Quonset Point, Rhode Island

It was late September of 1957.  I had been in the Navy now for two years, and was 19 years old.  I had been through Boot Camp, Aviation “P” School, Aviation Metalsmith “A” School, and had been in a working Naval Aviation training squadron for over a year.  With roughly half of my four-year enlistment over, I was due for sea duty for the remaining half.

I was issued a set of orders changing my permanent duty station from the Naval Auxiliary Air station at Corry Field, Pensacola, Florida to Patrol Squadron Eight based at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.  In Naval Aviation sea duty is not always onboard ships.  I took some leave (vacation) in between duty stations.

While at my parents’ farm in northern New York I hoped to buy an economically priced car.  With my father’s advice and aid I located a 1949 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser four door sedan.  At eight years old it was decidedly not new, but it seemed to have a lot of good miles left in it yet.  Then I was off to Rhode Island to see if I could find Quonset Point, and Patrol Squadron Eight (VP-8) somewhere on it, arriving there October 11, 1957.  This is not my car, but one like it except for the color.  Mine was dark blue.

This time none of my old friends were sent to the same place as I.  Bob MacGowan, from McCoysville, Pennsylvania went somewhere I don’t remember.  Dave Smith from Woodbury, Connecticut was ordered to a blimp outfit in Lakehurst, New Jersey.  Don Hillhouse wound up in Alaska as I recall.  Paul Hamm, whom I had traveled to his home in Opp, Alabama with him on a couple of occasions, had left the Navy.  With the Navy’s needs always taking precedence friends came and went. 

Soon I was checked in and attached to my new squadron and making new friends.  That November 16^th I was awarded the rating of Second Class Petty Officer (E-5) and placed in charge of a squadron paint crew of two other men, named Ron Kleven and Bob Thompson, both of whom became very good friends of mine.  I’ve lost track of Bob, but Ron and I still occasionally exchange communications 54 years later.  Ron lives in Virginia, and once back about 1988 or ’89 I managed to meet him in person once more through the efforts of my daughter.