The First Day

I shipped out to the Navy July 31,1973. I boarded a jet in Amarillo Texas. It was a warm day of about 98 degrees and a humid 7%; There was a 45 minute lay over in Atlanta. We arrived in Orlando Fla. at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon with a temp of 101 and humidity of around 65 or 70%. Now I was just an old Texas Panhandle boy whose extent of worldly travels included OK, NM, and Colorado. Back in them days you boarded or deboarded a plane by a set of stairs rolled up to the plane. During the entire trip I never once left the plane, so here I am green and untraveled standing in line to get off the plane. I step out the door and boom, an environment that I had never experienced in my life hit me like a rock. I passed out and fell down the stairs semi-conscious and out of the darkness I hear a voice that says "Must be one of mine." I wake up on a bus heading to the base, and so starts my Navy career.