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Life before email, the internet, fax machines and personal computers.
INTRO: The anticipation or receiving mail was always exciting weather you were in boot camp, stationed on a base or on a ship. When you didn’t get anticipated mail it was always disappointing and sometimes down right depressing. You always thought that no one cared even though you may have just received some mail a couple days ago. Some days you received 4 or 5 letters and couldn’t believe your fortune. You felt loved, appreciated and special. You were on top of the world for awhile.
BOOT CAMP: Boot Camp mail call was unique in that your entire company of about 80 recruits gathered in a circle surrounding the designated mail clerk. He read the addressed names out loud. You couldn’t wait to hear your name. You always wondered who the letter would come from. Would it be from family, friends or that special girl friend? The moment you heard you name a loud verbal cheer usually ensued.
One time in boot camp I got a letter from a new possible girl friend. She addressed the card to “Dougie Woggie Woo Woo Woo”. A crazy name I got as a senior in High School and thought I left behind. This was not the place or time to let it become known. Definitely not a good thing to hear yelled out in front of eighty young tough guys who always look for a reason to tease someone. That name stuck with me for 4 years. How it got from duty station to duty station I’ll never know. I suspect my former Navy buddies found ways to pass it on to someone. Actually I didn’t mind it. It was all in good fun and strangely made me feel popular. It was a big hit and my shipmates loved trying to harass me with it. I am still talking about it 4 1/2 decades later.
TREASURE ISLAND: When I was stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco you have to go to the post office to pick up your mail. The windows were broken down alphabetically and you always hoped that your line would be short. Mom always sent cookies which were usually devoured in minutes by my friends and sometimes by me. If I went to the post office with friends they were gone before I got back to the barracks which was about a 15-20 minute walk. My dad was very tight and in order to save money he would send mail via the cheapest rate. I think that would be by Paul Revere and his horse. I would get mail that was three weeks old and cookies that were staled and crumbled. We ate the cookies anyway. Home cooking was always preferred to base or ship cooking. I finally convinced dad to send things air mail. I started getting mail in 3-5 days.
When at Treasure Island my dad had friends and family come over to the house and make a reel to reel tape recording letter. This was really a new and neat concept. I went out and bought myself a cheap plastic recorder from some electronic store on Market street so that I could also send audio letters back home. Dad saved many of them and I still have these cherished possessions. These audio tapes bring me back right to the moment when I listened to or made them. Unfortunately my cheap recorder broke before my next duty station and we didn’t make any more tapes.
The only problem with getting mail was that you had to respond back. You ended up repeated the same story to many different people.
Writing letters was often very boring but had to be done. If you didn’t do it then you would be jeopardizing future letters from those same people. The incoming letters would become few and far in between.
IN PORT: This was always a special time. You knew when you pulled into your home base or a foreign port there was going to be mail waiting on the pier or at the base post office. The mail was not necessarily going to be for you personally but the anticipation of the possibility was always exciting.
AT SEA: At sea when you were operating in the vicinity of an aircraft carrier you would get mail delivered to your ship via helicopter. The carriers’ jets would fly to nearby bases and pick up mail for ships that operated near the carrier. They would land on the carrier and transfer the mail to the helicopters for delivery to your ship. It was frustrating when you knew mail came aboard but that the Postal Clerk took to long sorting it and getting it distributed.
Getting Mail when at sea
It was always a thrill to see those orange mail bags being lowed on to the deck. You had something special to look forward to and couldn’t wait to hear the announcement “Mail Call”. The designated shipmate for each division ran to the post office door to beat the crowd that was sure to come. The person picking up the mail was so excited to see if he got any that he flipped through the mail bundle quickly looking for his name. He would be bumping into other shipmates and even bulkheads only interested in his own mail. His job was to then sort the division’s mail and place it on the shipmate’s bunk bed. It was always neat to come off you watch or other assigned duties and see a stack of mail waiting there for you to read. If you had to go to the head at that time you usually took your mail with you and spent some serious time sitting on the can reading your mail and talking to the guy next to you about the hot news from home.
When I was stationed on the first ship the USS Robison DDG 12 out of San Diego I was asked it I wanted to be an assistant postal clerk. This position was also known as the Postal clerks grunt but offered some significant benefits. The advantages were tremendous.
