my new email address
GSGETMAN@NETZERO.COM

5/8/06 My new email address: gsgetman@earthlink.net
As my wife passed away a year ago last March
My house is expected to be sold in the very near future and I am becoming a full time RVer!
Expect to hit a lot of ports (states), as I have children all over the U.S.!
I just returned from a two & a half month vist with my daughter and son in Las Vegas--on my trip back to Ohio, I swung by Arkansas to visit about 10 days with my son there!

I live 2 1/2 hours from las vegas. this is GM2 Cosmano

Gary,

Sorry to hear about your wife. Glad to hear you are traveling and enjoying yourself. We now live in Portland, Texas a small town outside of Corpus Christi. So make this one of your port stops :)

Mark

Many years ago a young kid was sitting in a college classroom taking a math test and was so completely lost the time just seemed to stop. Wondering what to do with his life he got up and walked out of the classroom leaving his books behind moving rapidly toward his car.
He sat down and turned the ignition and nothing happened, was it a sign to carry his butt back in and finish the test? probably, but he just got out and push started the car. As he was driving the car home it occurred to him, the conversation that was replayed as a common theme during dinner over the last 5 years since his mother remarried he was 13. 6 years after his father passed. As long as your going to school you have a place to live. Things hadn't been going so well for the last few years, you see after doing what you want when you want since you were 7 years old a stranger coming in and trying to be an authority figure wanting the most ridiculous things, this just wasn't going to fly. Wanting things like sitting down and eating as a family, wanting people in bed by 10pm wanting to know where you were going when leaving the house. “ I'd like to slap that kid”.
Anyway it occurred to the kid he needed an escape and about that time he passed the recruiter station. He turned the car around and parked, got out and headed toward the office of the Air Force recruiter. The sign on the glass door read “out to lunch back in 15 minutes”. Sitting on the bench across from the door he decided to wait. About two minutes later a second class petty officer walked up, at the time he only knew it was a sailor as having no idea what a second class even looked like, the sailor asked “what are ya doing”. “waiting on the guy from the Air Force”. “Do you have an appointment” he asked “no” was the answer. “Come with me “ he said, following him down the row or recruiters offices to the Navy's small office. Paperwork was filled out, test were taken, you all know the drill you have been there yourself so no more boring details. He went to boot camp and had a rude awakening (he didn't fit). After attending GSE A school, he didn't make the grade and was sent to the fleet as a GSEFN, sent to the precom unit Yorktown where they promptly sent him to every school available to pass the time until the USS Yorktown CG-48 was Commissioned. The day was tomorrow, the day everyone would fly down and the ships crew would all be together for the final preps before Commissioning. The picture clear in his memory a replay of a common occurrence from childhood, team captains were called EM01, EM02 and EM05 names wont be mentioned but they are clearly remembered. sides were picked. don't know if they had a list of who was going where but they were done picking and he was still standing there. Now it was clear this wasn't the most attractive kid, the day before sitting in Norfolk a pact was made, a group of Fireman were going to give themselves Mohawks, it would be cool and the only one stupid enough to do it was, you guessed it our GSEFN. Assembling in the lobby of the building they had called their duty station Coach walked in and saw our young lad and made it exceptionally clear that the rest of the hair would be gone in the next 5 minutes or someones head would be removed from the shoulders and there was no doubt in anyones mind it would happen. hind sight being 20/20 it is believed this was probably the root of this young lads problems but trust me he had plenty more. Very tall 6 feet 8 inches very skinny 190 LBS and as many people who went down to engineering berthing and saw the top rack that was extended you guessed it, it belonged to our GSEFN. well back to the pier. standing there the memory as clear as if it happened yesterday they stood there arguing who had to take our young lad. Names were called “Soup Sandwich” “Dirt Bag” and many others, there was no mistaking it they didn't want him. The next thing that happened GSE1 Benny Smith stepped up to the plate and gave them what for, why? no one knows, but the point is he did, he took our young soup sandwich aside and said you work for me. he told him the secrete of success as a Fireman in the Navy. You want to know.
1.Show up on time
2.Do what your told
3.When your finished report it and ask for something else to do.
4.Repeat.
Thats it, the secrete of success, from that point on it got easier. no longer feeling like a round peg forced into a square hole, still making mistakes and there was still tremendous growth over the next few months, in fact many years. The next day that will never be forgot was played out in CCS same players only this time they were arguing over who got our GSEFN. Talk about elation, vindication and validation all rolled up together. Well over time the Navy came to its senses and crossed rated our young sailor moving him onto bigger ships with higher overheads, things were easier after GSE1 Smith showed this young sailor compassion, taught him the ropes, I wish I could say things were perfect from then on, they weren't but our sailor went on to have a very successful career in the Navy and at his retirement ceremony the thought of GSE1 Smith was in front of his mind, he will always be remembered.
Thank You.
You touched my life in a way no one else would.
Calvin C. Fryman
USS Yorktown CG-48 Plank Owner
Master Chief Petty Officer
USN RET.

Gary great to get back in touch. Hope all is well. Mark A. Hallowell, Sr. (HT1)