Navy Fun: When Ronald Reagan Was in Charge, and Being in the Navy Was a Blast

by Vince Stead

Enjoy yourself, as you step into the shoes of a Navy sailor, who travels around the world, on a Destroyer, an Aircraft Carrier, and a Submarine Tender, and visits 16 countries! You'll travel by Navy ship, and see some very interesting countries, with shopping, bars, and stories of famous Red Light district's, and woman everywhere! See what it's like ot be out to sea on a ship, working and playing, in the middle of the ocean! See all the Crazy and Wacky things Officer's do, and see how the Admiral lives on an Aircraft Carrier! Then, transfer to shore duty, where it seems the woman are in charge, and there are plenty of them!

Genres: Military Fiction

171 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2007

About the author

Vince Stead was born in Pontiac Michigan, and had 4 older brothers and 2 older sisters. Vince's mother passed away from cancer at the age of 37, and Vince was 18 months old at the time. Vince spent a little bit of time with other relatives, then was reunited with his father, who was a life long alcoholic, but was a nice father.

Vince's father owned a string of bakeries, but there was never really any money, his father drank and spent it away most of the time. At a very early age, Vince would go with his father every day to work, where is father and helpers would make all the bakery products at one bakery, and deliver them to the other bakeries every morning, and Vince would ride in the delivery van with his father every day until he was old enough to go to school. Vince learned at an early age, that is father required him to pay for his stuff, like new school clothing and other stuff. Through out Vince's whole childhood life, he worked weekends with his father in the middle of the night at his bakery, to earn money to buy clothes for school.

Vince got his first real job as a paperboy at the age of 11, and kept that job instead his was 13, when he got a better job washing dishes at the local Harvey's Country Kettle Restaurant, where he would ride his bike to and from the restaurant several nights a week after school. Vince kept the dish washing job until he was 15 years old, and got a job a big grocery store in the next town over. Vince did not have a drivers license yet, but he really wanted to keep his job, so he would hitch hike after school to his grocery store job, and sometimes he would be picked up by his teacher, and she would give him a ride to work.

All of Vince's brother's and sisters we required to move out of the house before they turned 16 years old. Vince was able to talk his older friend into renting an apartment with him, that worked at the grocery store also. The manager was nice enough at the grocery store to let Vince work nights shining the grocery store isles with a machine, and working each Sunday, where the other employees were only allowed to work every other Sunday, because the grocery store paid over time, and Ron the manager, had a kind heart.

Vince joined the Navy when he was 18 and liked it very much. He spent 4 years on shore duty at an air squadron, and 4 years at sea duty, where he was stationed on a submarine tender, the USS Proteus, and a destroyer, the USS David R. Ray, and a short stint on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. While on the destroyer, the ship would escort Kuwaiti oil tankers full of oil destined for America, out to sea so they would not get attacked. They would put an American flag on their ship, and the destroyer Vince was stationed on would escort them out to sea and safety so everyone back in America could get cheap oil at the time

While Vince was in the Navy and living in San Diego, California, he has always owned, raised, trained, and enjoyed dogs in his life.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one person's chronicle of life in the US Navy.

The author grew up in a small town in Michigan. Part of a large family, his father's attitude was that when each child reached 16 years old, they moved out of the house. A friend was joining the Navy, so the author followed him.

Boot camp, held in Florida, consisted of a lot of yelling, for no good reason. When it was time to choose the area of training the sailor would learn, the author, having no better ideas, went to yeoman school. There he learned to type memos the Navy Way, and otherwise entered the world of military paperwork.

His first duty station was aboard a submarine tender. It followed several submarines, and acted as their supply ship. He worked directly with the ship's Commanding officer and Executive Officer, most of whom were decent, reasonable people. He compared himself to Radar O'Reilly, from the TV show MASH, taking care of the paperwork. It was not the most strenuous job in the Navy. Later in his career, he found himself doing similar work on a destroyer and an aircraft carrier.

When it is time to board a ship for your tour of duty, the ship does not come to you; you go to the ship, wherever in the world it might be. The author talks about some of the places he visited in his travels. Places like Manila and Seoul very much cater to American military personnel. There are many, many bars and nightclubs, each with many beautiful young women available for one-night stands. Even the most plain-looking guy, who can't get a date back home, could have a different woman each night, if he was interested. He noticed that things are very different in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He also visited Hawaii, Guam, Hong Kong, the Maldive Islands and Diego Garcia (which is little more than a giant military base).

This is an interesting book that's worth reading. It's short, and is written in a very informal style.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book itself ws a pleasant read, reminiscent of my Navy days. However, the era he speaks of does not bode so well for those of us who served with pride in the early sixties. The CNO Admiral Zumwalt, wanted to make the Navy fun. He relaxed dress codes, allowed civilian attire on ships and for the most part drugs, race problems, and lax discipline ran away.

I think this ear hurt the reputation of the Navy, considering this was the times that there were mutiny's on several aircraft carriers, on being the USS Constellation, my ship.

I am not sure how much of the book is true and how much is "artistic license."

[Tom Bateman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The grammar in this book astounds me. Did no one proofread the manuscript?