[SatinDoll]

I was in the Navy for 6 years. One man I knew, an ex-Navy linguist who had served in the Indian Ocean during the late 1970s, related how he had 3 of those 6-month deployments in a row. By the time he finally was able to leave the IO and go home to visit his wife in San Francisco, she was in the process of divorcing him.

He was a rarity in the Navy - he could read, write, and speak Farsi (Persian), three dialects of Arabic, German, Italian, Greek, French, and Spanish. He was honorably discharged in 1981 and never re-upped. It was his poor luck that the Shah of Iran was thrown out and the US Embassy seized by radicals during his enlistment.

[cva66snipe]

Yea that would explain his three continuous deployments. The line to see the JAG on a carrier a week {first mail call} after leaving for the MED was often as long as the check cashing line. My Chief on one cruise had NIS investigate his wife back in the states. Seems she had moved two men into their home. One for her and one for their minor daughter. The men were sailors and NIS nailed them.

[cva66snipe]

BTW I remember the day Iran took the hostages real well. The Navy went on alert. At first we didn't know what was going on. The enlisted Brow was removed and the elevator doors closed. Orders came down nobody could leave but nobody yet knew why. This went on for several hours & into the early evening. After an hour or so The Old Man came over the 1MC saying we were on alert for possible deployment to the IO and explained what was happening.

Back then you took the long way down and around to the PG. The Suez remained closed to carriers after the Six Day War wasn't opened back up for carriers until 1981. Best I recall the JFK drew the short straw and we headed on into Portsmouth for drydock and overhaul.