· I was first off the ship to pick up the mail.
· Got to leave the ship for awhile even when I had the duty.
· I sorted the mail in my little 4x6 foot room with the door shut and locked.
· I always got my mail first.
I can’t tell you how many times my shipmates were beating on the post office door wanting to know what was taking so long. I would yell out all sort of excuses just to buy a little more time to read my important mail from my girl friend.
It was a great part time responsibility and very rewarding as it was a very popular thing I was doing. When my shipmates got mail it was like I was their best friend in the whole world. The opposite was true when they didn’t get any mail. It was like I was the devil out to ruin their life. I was always amused by this in that I had nothing to do with them getting mail or not.
LESSONS LEARNED: I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life regarding mail. I religiously saved every letter I ever received from everyone for over 4 years. I think there were over 800 of them. When I got out of the Navy I wanted to put my Navy life behind me along with the fact that my 3 ½ year Navy girl friend dumped me because I stayed in longer then I needed to.
I built a fire in my parent’s back yard and put my letters in the fire one by one. My mom asked me what I was doing. I distinctly remember saying that I was getting ready for my new life as a civilian. Mom begged me not to do such a stupid thing but I would not listen. She explained that some day I will be extremely disappointed I did this. I did it anyway. Every single letter was now destroyed. I felt this was the way to move forward quickly and not dwell on the past. I wanted to concentrate on college, finding a part time job and date a few new potential girl friends. Needless to say, mom was right. The documented memories are loss forever. I would do or pay anything to have them back.
Luckily I married a gal I started to get acquainted with during my last eight months in the Navy. She saved every letter I had written to her and we found those letters in a box 30 years later. Thanks to Barb I consider those letters to be some of my most prized Navy possessions. They represent a window to by soul at the time. They recorded by thoughts as I travelled the world, served in Viet Nam and got ready for civilian life.
I did have one additional bad experience with the mail shortly after I was discharged from the navy. Our last port was Acapulco Mexico. I took about 25 pictures of the port and my closest friends. When I got out of the navy I sent the only copy I had to my former postal clerk boss to look at as he was in many of them. He never returned them. Because of my trust those photos are gone from my precious navy photo archive. I didn’t have the negatives and he never responded to my letters to him requesting there return. To thus day I would still like to track him down and find my pictures of my last days aboard the ship.
BOOT CAMP: Boot Camp mail call was unique in that your entire company of about 80 recruits gathered in a circle surrounding the designated mail clerk. He read the addressed names out loud. You couldn’t wait to hear your name. You always wondered who the letter would come from. Would it be from family, friends or that special girl friend? The moment you heard you name a loud verbal cheer usually ensued.
One time in boot camp I got a letter from a new possible girl friend. She addressed the card to “Dougie Woggie Woo Woo Woo”. A crazy name I got as a senior in High School and thought I left behind. This was not the place or time to let it become known. Definitely not a good thing to hear yelled out in front of eighty young tough guys who always look for a reason to tease someone. That name stuck with me for 4 years. How it got from duty station to duty station I’ll never know. I suspect my former Navy buddies found ways to pass it on to someone. Actually I didn’t mind it. It was all in good fun and strangely made me feel popular. It was a big hit and my shipmates loved trying to harass me with it. I am still talking about it 4 1/2 decades later.
TREASURE ISLAND: When I was stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco you have to go to the post office to pick up your mail. The windows were broken down alphabetically and you always hoped that your line would be short. Mom always sent cookies which were usually devoured in minutes by my friends and sometimes by me. If I went to the post office with friends they were gone before I got back to the barracks which was about a 15-20 minute walk. My dad was very tight and in order to save money he would send mail via the cheapest rate. I think that would be by Paul Revere and his horse. I would get mail that was three weeks old and cookies that were staled and crumbled. We ate the cookies anyway. Home cooking was always preferred to base or ship cooking. I finally convinced dad to send things air mail. I started getting mail in 3-5 days.
When at Treasure Island my dad had friends and family come over to the house and make a reel to reel tape recording letter. This was really a new and neat concept. I went out and bought myself a cheap plastic recorder from some electronic store on Market street so that I could also send audio letters back home. Dad saved many of them and I still have these cherished possessions. These audio tapes bring me back right to the moment when I listened to or made them. Unfortunately my cheap recorder broke before my next duty station and we didn’t make any more tapes.
