Member Biography/Profile thread

[Njaco]

Luis, I'm envious of your Land Rover. I miss my 1969 LR '88'.

[ccheese]

Part 1

Guess it’s my turn…. Well, let’s see. I was born in 1934, in Baltimore, Md.
When I was born my mother was 31 and my father was 41. I had a sister, Shirley, who was born in 1930. My father died in Sept of 1935. If it matters, he died on Friday the 13th. During the war my mother was a burner/welder for Maryland Drydock Co. She re-married in 1939 to Domonic Maiale. He died in 1940. My mother married again in 1943, to Frank Waski. He was killed on D-Day 1944. She did it again in 1945 to John Wolf, who died in 1946. (Is there a pattern here ??) She didn’t remarry until 1951, to Patrick John Kavanagh, a merchant seaman. Of all my step fathers, he was the best. An Irishman with a whiskey tenor voice. He gave me my first taste of Irish whiskey. He died in 1991 of cancer. He was cremated and I had his ashes buried at sea.

My sister died by her own hand, of an overdose of pheno-barb in 1957. My
sister had thirteen children that lived, and I know of four that died in infancy.
My sister was married to Anthony J. Dardozzi, a USMC SSGT who fought on
both Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.

The years 1946 to 1951 were pure hell for me. Two females running my life for me…… in more ways than one. Both of them were alcoholics, and they would beat me one day and “have fun” with me the next. When I was in the 7th grade my mother got a brain-fart to send me to Catholic school. She did and they put me in the 8th grade. I didn’t have a clue what they were teaching and I failed the whole year. Then I went back to public school….. again in the 7th grade. I finally got tired of all this and quit school at the age of 16 in the 7th grade.

In 1950 and part of 1951 I sold newspapers on the corner, worked behind the
counter at Seechuck’s Drug Store, and stocked shelves for Acme Stores. BTW, I was making sixty cents per hour with Acme !

One day I got tired of all this, plus the goings on at home, so I went to a school teacher that I dearly loved, Miss Mary Ellen Nimmo. I asked her to be my mother for a day and sign my enlistment papers. She did and I enlisted in the Navy August 14, 1951. Now I was making $82.00 a month ! Great Lakes, Ill. here I come.

Sixteen weeks of boot camp, and came out number one in the company, which was an automatic promotion to Seaman (E-3). My boot camp company was # 699, and we were the last 16 week company. Beginning with Company 700 they were 12 week companies.

Now, about here, dates, times and places seem to get fuzzy in my mind, so I won’t go into that kind of detail. I went to Radio Class A school, again coming out # 1 in the class and was promoted to Aviation Radioman AL3
(E-4). Served in VC-62 at NAS Norfolk, in ComFairJax at NAS Jacksonville, somewhere in between went to Teletype Repair School at NavSta Norfolk and Crypto Repair School at NavShipYd, Norfolk. I came out number 1 at the TTY Repair School and number 2 in CRF. Somewhere in this time frame I did a short stint with VF-916 (Oceana, Va) and went aboard the Bon Hom Richard as air crew. We made one trip to Korea. The Navy did away with the Aviation Radioman rate, so I changed to Radioman, and in 1953 I was promoted to RM2 (E-5).

Sometime in 1954 I got orders transferring me to the USAF under the exchange duty program and wound up with the 1950th AACS at Wheelus AFB in Tripoli, Libya. After about four months there, I was transferred to the 1503rd SAR Squadron still at Wheelus, but I got to do lots of flying. I was at Wheelus when I was aboard the C-47 that hit the mountain in Sicily. I returned back to the states November of 1955.

[to be continued]

Charles

[Thorlifter]

OMG Charles! I'm amazed by your story! It's not as good as the "Get Lucky" story, but still. Just kidding. I can't wait until the next segment.

[ccheese]

[continued]

On December 17th, 1955 I married Edna Mae Spencer (she was 20, I was 21) in Baltimore, Maryland and shortly thereafter reported aboard the pre-commissioning detail for the USS Saratoga (CVA-60) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was commissioned in April 1956 with Edna Mae and her parents standing on the flight deck watching the ceremony.

My work being done here, I wound up being transferred to the 2nd US Army, at Brooklyn, NY on Armed Forces Police. While there I didn’t do a whole lot of AFP work, I was used to transport prisoners who had been tried at the Receiving Station in Brooklyn, and sentenced to prison terms. I spent a lot of time on trains going to Portsmouth, Va. and Portsmouth, NH. While on AFP detail in NYC, I got a Summary Courts Martial for putting a .45 round thru a sailor’s knee (from the back to the front) while he was running up the steps of Grand Central Station. He tried to make a break for it while I was escorting him to the brig at Portsmouth, NH. and I stopped him. I was acquitted, but found guilty of the second charge/specification of discharging a firearm in a public place. The CO of the APF detachment told me this was necessary so the local DA could not try me, and put me in jail. I was fined a month’s pay. Got an immediate transfer to NAS Cecil Field, Fla. While there in 1957 our son Charles Jr was born.

