Roland mentioned in my "Confusing Questions" post that maybe we ought to start a post on who we are. He feels that this might make both new and older members more confortable. I will start this post with some information about myself and hope that others will follow.

I was born in Plainfield, NJ and moved to Pennsylvania when I was 5 years old. I grew up 15 miles outside of Erie, PA in the small town of Girard with a population of 1500 people. I lived less then 2 miles from Lake Erie so being close to water probably helped shape my life. We used to swim right in front of Presque Isle Lighthouse on Sunday afternoons but somehow lighthouses never were an interest to me then. I graduated high school in 1961 and a year later enlisted in the Navy.

I enlisted in the Navy in May of 1962 and went to Great Lakes, IL for boot camp. After boot camp I stayed at Great Lakes and attended a year of electronics training. After spending a winter at Great Lakes in the old WWII "H" style wooden barracks and waking up in the morning with sifting snow on my blanket (my bed was next to a drafty window) I decided if I had a chance after school that I wanted to be stationed in the south.

I got my wish and received orders to NAS Jacksonville, FL in the spring of 1963. I met Amy in Jacksonville, got married in the fall of 1964, our son Scott was born there in June of 1966 and we stayed there until my enlistment was up in Nov of 1966 (4 1/2 year enlistment thanks to a 6 month involuntary Viet Nam extension).

In November of 1966 we moved to Erie, PA and I got a job as an Electronics Technician at a local manufacturing plant in Erie. We used to take rides on Sunday to the Presque Isle and Erie Land Lighthouses. We decided to go back into the service because we both liked the service life and the travel. I joined the Coast Guard in April 1967 because of it being a smaller and more personal service.

The Coast Guard gave me my choice of duty stations and I chose Mayport, FL. During the 5 months that I was stationed in Mayport I got to work on the electronics equipment inside St. Simons, Mayport(new) and Cape Canaveral Lighthouses. I got to climb them, enjoyed the view and started to appreciate lighthouses. My daughter Kellee was born in July of 1967 and I received orders for Viet Nam in August 1967.

I left for Viet Nam on board the USCGC Androscoggin, a 255' High Endurance Cutter in September of 1967 from USCG Base Miami Beach, FL. We spent a year away from home and returned to Miami Beach in October 1968. I saw many places that I would not normally have seen like Panama Canal Zone, Honolulu, Subic Bay, Philippines, Hong Kong(1 month during Chinese New Year), Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and many off-shore areas of Viet Nam.

Upon return from Viet Nam in October 1968 I was stationed at both USCG Base Miami Beach and the Coast Guard's 7th District Office until January 1971. We visited Cape Florida and Key West Lighthouses and I worked on Fowey Rock Lighthouse.

In January 1971 I received orders to the USCGC Ingham. a 327' High Endurance Cutter that was homeported in Berkley, VA across from Portsmouth, VA. The ship pulled International Ice Patrols referred to in the Coast Guard as Ocean Station Patrols for 45-60 days at a time. These patrols were established after the Titantic sinking. Our main job was to report ice bergs and provide navigation for airplanes crossing the Atlantic. The airline pilots were so thankful for us providing location positions for them that they took personal messages from individuals and mailed a post card to our wives when they landed. Amy could not figure out, when she got that first postcard, how a postcard signed by me and postmarked Miami, could happen when I was in the North Atlantic in the middle of the ocean. I explained when I got home how this happened


Rich