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1962 to 1964 Ran a family business in Belleville.
1964 to 1968 US Navy. Boot camp and Electrical school at Great Lakes, Il.
Feb 1965 aboard USS Cocopa ATF 101...Fleet Tug homeported in San Diego, CA. Made 2 cruises to western Pacific in 1965 and 1966/67 off Viet Nam a lot and stops in the Phillipines, Hong Kong, and Japan etc.
1967 transfered to USS MARS AFS 1...big supply ship homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. Operated off of Viet Nam a lot resupplying all of the ships operating there. Also was involved in resupply of ships off on Wanson, North Korea after the USS PUEBLO was captured in early 1968. After getting sick and spending 6 months in Navy and Air Force hospitals I was given a medical disability retirement in Oct ,1968.
1969 went to work for Gould Inc...Industrial Battery Div ...first in Peoria, Il. and the Cedar Rapids, Iowa offices. Transferred to Dallas, Texas where our son Carl was born.
Transferred to Tulsa, OK. in 1971 working all over the state of Oklahoma.
1973 left Gould and went to work for a friend that had been on one of the Navy ships in the plumbing business.
1989 went to work at a brand new Kimberly Clark paper mill in the Tulsa area.
Retired from Kimberly Clark 2/2/02. Could not afford to retire but had to get away from the rotating 12 hr work shifts.
Worked for almost a year ina new Ace Hardware as Plumbing Dept, Manager.
Aug 2003 went to work for LOWES in the Tulsa area first in the plumbing dept then in the Kitchen Design area designing and selling kitchen cabinets and countertops.
Retired from Lowes 10/10/10, bought a travel trailer and started living the good life.
Traveled a lot and camped a lot both local and at many RV Rallies and old Navy reunions. Over 5 years we made 30+ states, making a lot of new friends and renewing old friendships with former shipmates.
At one of the RV Rallies Nancy fell and long story short, she broke her shoulder and had to have it replaced after we got back home. Other health issues has turned into dementia and everything came to a screeching halt.....BUT...life goes on. I have been blessed with reasonably good health and have been able to take care of Nancy with some help a couple times a week.
After 2 1/2 years being a caregiver for Nancy she passed of Parkinson's Disease on March 27, 2019. I took a 3 1/2 week trip as a get away trip. Saw a lot of family, old friends in Belleville, rv friends , and old work friends in Florida. Pretty much got my mind right sitting on the beach in Key West, Florida. Have a new pick up truck ordered and as soon as it gets here the trailer will be hooked up and off I will go again.
Traveled myself for a time.....then while home in Broken Arrow for the holidays and super bowl, I had a couple mini strokes on super bowl
Sunday. 6 days in hospital and 7 days of rehab I was lucky enough to get back to the traveling scene.
August 2020 met a very sweet lady through her brother who is an RV friend. Went to McAllen, Texas Aug 12 to meet her and we have lived in her home in Texas and traveled a lot in our travel trailer ever since.
Hope to see many of you at the 60th Reunion in June.