[As a side note, this official entry in my service record prevented me from making CPO [E-7]

In late 1956 I was promoted to RM1 (E-6). The time between 1957 and 1959 is also fuzzy. I was at NavRecSta Charleston in 1959, running the post office. Also in 1959 Edna Mae gave birth to a still-born child, a girl. We named her Sarah. The caretaker of Baltimore Cemetery gave us a half plot (because he couldn’t sell it) with the stipulation that we never put a marker on it. She was buried there.

Twenty five years later, when we got into genealogy, we found out that Sarah is buried between Charles Henry Cheeseman and Harriett P. Cheeseman….. my father’s parents ! These graves are in the old section of Baltimore Cemetery known as “potter’s field”

In 1960 I went aboard the USS Essex (CVS-9) at Quonset Point, R.I. Our daughter, Wanda Jean, was born March 1st , 1961. While on board Essex I did my famous walk off of the elevator, into the Carribbean. It was about this time I developed a stomach ulcer. Between (about) 1961 and 1966 I was in and out of so many hospitals, I lost count. I’d be ok for awhile then it would start up again. The year 1964 saw me at NavCommSta, Norfolk for shore duty. In 1966 I got orders to the US Naval Support Activity, Da Nang, Was there in a crypto repair support role, with occasional trips to the field. Then I got “loaned” to the ROK Army Capital (Yellow Tiger) Division at Chu Lai. This is where I got into alcohol, and it led me down the path to alcoholism. I stayed with these bastards til about April of 1967, when I got MedEvac’d to Da Nang, then to Tachikawa Air Base in Japan.

Here I’m going to vent a little anger, and I’m not sure who it should be directed to. While I was in the hospital at Da Nang, I saw a whole lot of Army guys, Marines and even some Brit’s come in there wounded. Just about the time they woke up, there was a representative from their unit (Usually an XO or Platoon Leader) pinning a Purple Heart on this guy. I never saw anyone from my “unit” let alone the coveted Purple Heart.

[In Early 1971 I was called to the personnel office, and a YN3 handed me a package, with “This came for you in the mail”. It was my Purple Heart. No presentation, no ceremony, no nothing. And, from that day til I retired, I never got to wear it. However, in retrospect, maybe…. just maybe I was never ‘officially’ with that ROK unit.]

Anyhow, I took two rounds (7.62) in the stomach, probably from an AK-47.
(This is part of my official service record.) While they had me open, they removed most of my stomach, and with it the stomach ulcer.. Got back to Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego, in July and was released back to active duty in August.

My enlistment was up (I had sixteen years in) and wanted to come back to the east coast. I did re-enlist in San Diego, and they did send me to the east coast….. to Newport, R.I. to the USS Voge (DE-1047). About this time I developed a duodenal ulcer. (Must have been the booze) In an out of hospitals, again, transferred to the USS Koelsch (DE-1049), and finally transferred to NavHosp NorVa. Here, they promised me they were going to cure my ulcer. Johns Hopkins had a new treatment for ulcers. The object was to keep the stomach and first intestine dry at all times. So they put you to sleep… for ninety days !!!! They wake you up for two hours a week, to allow the brain to catch up. They feed you with an IV, and you have a tube up your weenie. And, it worked !!

However, I understand that I was in on a pilot program, and it was deemed UN-successful !! Four were done at Portsmouth Naval hospital and all four were successful. I was released from the hospital in 1969, “fit for duty” and was sent to the Receiving Station, Norfolk, for further transfer to sea duty.

[to be continued]

[wilbur1]

Great stuff Charles my dad served on the bonnie dick in vietnam

[Lucky13]

to you fellas..!

[Thorlifter]

They should make a movie about you Charles.

[ccheese]

Originally Posted by Thorlifter

They should make a movie about you Charles.

As often as I got screwed.... it would be X-rated !

Charles

[Marcel]

Ah, Charles, reading your story makes me more proud of the fact that you call me "Mon Ami"

[ccheese]

Marcel:

You, and most of the folks on this forum, will always be my friends.

Charles

[FLYBOYJ]

Charles, just read what you wrote so far - talk about ups and downs! Can't wait for part III.

[lesofprimus]

Good stuff Charles.... Bummer on all the stomach ailments tho... Takin 2 rounds in the gut pretty much put u on that path anyways, the booze just helped it along...

[As a side note, this official entry in my service record prevented me from making CPO [E-7]

That would definatly stop someone from makin Chief... There was one in my record about striking an Officer, which would have prevented me from the same thing... Dont matter why u did it, u did.... Same old Navy BS....

