By January of 1986, I was counting the days until my enlistment was over. I bought a used car - a 1973 Ford Mustang with very low miles and I was living my life like a Mountain Dew commercial. I went skiing in Lake Tahoe several times and went camping in the foothills very chance I had. Being in Supply, I was able to have a bike onboard that I would take the BART to San Francisco and would ferry to Sausalito and bike along Highway 1 without a helmet. Looking back, I was insane for some of the risks I took. Around this time, I received a letter from a close friend who had graduated from college and was working in the offices of Congressman Roy Dyson who sat on the Armed Services Committee. My friend came from a very influential family within the Democratic Party and she was like a sister to me growing up. When I received her letter on Dysons stationary, I decided to write her back detailing all the corruption I had been exposed to and suggested that Congressman Dyson call for an outside audit of the Naval Supply System. A few weeks later, I was summoned to the Supply Department Offices where I was confronted by the Supply Captain who had a letter from my friend in hand that was written on Congressman Dysons stationary. Thankfully, my friend responded without mentioning anything about my allegations and the Supply Captain was satisfied that I was not communicating with a Congressman for nefarious reasons. My friend never responded to my allegations as I would learn over time that the Military Industrial Complex with all its corruption was directly tied to Washington.

In early September, the Vinson was set to go on a six month West Pac deployment where I had less than sixty days to go with my four year Enlistment. I submitted a request chit for ‘early out’ that allows for sailors to leave active duty before a ships deployment. This was to avoid the cost of having to fly a sailor back to the US to be processed out of the Navy during peace time. My request was denied even though every other sailor who had less than 60 days was approved. My paranoia started to kick in as I came to believe that something was going to happen to me. During the month of September which is the last month of the fiscal year, Departments began submitting massive amounts of inventory request chits. When I asked Chief Milleran why so many request chits were being submitted, he said that the Departments were spending all of their remaining allotted monies only to cancel the request chits after October 1st. In his words, “if the Departments doesn’t spend the money, they won’t get the money”.