In Things we old people must do - progress I wrote about the desirability of us (not including you in that, of course!) old people getting rid of excess "stuff", with which our lives are incumbered, to prevent headaches and stress for those left behind upon our demises. In that posting, I showed the shelves enclosed by one set of doors in some built-in storage in our basement following winnowing of some 45 rpm vinyl records from our collection of nearly 1000. WichiDude and Dudette were asked, by email, to consider taking bunches of records home with them to allow WichiDude to sort them at his leisure. Wonder of wonders, they accepted the idea. While they were here this last Saturday, we boxed up five boxes full of 45 rpm and 33 1/3 rpm vinyl records. Hallelujah! I have two more empty shelves, now (shown in the photo, below). The additional shelves of 33 1/3 rpm vinyl records enclosed by a neighboring set of doors in the storage unit are still full.
Mementos - from my days as a sailor
Today, while taking Elegant Friend out to lunch, I stopped by a military surplus store of which I had learned but a couple of weeks ago. It is up in her neck of the woods - far western Wichita. It got me to thinking that, years ago, when I returned to Kansas, I took my US Navy uniforms and shoes into the local US Naval Reserves facility in which I had drilled in 1980-1981. Those items were still in use by the Navy and could be given out as additions to the normal clothing issued to a new (female) recruit. I kept but a few items which have been gathering dust all of these years. Last spring, knowing that issue styles had changed in the past 30 years, I took the raincoat (a wonderful garment!) into a Disabled American Veterans' thrift store. Today, it occurred to me that I could give the remaining few items to the military surplus store. When I mentioned it to the store manager, he said they would buy the items from me. Well...I wouldn't expect them to pay enough to cover the $15 that I spent there today, but it beats a poke in the eye.
What do I still have? One short-sleeved shirt for wear with my "blues" and one flight suit - as appear in the next photo, for two. Women's issued clothing were not sized as commercially-sold clothing. For instance, women's short-sleeved shirts were sized similarly to men's dress shirts: neck size and bust size. The flight suit was not issued to me, but was given to me by a young sailor at Naval Air Station Pensacola when I was scheduled to participate in a helicopter checkout. That week, my assignment had been to run the helicopter maintenance shop. Opportunely, we were able to launch all 13 helicopters (mostly HH-46s, with a few Bell UH-1s) on that Friday. They formed up for formation flight out over the Gulf of Mexico and invited the local press out to take photographs. I never saw any of the newspapers that carried news of the rare event; but, I did fly along in one of the HH-46s as a systems monitor (watching for hydraulic leaks, of course!)
In addition, the photo (below) shows, at the rear, my hat box, the "Combination Cap" (with cap device) that came in it (with an extra white cover inside the box), and Garrison Cap with "miniature cap device". In front of the hat box are two neckties and a pair of gloves (never worn by me - they are for formal or dinner dress wear.) There are two rate badges: black-on-white to sew on (left sleeve, only) white shirts and white-on-black to sew on (left sleeve, only) black shirts. While, except for my utility uniform (blue dungarees, medium blue chambray shirt, and dark blue jacket), all uniforms are black and white, the navy calls them "blue" and white - as in, "dress blues". The rating badges show that I was a Petty Officer First Class, that I was in NavAir, and that I was a structures mechanic. The four insignia indicate Petty Officer First Class without denoting assignment.
Note the sticker on the lid of the hatbox that indicates that I carried it aboard a Braniff flight. Most of the airlines of the 1980s no longer exist - at least - not under the names used in those days. My flight was from Wichita to New Orleans (and return trip). I used a pay phone at my layover at DFW airport on my way to NOLA to call BDM, accepting their latest offer of employment. BDM wanted me to call Cessna, giving them two weeks' notice. That would have meant that I would go back to Cessna only to pack up my personal possessions from my desk. I refused to do that. Cessna was good enough to pay me the difference between what the Navy was paying me for my two weeks of active duty in NOLA and what my Cessna salary would have been and I had always been well treated by Cessna. I gave Cessna my notice upon my return, worked two weeks squaring things away, then drove to Florida to report in with BDM. Thirteen months later, Braniff ceased operations.
See how sidetracked mementos can get some of us?
ADDITION OF 1/31/2019 9:45am - Admiral Grace Hopper's Hat
Below is the only photo ever taken of me in uniform. It is cropped from a class photo. It was the first time I had been able to dress in uniform, its having taken nearly one year to get the female uniform parts issued to me. As it turned out, I was actually "out of uniform", as my instructor gently informed me. The rating badge on my sleeve (noticeably large) was the male version of the badge. Fortunately, at NOLA, I was able to get the female version (see the previous photo of mementos.) I was the only one in the Advanced Pay Grade Indoctrination Course who had no previous military service, but was designated as the class leader because I outranked all of the other participants. It was an experience!
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There is still an Advanced Pay Grade Indoctrination Course for US Naval Reservists; however, there are several differences in the modern program. I note that the current program does not allow enlistment at the pay grade level I was given, E-6. I did qualify for the permanent E-6 level within the two years that were provided; although, I had quite a scare when my unit at Pensacola notified me that I had failed to take the "final exam" for E-6, their having lost my paperwork. Fortunately, I have an honest face and was able to tell them that I had scored 92 on the test, so they awarded it to me.
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