By JOE LANSDEN, Guest Columnist
My cutie pie granddaughter Devyn asked me to submit an article for Veterans Day.
I was honored because I basically had a job to do while I was in the Navy and tried my best to do what was assigned.
BEFORE THE NAVY
My time began at Northwestern in 1959.
I enjoyed the school and still do because my son, Brent, graduated from Northwestern. My grandchildren — Gunnar, Trista, Averi and Devyn — all attended Northwestern, and Devyn will graduate next spring. They all sure did better than me at Northwestern, which is OK. I ain’t perfect, for sure.
I am very proud of their achievements at Northwestern. I have very neat kids.
I enjoyed Coach Highfill as swimming coach and all the instructors who gave me basic freshman classes back in the late 1950s. I am sure I gave some of the English teachers a challenge.
I moved to OSU later and finished my degree. Both Northwestern and O-State were great for someone coming from a very small town.
A Navy recruiter got a hold of me since I could have been drafted after graduation, so I joined the Navy. They thought that I could fly the F4 Phantom since Vietnam was fixin’ to get big time. (We say “fixin’” in Beaver a lot!)
I completed my degree, and in August, off I went to Pensacola, Florida, and traveling to the Sunshine State, I found that folks like grits (and so do I).
TIME IN THE NAVY
I pulled into the base wondering what the heck had I done. I was given one item of clothing to wear (“poopy suit,” it was called), and we got to wear them 24/7 until we could have regular uniforms.
I think they were thrown away after a week or two.
The Marine drill instructor had a very funny way about him, BUT I knew not to laugh.
Some guy behind me laughed, and I thought I was dead because the drill instructor got about one inch away (bad breath, my family history, etc.). The guy behind me fessed up, so I was off the hook maybe.
Later I found out my eyes were not good enough to fly an F4 Phantom.
In a way, I felt relieved because the Russians put some SAM missiles into Vietnam, and we lost many men.
Hanoi Jane Fonda was pictured sitting on top of the Russian deadly rockets and got a lot of attention.
So I ended up going to the Great Lakes in Chicago and eventually found my way onto the USS Mullinnix DD 944 in Norfolk, Va. The executive officer on the ship moved me to the ship’s office, and we got underway.
That was quite an experience because we would go for days seeing nothing but water, which sure is different from Beaver, where we seem to miss out on water quite a bit.
The first day out in the ocean saw us do target practice off the East Coast.
I can still feel the concussion from the 5-inch guns, and sometimes my ears still ring, but the VA did not believe me and doesn’t matter now.
The commanding officer of my ship was well pleased at the accuracy of the three guns on the ship and was working toward getting her to Vietnam to provide support for the troops.
The ship did make two trips to Vietnam. We spent quite a bit of time improving the search for subs.
We got to visit Bermuda to start. Later we went to the Mediterranean Ocean, and Spain was great, and I really liked the climate there.
France was next, then Italy, then Gibraltar and then Morocco.
I put in for a trip to Venice and really enjoyed the sights and sounds of that city, which is covered by water.
Yes. I was probably crazy but it was something I will probably never see again.
You sure could tell I was from out of town.
I still have a lot of slides from those trips that I would like to see again one day.
My ship also encountered several storms at sea, which was sometimes scary for me.
I was outside the ship one time to not get sea sick, and I could not help but notice the giant wave heading towards us.
I figured out that maybe I had better go inside because we were at the bottom of the wave, and looking up, I could see the top. Sometimes I could not see the carrier. My ship was a much smaller one with 109 men on board. There were much bigger ships, to say the least.
We operated with Lake Champlain and got to see the much bigger carriers such as Enterprise and the amphibious carrier Iwo Jima. Also, Randolph carrier was a little smaller. Lexington was in Pensacola. That ship is long gone.
There were ships that had fuel. Some had food, ammunition. We transferred many things we needed while at sea, which took everyone for quite a while.
The downside to all of this is the Navy decided to use my ship as a test to see how it would survive a cruise missile hitting the ship.
The missile broke the ship in half and sank.
I went “ouch” a bunch to see all the effort everyone put into the ship and sink it. Gone forever near Puerto Rico.
Yes, I sure wondered what the heck I got myself into, but I still served my country, and I thought that I did my part.
PRESENT TIME
Nowadays I spend quite a bit of time with the weekly newspaper The Herald-Democrat in Beaver. And we spent quite a bit of time in the spring at our Cimarron Territory Celebration getting ready for the World Championship Cow Chip Throw.
Remember in practice to keep your hands moist by licking your fingers several times to get a good hold of the chip, and it takes two good throws.
Don’t practice with fresh chips, however. One cannot get a good throw with those.
Attention to detail is important here.
Joe Lansden, publisher of the Beaver Herald-Democrat, is the grandfather of Northwestern News Editorial Editor Devyn Lansden.