The only problem with getting mail was that you had to respond back. You ended up repeated the same story to many different people.
Writing letters was often very boring but had to be done. If you didn’t do it then you would be jeopardizing future letters from those same people. The incoming letters would become few and far in between.
IN PORT: This was always a special time. You knew when you pulled into your home base or a foreign port there was going to be mail waiting on the pier or at the base post office. The mail was not necessarily going to be for you personally but the anticipation of the possibility was always exciting.
AT SEA: At sea when you were operating in the vicinity of an aircraft carrier you would get mail delivered to your ship via helicopter. The carriers’ jets would fly to nearby bases and pick up mail for ships that operated near the carrier. They would land on the carrier and transfer the mail to the helicopters for delivery to your ship. It was frustrating when you knew mail came aboard but that the Postal Clerk took to long sorting it and getting it distributed.
Getting Mail when at sea
It was always a thrill to see those orange mail bags being lowed on to the deck. You had something special to look forward to and couldn’t wait to hear the announcement “Mail Call”. The designated shipmate for each division ran to the post office door to beat the crowd that was sure to come. The person picking up the mail was so excited to see if he got any that he flipped through the mail bundle quickly looking for his name. He would be bumping into other shipmates and even bulkheads only interested in his own mail. His job was to then sort the division’s mail and place it on the shipmate’s bunk bed. It was always neat to come off you watch or other assigned duties and see a stack of mail waiting there for you to read. If you had to go to the head at that time you usually took your mail with you and spent some serious time sitting on the can reading your mail and talking to the guy next to you about the hot news from home.
When I was stationed on the first ship the USS Robison DDG 12 out of San Diego I was asked it I wanted to be an assistant postal clerk. This position was also known as the Postal clerks grunt but offered some significant benefits. The advantages were tremendous.
· I was first off the ship to pick up the mail.
· Got to leave the ship for awhile even when I had the duty.
· I sorted the mail in my little 4x6 foot room with the door shut and locked.
· I always got my mail first.
I can’t tell you how many times my shipmates were beating on the post office door wanting to know what was taking so long. I would yell out all sort of excuses just to buy a little more time to read my important mail from my girl friend.
It was a great part time responsibility and very rewarding as it was a very popular thing I was doing. When my shipmates got mail it was like I was their best friend in the whole world. The opposite was true when they didn’t get any mail. It was like I was the devil out to ruin their life. I was always amused by this in that I had nothing to do with them getting mail or not.
LESSONS LEARNED: I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life regarding mail. I religiously saved every letter I ever received from everyone for over 4 years. I think there were over 800 of them. When I got out of the Navy I wanted to put my Navy life behind me along with the fact that my 3 ½ year Navy girl friend dumped me because I stayed in longer then I needed to.
I built a fire in my parent’s back yard and put my letters in the fire one by one. My mom asked me what I was doing. I distinctly remember saying that I was getting ready for my new life as a civilian. Mom begged me not to do such a stupid thing but I would not listen. She explained that some day I will be extremely disappointed I did this. I did it anyway. Every single letter was now destroyed. I felt this was the way to move forward quickly and not dwell on the past. I wanted to concentrate on college, finding a part time job and date a few new potential girl friends. Needless to say, mom was right. The documented memories are loss forever. I would do or pay anything to have them back.
Luckily I married a gal I started to get acquainted with during my last eight months in the Navy. She saved every letter I had written to her and we found those letters in a box 30 years later. Thanks to Barb I consider those letters to be some of my most prized Navy possessions. They represent a window to by soul at the time. They recorded by thoughts as I travelled the world, served in Viet Nam and got ready for civilian life.
I did have one additional bad experience with the mail shortly after I was discharged from the navy. Our last port was Acapulco Mexico. I took about 25 pictures of the port and my closest friends. When I got out of the navy I sent the only copy I had to my former postal clerk boss to look at as he was in many of them. He never returned them. Because of my trust those photos are gone from my precious navy photo archive. I didn’t have the negatives and he never responded to my letters to him requesting there return. To thus day I would still like to track him down and find my pictures of my last days aboard the ship.
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