had a written promise of privately owned vehicle (POV) transportation I was allowed to opt out of this.  A friend of mine, named Bob McGowan, whose parents were coming to graduation and taking their son home, offered to give me a ride that far for free.  They were going to McCoysville, PA which was about half way to my northern New York home.  I accepted that ride, and hitchhiked the remainder of the way.  For those who might wonder, I had earned $78 monthly, or somewhere around $200 for my ten weeks of training such as it was.

After ten days of vacation (Leave) at my parent’s farm, I bought and used a train ticket to Oklahoma City.  From there I proceeded by local bus the twenty five or so miles to Norman, OK where my next duty station was located.  There I was attached to Naval Aviation Technical Training Center (NATTC) Norman.  This was that schooling I was promised upon entering the Navy.  Basically this was a familiarization (Fam) school.  Here the students learned the most basic aspects of most Naval Aviation ratings so that they might decide which they held an interest in, and at the same time it allowed evaluation of the students, to insure they were capable of further training.  As it happened I arrived there about mid December.  They started a new class there each week except the last two weeks of the year for a total of 50 classes per year.  Thus I had to wait for the first class of January of 1956.  While awaiting for the approximately two weeks we future students were assigned various tasks much like Service Week in Bootcamp.  Once again I was lucky enough not to be assigned to scullery duty.  I was assigned to two weeks in the bakery.  As luck would have it, my friend Bob McGowan was there with me.  This was nearly Heaven.  I never ate so well in my life as I did during that two week stint.  Rolls, buns, bread, pies, cakes, and on and on, all right fresh steaming hot from the ovens.  I was in absolutely no hurry to have that finish and start school, but ultimately that did happen.  My pay had advanced from $78 to $85.80 a month with my advancement in rating from recruit to apprentice.