In mid 1973 The USS Midway and its air wing were scheduled to forward deploy to a new home at Yokosuka, Japan. My sea tour with VF-151 would not be completed until July 1974 which would require me to go to Japan. I had a close friend with the same rating and rate as me stationed at NAS Miramar. He wanted to go to Japan for personal reasons. The Navy allowed him to swap duty with me if he would agree to a four year sea tour. He did and the Navy just detailed me to shore duty early.
In Sept, 1973 I transferred to VA-125 (A7 aircraft) at Naval Air Station, Lemoore, CA. For those that don’t know, that’s just about in the middle of the San Joaquin valley. I moved my family to NAS Lemoore and then reported to Naval Training Command, Memphis for advanced Aviation Structural Mechanic schooling. My training was completed in Jan 1974 and I reported back to VA-125. The following month they sent me to the Marine Corp Recruit Depot (MCRD), San Diego, to attend Navy instructor training where I earned a 9501 enlisted classification code for stand-up instructors. Upon returning to VA-125 I was assigned to the training department as an instructor supervisor. I spent my entire shore tour in that position and was advanced to E7 (chief petty officer) and became my division’s supervisor.
What VA-125 was doing with me was take advantage of my knowledge and experience with the A7 aircraft.
The picture of me was taken right after I returned home from the Chief’s initiation where I got my anchors.
VA-125 pictures.
I make Chief - 1975.JPG
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