This is a photo taken of my late father and me sitting on the bow of the USS Carl Vinson. Following my first deployment, my father was able to fly to Hawaii and sail with me to port in Alameda California where coincidently, he was born. At the time this photo was taken, I had already experienced three traumatic events in just the first year of my enlistment. And that was just the begining.
The following are those events -
I was born and raised in Evanston Illinois and the youngest of six children. Both my parents graduated from Northwestern University and each of my siblings are highly educated, overachievers. I was one of the first white kids bussed to what had been an All-Black school back in the 60’s and I had an excellent public/private education through highschool. I was an All-American Swimmer, All-State in Water polo, and worked as a lifeguard during the summer that gave me much freedom. Though I had some self-confidence issues from being picked on by older siblings, my life up to this point had been a wonderful experience. Following high school, I was offered and accepted a full ride swimming scholarship to Illinois State University. During my first swim team practice before classes had even started, I was told that Water Polo had been dropped as a result of Title IX. I immediately climbed out of the pool and told the coach that without Water Polo, I had no interest in being on the Swim Team. I then transferred to Western Illinois that still had a Water Polo team at the time and I was given another swimming scholarship. Before I even attended my first swim practice, I was informed that Western Illinois had dropped Water Polo because of Title IX and once again I quit the swim team. Water Polo meant everything to me and the only reason I was on the swim team was to train for polo. And for the first time in four years, I had a lot of free time on my hands that I did not use wisely and my grades certainly reflected it.
At the end of my first semester junior year at Western Illinois, my academic advisor notified me that my major (Residential Construction) had been eliminated as a result of President Ronald Reagan budget cuts. My dream was to become a home builder in Michigan just like my cousin and I was devistated when the major was eliminated. I decided to take a semester off as I came to the point where I despised my college experience and the Government. (read more about my college experience).
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The following spring after dropping out of college, I decided to work at a YMCA summer camp in Fremont Michigan on a maintenance crew. I learned a lot of useful skills such as plumbing, electrical, some auto repair, and certainly how to clean bathrooms. When I returned to Evanston in September, I decided to go back to school part time and look for work. Because of the poor economy, jobs were hard to come by and there were very few that I was qualified for. I eventually found a posting for a minimum wage job as a maintenance worker at a local Park District and I actually knew the contact person for the job. After exchanging pleasantries and giving my work history, I was told that I wasn’t qualified enough for the job. Just as I was being told the bad news, a Military recruiting commercial came on the tv. “Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. We don’t ask for experience, we give it”. After I hung up the phone, I grabbed the yellow pages to look for the closet Military Recruitment Center and I immediately drove there with the intent on enlisting in the Navy. I met with a Navy Recruiter that very afternoon and a few days later I took tests to see what I was qualified for. Based on my test scores and junior standing in college, the Recruiter told me that I was qualified for C-School and possibly Officer Candidate School. I also took the ‘Nuke’ test and missed passing by one point. According to the Recruiter, I needed to enlist in the Navy first and then I would be assigned a C- School or OCS during Boot Camp. [C-School is specific training for each of the ratings in the Navy]. After a few weeks of Boot Camp, I was instructed to go to Classification to discuss my career options and when I inquired about the C-School or OCS, the Classifier informed me that my Recruiter had lied to me about the process. I was told that if I wanted to go to C-School or OCS, that decision should have been made before I signed my enlistment contract, not while I was in Boot Camp. And to make matters even worse, the Navy had lowered the test score for going to Nuke School by two points, but it was now too late for me to have that option. Out of compassion, the Classifier was able to promote me to E-3, but that was all he could do for me.
I was completely humiliated and outraged that I was lied to by my Recruiter. I would soon learn that Recruiters were evaluated and compensated by how many people they recruited no matter how they went about it. At the time I enlisted, the Military had become depleted because of the Viet Nam War and the Navy would have given me anything I wanted based on my test scores and college education. I had the chance to go to the University of Illinois where I was previously offered a scholarship, I could have been on the Water Polo team, and I could have become either a Nuclear Engineer or Navy Diver. Instead, I was relegated to the lowest level in the Navy and the bitterness consumed me for years to come.
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When I first got to Boot Camp, my name had been misspelled and nothing was done to fix it. Upon graduation, everyone in my Company was given orders except for me who had to go on “legal hold” while the Navy corrected my name. Legal hold (16th Division) is where people go who are being processed out of the Navy for lying about having criminal records, drug use, or other infractions that was unbecomming of the Military. I was the only person in the 16th Division who was heading to the fleet while everyone else was being processed out. Needless to say, I was treated harshly and became even more bitter and depressed. There was an incident where I was falsely accused of violating a policy and was punished by having to shovel snow for four hours in below zero temperatures without foul-weather gear. The Base Chaplain saw me shoveling and after I told him why I was being punished, he confronted the Company Commander of the 16th Division who imposed the punishment. The Company Commander was eventually demoted in rank and thrown out of the Navy for his actions.
