"Charlie" Noble

I met “Charlie” Noble in 1957 when I was transferred to VP-8 based at Quonset Point, Rhode Island Naval Air Station.  A couple of months after my arrival there I became a Second Class Petty Officer by virtue of a Navy-wide examination, along with some other qualifications.  Charlie was a Second Class Parachute Rigger in the same Squadron.  All Naval personnel of pay grade E-6 and below are place in duty sections, and it so happened Charlie and I found ourselves as the only two Second Classes in our duty section.

Charlie was a few years older than I who was 19 at the time, and I looked up to him for guidance from time to time as I learned the ropes of being a good Second Class PO.  When we had the “duty” we were not allowed to leave the Squadron confines.  We had to be ever ready for whatever military duties might arise during the time.  As a single man I lived in the barracks assigned to our Squadron personnel, but Charlie who was married had to pack an overnight bag and leaving his family at home moved to the barracks for the length of time we were on duty.

During this period of time Charlie and I had the duty every fourth night, more or less, and also every fourth weekend.  The weekend duty started at 0800 on Saturday morning and continued through 0800 on Monday morning.  Most of this time was spent in the age-old military function of wait, wait, and wait for something to happen that never did.  Thus Charlie and I as equals in our pay grade sat around hours, and hours, and hours together with little to do except kill time chatting about this, that, and everything else.

In one of our chats I asked him how he came by the name Charlie when I knew his given name was Durrell.  He explained to me that for some odd reason the smokestack on diesel ships was known as the “Charlie Noble” and as his surname fit the bill others had tacked on the “Charlie,” and forevermore he had been called that.  http://www.history.navy.mil/trivia/trivia03.htm

In the Navy it is usual to transfer from one duty station to another every two or three years as a normal sequence of events.  As luck would have it, Charlie and I were both transferred to Jacksonville, Florida in 1960 where we remained at Cecil Field together for another three years.  I became a member of the VF-174 Hell Razors, while Charlie was attached to the Naval Air Station itself, but we remained good friends for about six years which is more than usual, and I believe it was the longest I was ever stationed with any person in my 15 year Navy career.