4 Years In The Navy. No ships, But Only GTMO.

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
I was a Corpsman in the US Navy 68-72. I never step foot on a ship, but I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Hospital, Cuba. I'm surprised at how many sailors passed through the base at one time or another. If you're in your 80s, 90s, you might have had shore leave in Guantanamo, or Santiago. Even if you were just passing by, GTMO was a quirky little place to hang your hat.
 
Duh. I guess I should have said, if you were ever in GTMO, please write a blurb about it. Since we were restricted to the base, GTMO was sort of like a ship. We lived on it, but it didn't sail away.
 
My B-I-L was also in Gitmo during the Vietnam War. His job was to disassemble explosive devices. I don’t know what type. We never discussed that. Just like me, he is a Marine, but deceased. He took up drinking in the service and turned into an alcoholic, which he blamed on his job in the Marines.
 
I knew someone somewhat older than I who had spent 4 yrs in the Navy as an electronics tech during the Korean War era, on an LST, based out of Norfolk and he always said they never saw any action, just cruised back and forth down the east coast to Gitmo and Vieques PR and back, never saw any action, and apparently didn't get much shore leave either.
 
went thru the panama canal ferrying a ship from west coast to shipyard in maine. stopped at rodman for picnic, roosevelt roads pr for weekend liberty, U.S. virgin islands for weekend liberty. was watching space mission launch when we spotted a russian agmr and had to follow it until it left the area.
 
That's does ring a bell about GTMO. Because of the flap over Cuba being a "Commie" country, GTMO was surrounded by a huge mine field. There was contingent of Marines, who were disposing of those mines, or doing whatever you do with a huge minefield. There was an accident when several Marines had to be medi-vacted out.
 
There was a corpsman 2c on the ship that I was on who had 15 years in and that was the first ship that he served on, he had been with the Marines.

We sailed from Little Creek/Norfolk to Panama and through the canal, but never went to GTMO.
 
Manatee said:
There was a corpsman 2c on the ship that I was on who had 15 years in and that was the first ship that he served on, he had been with the Marines.

We sailed from Little Creek/Norfolk to Panama and through the canal, but never went to GTMO.
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