Saturday September 10, 2011

This weekend in 1961, Robert H. Scott, was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy. My serial number was 652654. This means that there were 652,653 commissioned Navy Officers that preceded me. John Paul Jones had serial number, 1. This weekend we had a Graduation Ball, a military pass-in-review and the graduation ceremony. We wore our Dress Whites which consisted of a white tunic, white pants and shoes and of course a white cap. On our shoulders we wore shoulder boards with a single gold stripe. The Navy had given us a clothing allowance to purchase our uniforms and accessories. We kept our shoulder boards, shirt insignia, etc in a jewelry like box that we called an instant Ensign kit.

My Mom, Dad and Sister were in attendance. Most of us did not have a date for the Ball but several of my classmates flew their girl friends in for the ball. In fact several classmates were getting married after graduation. We all had been given assignments to our next duty station. A lot of guys were being assigned directly to ships and had to report around the 1st of October. I was assigned to the Civil Engineers Officer School in Port Hueneme, Ca. Port Hueneme was known as the "Home of the Pacific Seabees". I was to report the first of Oct for this 6 week school.

After being commissioned my pay went from $80 a month to $222.30 a month. As a civilian I was making $510 per month. One Navy tradition is that new officers must give $5 to the first enlisted man that salutes them. Several enlisted men were in waiting and as soon as we were told that we were Ensigns they descended on us. I bet on enterprising enlisted man had $100 in five dollar bills.

One classmate was getting married in CA one week from graduation. He had driven to RI from CA and now had a dilemma on how to get his car back to CA. We solved his problem for him. A classmate, Wentworth (?), from the Detroit area would drive the car to Detroit. I was traveling to Alpena with my parents and we would stop in Detroit so I could drive the car to Alpena. I was going to stay in Alpena for two weeks. After my stay in Alpena I was driving to Minneapolis to pick up two classmates. The three of us would then drive to San Diego. The other two were assigned to Destroyer duty out of San Diego. One would then drive me to Port Hueneme. It was an exciting time.

On my drive to Alpena I stopped at a cafe in Tawas. I was wearing my khaki uniform. An older gentlemen walked over to my table and asked if I was a seabee. I said yes. He said he was a Marine during WWII and alway respected seabees. He shook my hand and left. I was very proud.

Saturday, September 10, 2011 was like most Saturdays. I had breakfast at Bill's and then decided to take a bike ride. I put the bike on the C2 and headed to the Kent Trails/Millennium parking lot. I pedaled from Millennium Park to the south end of Kent Trails, which is Douglas Walker Park off of 84th. The total distance traveled was 30 miles.

Nancy had to exchange something at the Knapp Corner Meijer's so about 1630 we headed to Meijer's. I purchased gas at $3.87 per gallon. We stayed in Knapp Corner and had dinner at Panera Bread. I spent most of the evening watching football on TV. I watched the first half of the UM/ND game before going to bed. I should have stayed up. It was a barn burner.