Mike Powers  LT  1960-1980

Here's my entry for "How I Became a CT" - 

The year was 1960. I was the oldest of 7 in a financially-challenged family, and things weren't going well for this hard-headed 17 year old. I had skipped school in my senior year a few times, and the powers-that-be advised me that my credit count wasn't going to allow me to join in the festivities for the graduating Class of 1960. My uncle had been a RM during "the big one", World War II, and he was still on AcDu as an RMCS. He had an overflowing seabag full of great sea stories and adventures, and I decided the Navy was probably the way to go. The recruiters administered some tests, advised me that I should probably go back and finish High School, but if I didn't want to, they still wanted me. I took the oath of enlistment on 5 April 1960, after my parents signed the required permission for a Minority Enlistment (I'd get out the day before my 21st birthday), and I found my self on a flight from Richmond, VA to Chicago, IL and eventually Co. 134 in Recruit Training at Great Lakes. 

What do you want to do in the Navy ? I think I'd like to become an RM, like my uncle. The classification people gave me some more tests, and advised me that I would be suitable for a career as a Sonarman, a Radioman, or a Communications Technician. What's a Communications Technician? Well, it's the same as Radioman, only different. After boot camp leave, I found myself checking into NCTC Imperial Beach, CA in early July, 1960. First there were  several weeks of Basic, led by two CTC's - Poff & Baez, and then several weeks of Advanced, led by CTC Kilgore. Graduated #1 in the class around February '61. They asked me if I wanted to go to a language school, I responded in the affirmative, and in March '61, I headed east for the Naval Intelligence School, Language Division, at NS Anacostia, Washington, DC, for a six-month course in Russian, There, I ran into a couple of CT's that had come from sea duty as a CT - (What ? The chiefs at I.B. said there wasn't any sea duty for CT's). Kelly Bowling came in from ComSixthFlt in USS Des Moines, and Lou Bearden came in from ComSeventhFlt in USS St. Paul. Both were sources of amazing sea-stories for this 18 year old, and when I filled out my dream sheet, I asked for ComSixthFlt and ComSeventhFlt - and promptly received orders to Staff, ComSixthFlt in USS Springfield (CLG-7), home ported in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. The next two and a half years went by cruising around the Mediterranean Sea on my Uncle Sam's large grey cruise liner. I was able to take a few correspondence courses while at sea, and acquired my GED certificate - something that was a wise move, as it turned out, some time later, and advanced from CTSN to CT3, to CT2. 

As my sea duty tour was coming to an end in late '63, I really didn't have strong feelings about reenlisting. CT1 Winfred W. Kelly, my watch section supervisor, gave me some good advice on how to "nicely" tell our O-in-C LCDR W. R. Wilkins that I wasn't entertaining the idea of reenlistment, and it backfired (that's another story). I reenlisted, and in April '64, I left ComSixthFlt with CT2 Jim Filer, both of us headed for DLI in Monterey - he for Russian (1 year), and me for Arabic (1 year). It was during my year in Monterey that I bumped into another CT - Larry Light - who told me about the Navy's "NESEP" program, where one might earn a scholarship to a four-year university education, and a commission. That was one of my big dreams, and I filled out a special request chit to participate. There were a number of interviews, the final one with the Admiral in charge of the Naval Post-Graduate School (also located in Monterey), and more tests, and around April '65 when the list of those selected came out, my name was ON it !!  I was ecstatic. I graduated from DLI's Arabic course #1 in my class of 5, and received orders to the Navy's NESEP "Prep School" in San Diego. There the fortunate few were given brush-up courses in High School subjects - math, physics, English, etc., went through the SAT's (Scholastic Aptitude Tests). I wanted to get a degree in Electrical Engineering, and come back into the Naval Security Group as a Cryptology Officer. 

The NESEP approved universities for E.E. majors included Stanford, which was my first choice. Stanford required a "real" High School diploma, though, and that left a field of about six universities on the West Coast that would accept me based on my SAT scores. I chose to attend the University of Colorado, in Boulder, CO, and spent the next four years working on a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. I passed the test for CT1 in the summer of '65, as well, and life was good. The E.E. course was difficult, and I wished I was more of a brainiac than I was - I burned a lot of midnight oil while my a lot of my friends were turning into party animals. The NESEPs attended OCS at Newport, RI during the summer between the junior and senior years, and my group was commissioned upon graduation in June of '69. Filling out my "Dream Sheet" was a surprise, however. I learned that Cryptology (1600) was a "Specialty", and I would have to do a fleet tour - 4 to 6 years on  something "haze grey and underway" before I could apply for a Specialty designator. I said, "OK, how about Flight Training?" And before i knew it, I was a brand new Ensign with orders to NAS Pensacola for flight training. 

I received my "wings" in 1971, in helicopters, at NAS Ellyson Field in Pensacola. I had broken a couple of bones in my hand earlier in flight training, due to an accident, and that set me back about 4 months in getting my wings. That may have been a fortuitous event, though. Normally 90 to 95 percent of the new helicopter drivers got orders to the Navy's only attack helicopter squadron in Vietnam - HA(L)-3 - but we learned later that practice had come to a halt a month or so before I got my wings - the Navy had decided to stop sending in new pilots, and close down the squadron's operations in the near future. I received orders to fly SAR helicopters at NAS Agana, Guam, which were UH-1N's, and I had the opportunity to fly the station's C-121 (making cargo runs to Vietnam) and the HU-16D amphibians. From there, I flew CH-46D's with HC-3 at NAS North Island, CA, deployed in USS Sacramento (AOE-1), then a tour at NAS Point Mugu, CA, followed by a tour at NAS Cubi Point in the Philippines. I retired on "20" in June of 1980.

Now that the "age of the internet" is upon us, I've managed to re-connect with CT's from my previous life with the Naval Security Group, and shipmates from my later life in Naval Aviation. Life is still good !!