Sgn up and ship out

So the time came to sign up which I did with no regret. Fear yes but no regret. We all left on a train and hit the Great Lakes training Center for the Navy. It was winter and damn cold. We were all young and all full of teenage foolishness.
First off they cut your hair off. Some of the guys needed to be scrubbed first. I never knew you could have such things growing on you scalp and not know it. We all were just still kids. Training went fast , they had to tear your moral down and build you back up. You were no longer one person you were many. You learn to depend on the guy next to you. If you could not trust him you could be killed. Some guys were not cut out for it and cried like babies others jumped in and to charge.
My self knew to listen and learn. Watch and learn. I got sick at camp and did not qualify as a swimmer. Now that was a problem to be in the Navy and could not swim.
Camp was over and we waited for orders. I got the West Coast and a Destroyer. First I tried a school to learn something besides deck hand. I became a Radioman. Communications as they say.
They ask you what you want to do and I said electronics. So I got to be in communications. In boot camp they teach you to shoot a gun which I knew already. I was classified as a sharpshooter elite. Or simply a good shot. This came in handy later.
After 6 months in San Diego to train for Radioman I transfered to the Destroyer. Those six months were a learning experience for me. A midwest boy let loose in Calif. The land of dreams.
Tijuania was just across the border and full of a new world of drinking and all kinds of vices.
Never heard of some of the things I saw. It was a maturing experience for me.
The school also was near the Navy Seal site which also did some training with us. I became great friends with some of them both on base and off. What I lacked in training of survival and fighting I learned from them. This too came in later to save my life. All the time we heard of the war in Nam and wondered how it was going to be. After our schooling we all were assigned to different ports and ships. My Destroyer waited for me in Long Beach a mere 90 miles up the coast from where I was.
So I got leave and went home for two weeks. Greeted by my High School sweetheart and got engaged as soon as I got home. Two weeks of hot and heavy teenage sex. Knowing I was shipping out to War made it all the more special. With tearful goodbyes I caught a plane and was off to War. My mother hugged me and my father shook my had as a man and said to take care of my self. Aim straight and keep my head low. War and Nam here I come.......