Yeah, I was a happy, well-adjusted teenager. I always had an off-beat sense of humor, and not the least bit compunction to flaunt it. That would disappear, and quickly.
NOTE: Everybody thinks I washed out. Hah! Here’s my official USNA transcript. It clearly states “voluntary resignation.” Moreover, look at the cumulative GPA – 3.55 I even got a 4.0 my second semester.
Plebe summer turned me into an angry, driven shadow of my former self.
You’ll notice I looked like a kid at the time. Crooked hat. Innocent smile. Young for my years. But I made it through Plebe Summer, dammit.
The folks came up for Parent’s Weekend at the end of that summer of ’74. Watch that Public Display of Affection, y’all. . .
It looks like by this time brother John was wearing the same old Sears & Roebuck Charlie Brown shirts I wore his age. LOL. I look like a big kid stuffed into a uniform here, young as I looked.
Dress whites for Mom and Pop. Standing a little taller now. (More proud parents taking photos of their kids in the background.)
John was a whole lot happier than I was. I was dreading when they left, when it would be back to the grind. The little man in the big uniform was shrinking – fast. (John’s got his hat on a whole lot straighter than I do. . . That’s one squared-away kid; always was.)
Tecumseh was all decked out for Parent’s Weekend with the “Class of 1978” colors. I tried to stand tall for the photo.
One last sad salute, and they were gone back home to Aruba.
Later that fall, the Brigade of Midshipmen lost a bet against H. Ross Perot over the Navy-Air Force game. I’d bet, of course. When Air Force won, we had to get our hair cut (shaved!) just like Mr. Perot. Never been so damn cold in all my life. Put on every ounce of clothing I had to study in our dorm room.
The whole Brigade of Midshipmen had formal parades every week. This is a postcard I sent home.
Here’s another postcard of the “Yard Patrol” boats, miniature destroyers with twin propellors we used to practice fleet maneuvers out in the Chesapeake Bay. That’s Bancroft Hall in the left background.
The next summer was on the USS Spartanburg County, a Tank Landing Ship. You can see behind me how EXTREMELY calm the North Atlantic is (we sailed up to Nova Scotia and back). Well, I was seasick as a dog the whole time.
It’s too bad we just lost the Vietnam War and all the world hates the military now. I was at the top of my game (this is at my oldest sister’s wedding, Regan). I was ranked 20th in my class and everybody had me pegged to be Brigade Commander when I was a senior and the first admiral of our class.
Here’s a photo in the house in Lago Vista. This is before I shipped off to New Orleans and my first job with Exxon. It looks like Christmas – I was always the first one to try out the toys. Pop passed away not long after this photo was taken, of a heart attack, a month after I started with Exxon. Died in his tomato garden out back, with a fistful of soil in his hands, how every Ozark hillbilly wants to go – damned that western sun, always drying out my tomato patch.
It would be five long years before I was really happy again. But it wouldn’t last for very long. Here’s my passport photo from June 1981.
