Mine was X Ray 156, we graduated fifteen years ago today from Tracen Cape May. I still have not returned yet, but most definitely have plans to do so one day..
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I was in How Company at Cape May. As I remember, I spent most of the training period in Item Company before being sent to retraining and then demoted to How. This was 1954 and Companies didn't have numbers yet.
One of the ships I was on, CGC Gresham, was in the middle of the Pacific and held life saving drills. I was one of three "victims" ordered to jump in the water and wait to be rescued. The ship sailed to the horizon, turned around, and came back.
We victims were hauled around and strapped into Stokes stretchers, supposedly self righting. The Captain, MacKenzie, had the rescuers turn the stretchers upside down so we victims were under the water, and then released to see if they really righted themselves as they were supposed to.
The three "victims" included one guy who was, I think, slightly retarded. Then there was the gay guy. And then there was me. We were all chosen to be victims because we couldn't possibly botch the job.
All through this, an overaged and inept Boatswain's Mate 3rd class sat nearby with a rifle in a lifeboat, in case of sharks.
Oscar 73 Summer 1974. Tracen Alameda. We were the honor guard and competed in weekend parades against veterans of other services in rifle drill. We took every trophy. Served on WLV-605 CGC Relief, MK-A School, WHEC 717 CGC Mellon and WLB-400 CGC Salvia.
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