Rick Nodolf..
Following is my story concerning my duty in the Navy:
I had finished two years at Madison Area Technical College in 1969. At that time, they did have the draft implemented due to the Vietnam War. By then, I had lost 3 friends over there including Bill Thomas who was a high school classmate whom I had played sports with, etc. He was awarded 3 purple hearts with the last one costing him his life. His funeral was at approximately the same time as my graduation from MATC.
I was very concerned about being drafted & did not agree with the situation in Vietnam and decided to enlist in the Navy and control my own destiny.
I went through basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago. It took me an additional 3 weeks to complete training as I caught pneumonia which put me in the base hospital for a couple of weeks. Luckily, I did get leave in time for Christmas before leaving for my next assignment.
After completing basic training, I received orders to receive radio/teletype/communications training at a naval base near Providence, Rhode Island for six weeks. Upon completion of this, I received orders to be shipped to NAVCOMSTA Balboa (Panama, Canal Zone - a U.S. Territory at the time, turned back over to Panama in 1999) which, at that time, was the military's largest communication station worldwide as it served both oceans. With the Vietnam war going on, it was an extremely busy place.
An interesting note - I was assigned to be a radioman. However, they were so overmanned in this department that a large group, including myself, were assigned to outside maintenance and anything else that they could find for us to do. I know how to paint large rocks perfectly! One day, our group was approached by the Chief Rodrigaz to seek a volunteer to keep track of the commissary books (basically tracking the food/costs of operating the galley/mess hall for the base). No one was interested except for me. It seemed logical to me - a choice between painting rocks and trees in humid, 80 degree weather OR working in an air conditioned office! So I became a storekeeper (supply).
Eventually, I turned the commissary books over to someone else and was assigned to the base warehouse which was right on the canal. It was extremely busy as everything consumed by the base came through us. In addition, many allied ships as well as our own docked there to take on additional stores. I recall that we had over 10,000 electronics parts alone in inventory, along with everything else except for food items which were handled separately by the PX.
I was stationed there for one year before going home on leave to marry Gini who then joined me in Panama. (I tell people I took her on a 4-year honeymoon to Central America! She is not amused by this). She actually taught school there while I served. We were then together there for approximately 4 years.
Relations between the U. S. and Panama were very good at the time, so we could travel fairly freely throughout the country. It is beautiful there, especially in the rain forest and along the canal itself. We often drove to the interior where there were wonderful beaches along the ocean. We would go with several couples and camp on beaches.
There is plenty of wildlife to keep it interesting too, especially near the canal and the rain forest. You always had to watch for poisonous snakes, tarantula spiders and such, especially . Gini can tell you about running over large boa constrictors while driving thru the rain forest between schools. We often spotted jaguars, monkeys, and macaws in the trees just beyond the barracks and other housing. In fact, if you left your windows open, you could hear the monkeys and birds chattering outside your window.
Panama city was typical of any large city with good parts and bad parts. It is actually pretty international - there a many Eastern Indians, Chinese and other nationalities there in large numbers. This means that there were excellent restaurants.
It was extremely interesting as there is a lot of history there also, including forts built by the infamous pirate Henry Morgan. He invaded several times and finally established a couple of forts there. There are still old walls and cannons in place.
Panama is a beautiful country and we hope that someday we can go back to see how it has changed since 1974 which is when we left!