The Chaplain was able to arrange for me to work in the Classification Offices where my orders would eventually arrive. My orders finally came (with my name properly spelled) and I was assigned to the USS Carl Vinson CVN70 and given orders to fly to Alameda California where the ship was supposedly stationed. Thrilled about my orders, I called my parents to give them the good news and how I would have two weeks of leave before having to report to the ship. The next day, I called my parents and they informed me that the Carl Vinson was not in Alameda California but in Norfolk Virginia preparing to sail around the world. My parents knew the location of the Vinson because my brother’s secretary had a brother on the Vinson. When I went back to Classification the next day to inform them that my orders needed to be modified, all hell broke loose. The Commander got on the phone and when he found out that my information was accurate, he threw the phone against the wall and went completely nuts. Thankfully, the Commander didn’t take his anger out on me. It turned out that the Navy had sent several sailors to Alameda and because of the bureaucracy, they couldn’t arrange for them to fly to Norfolk before the ship deployed. The stranded sailors spent several weeks trying to catch up with the ship and their stories of travel were epic.
The reason I am telling this part of my story is to illustrate how dysfunctional the Navy was. The Carl Vinson was the largest and most powerful ship ever built in its time, it cost billions, and when it was prepared to go on its first deployment around the world, the Navy had no idea where it was located.
During my two weeks of leave before reporting to the Carl Vinson, I had the chance to talk to my father about what happened in regards to finishing college. He said that he could not be prouder of me with joining the Military as he serverd in both WWII and the Korean War and he said to make the best of it.
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I reported to the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in March of 1983 just one week before it was set to deploy around the world to Alameda, California. I was assigned to the S-8 Division of Supply where my job was to store items and process inventory request chits that came from different departments. After a few weeks at sea, I was summoned to the S-8 Division offices were I was asked if I had any computer experience which I did (I didn’t bother to tell them that my experience was less than 48 hours).
I was then assigned to the S-8 Division Offices and would quickly learn to operate both a Wang computer system and SUDAPS (Shipboard Uniformed Automated Data System) along with learning the complicated Naval Supply system. Though I was in way over my head, I did everything to learn the system as quickly as I could. For some reason, I became skilled in memorizing Department codes which became very useful for when we had an underway replenishment (UNREP) just a few weeks later.
As we made our way across the Atlantic, we had a major underway replenishment (UNREP) with hundreds of pallets of inventory and supplies coming aboard. I was assigned to the staging area in the hanger bay where I would look at the document numbers on the side of each pallet and then direct fork-lift drivers to move the pallets throughout the ship for either direct turnover to the various Departments or for regular stock. After two days of replenishment (and no sleep), Supply Department Officer Captain Lutz came out on the hanger bay and ordered that all pallets that had not been processed be dumped in to the ocean immediately. Lutz explained that the Vinson was about to participate in ‘war games’ in just a few hours and that the hanger bay had to be cleared to stage and launch airplanes. At the time, there were still several dozen pallets still needing to be processed.
I was the only Enlisted person present when Lutz gave the order and soon all the Supply Officers departed the hanger bay while the forklift drivers began dumping the remaining pallets in the ocean. I was beyond mortified and I refused to participate. I then went down to the berthing area to take a shower and as I was getting ready to ‘hit the rack’, the S-8 Division Officer confronted me and demanded that I return to the hanger bay. I told the Division Officer that I would not obey an unlawful order and refused to participate in the dumping. I was terrified with what would be the consequences for my refusal to obey what I thought to be an unlawful order. I would learn over time that it was not an unlawful order since our actions benefited the Military Industrial Complex as everything dumpd in the ocean had to be reordered.
The next morning when I returned to the Division Offices, I was greeted with the ‘silent treatment’ as no Officer would talk to me. My coworker (who was exempt from the underway replenishment) was concerned for my well-being from what he overheard from the Officers. The scuttlebutt became that I told Supply Officers, including a Captain, to f*ck off and my life became a living hell after that. I was subsequently not written up as the Supply Officers knew that I could escalate a write up and expose what had happened or so I believed. I was in fear for my life and thoughts of suicide that had first entered my mind in Boot Camp became even more pronounced after this incident. I was never the same and it only got worse.
A few weeks later, I was notified that one of the forklift drivers who dumped the supplies in to the ocean filed a complaint with the Naval Investigative Service and that I was going to be interrogated. The Division Officer told me that I must be careful of what I say to the NIS Agents as it might impact my Naval Career (what career, C-School or OCS?). I then told the Division Officer that I will only tell the truth and if that results in Officers going to Leavenworth, so be it. [At the time, there were more Naval Supply Officers in Leavenworth than any other branch or billet in the Military]. And when I asked for legal representation from the Legal Department on the Vinson, I was denied.
And as for the whistleblower who drove one of the forklifts, he literally vanished as no one knew where he went. He gone, as a Chicago White Sox fan would say and I became even more fearful for my life.
I spent more than two hours being interrogated and when the investigation was complete, the NIS determined that the Vinson had only dumped consumables and not any repairables such as gyroscopes, engine parts, and so on as I had alleged and had sworn under oath. What was so preposterous about the determination was that the NIS made the assertion that we somehow separated repairables from consumables during the UNREP which is a bunch of malarky. And to make matters worse, Captain Lutz was promoted to the highest level in the Supply System for the Pacific Fleet. Welcome to the Military Industrial Complex.
I would be vindicated decades later when I was able to go on Social Media to a private page for Carl Vinson Veterans and see if anyone else had witnessed the fraud, waste, and abuse -