Dont know what to say to u about ur PH, forgot to duck, award.... All I can say is that Im happy as hell u survived and that ur children got to have ur influence in their lives.... Im damn proud to be allowed the honor to call u Shipmate....

And I mean that to my core man...

[ccheese]

In 1969 I reported aboard the USS Conyngham (DDG-17) at Norfolk. Nothing spectacular occurred while I was aboard.

However, after I got off of her, Conyngham suffered a severe fire on 8 May 1990, while conducting pre-deployment operations off the Virginia coast. A major fuel oil fire erupted from the ship's Forward Fire Room into the ship's superstructure, isolating the crew forward and aft. requiring an all-hands effort to extinguish it. During the mass conflagration, the Operations Officer (Lcdr A. Pope Gordon, Jr.) was killed and 18 other sailors were injured, some of them severely while putting out the uncontrollable fire. She has since been decommissioned and broken up for scrap.

I stayed on her til May 18, 1971, when I was piped over the side, with six sideboys, in a retirement ceremony. Gee….. Now I gotta go to work !!

Talk about being scared ? No job, no money coming in except for my Navy retirement. I pounded the pavement looking for a job. I applied to the Virgina Beach Police Dept. for employment as a police officer. Too short (minimum was 5’ 8”). Too light (minimum was 160 lbs). Finally, one day I was in Hilltop VW having our Beetle serviced and the Service Manager asked me if I wanted a job as a mechanic trainee. Wow ! A job ! I jumped all over it. Working (mostly) as a go-fer for $125.00 a week (before taxes).

[We had bought a 3 bed room house in Va. Beach in August of 1967 for $12,700.00, and our payments were $99.00 a month]

This job would ensure our house payments were met, and put some food on the table.

The year 1972 was a bad year. My father in law died, my sister died and I ran my left hand through the fan belt of an auto air conditioner. First on-the-job-injury in my new career. Broke three fingers of the left hand and the tip of the little finger exploded, Making that finger ¼ inch shorter. Time heals all wounds and it all got better. During the next 14 years I got to be a pretty good auto technician, and in the middle 80’s I was working for Castle Cars (a VW – Mazda dealer) when their warranty clerk up and quit. I was offered the job and took it (more money !).

About 1991 Castle Cars was sold to Checkered Flag, Inc. and I was transferred to a new store. We sold BMW, Porsche, Jaguar, Audi and Saab. My title changed to Warranty Administrator, I got my own office and a demo (a Toyota !).

Another bad year was 1999. My mother died from pneumonia after breaking a hip in a fall. She would have been 96 in December of that year. We had buried the hatchet, so to speak, after my sister died, but the hate was still in me. I also got fired from my job. Times were getting hard in the auto industry, and I was excess weight. By now I was making $500.00 a week, plus commission, which ran about $1,500-1,700 a month. I heard the cashier took over my job and retained hers….. at $7.50 an hour !!

Went back to twisting a wrench, even took a job in Richmond, Va, commuting to Va. Beach on the week ends. Worked for a Buick dealer in Norfolk until 2005.

One day I got a phone call from the gal who had been warranty clerk at Castle Cars in the 80’s. She was now Service Manager at Hall Mazda. Was I interested in a Warranty Administrator position, working for her ? Is a pig’s butt pork ? Is the Pope Catholic ? I started working for her and the Hall organization (19 stores - 22 franchises) on 25 April 2005 and I’m still here.

Many things have occurred that I didn’t go into. Our daughter married a Suffolk police officer, had two girls, Jennifer and Sara. “Jeni” has a three year old girl, Kayla, and Sara has a 1 year old boy, Taylor. Charles Jr. (Chuck) is on his fouth wife and is living in Florence, SC. It looks like this marriage will work. He never had any children. Both of Edna Mae’s parents have died, plus her two brothers and a sister. My family is all gone, too.

We celebrated our fifty-second wedding anniversary last December. I was 74 in February and Edna Mae will be 73 this June 1st. We are both in good health, both are still working, and the future looks good.

Looking back through the years and reading this has made me realize just how fortunate I really am. I had a good navy carreer, I have a good wife, a good job and a whole bunch of people, all over the world, that I can call my friends.

I ask you…… what more do I need ?

Thanks for listening……

Charles

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by ccheese

and a whole bunch of people, all over the world, that I can call my friends.

I ask you…… what more do I need ?

Thanks for listening……

Charles

Ditto my friend, ditto!

[ToughOmbre]

Great story Charles. Glad I got to "meet" you on this forum my friend (and that goes for the rest of you guys (and gals) as well) .

I should put my bio up (sooner or later), but you're a tough act to follow Charles.

TO