Seabee Memories

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The first time that I heard the name was when our drill instructor Rumsey asked us, while we were in ranks after class and before PT, “Who would volunteer for a war we have going in Viet Nam?” Almost everyone stepped forward. “Here we go, round again, won’t stop, won’t quit, never die. Why? Whiskey, women, PT, Rumsey.”   

After each school day, Rumsey would run us around the base, close to the palm trees and the chain link perimeter fence. You feel you can run forever when you are running as a company or platoon. Even in your combat boots. Rumsey was like John Wayne. One tough sonofa. . .

We were nearing the end of the Navy Seabee Class A Electrical School in Port Hueneme, California, sixty miles north of L.A. The name Port gives you a hint that it is on the coast. The year was 1964. It was before the Summer of Love in San Francisco. “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair.”

It was a three-month school that ended with a month of power pole work. Not telephone pole work, power pole work. I guess they put it at the end, because if you broke your leg during this phase, it really didn’t matter. You still had the knowledge of the previous two months.

That is Elmer Berkee sitting on the cross arms, with me gaffed in under him. He was from Oregon and he did get orders to Da Nang. In country, sitting like this, you were a fun target for the Vietnamese snipers. I wonder how Berkee did over there. I heard of a Seabee who got shot in the ass upon arrival, as his plane was landing.

Mark Ruane was from Malden and he got orders to Reykjavik. Harvey went to Roda. Most everyone else went to Viet Nam. Somehow I ended up at the Naval Air Station in South Weymouth, Massachusetts. I met John Waltner at South Weymouth. John and Frank Sinatra were both from Hoboken. Every time you see John, he reminds you of that fact. Every single time. He had done two tours in ‘Nam. One on an aircraft carrier, and one in the mud and torrential rains at Da Nang. Once while crossing a river on a barge, the guy sitting next to him was shot dead. John was an Seabee Equipment operator which meant bulldozers, graders, front end loaders, and tractor trailers. When he came aboard the carrier, the Boatswains Mate Chief asked him what the hell rate was that under his crow. Waltner told him, “Seabee Equipment Operator.” The chief shook his head and said, “And what the hell am I suppose to do with you?”   

John did end up operating something on the carrier. It was called the ship’s movie projector.

My boss and friend of 52 years now got orders from South Weymouth to an Army base in Ethiopia. Chet was wounded in Viet Nam and ended up putting in 44 years in the Navy. Spain, Viet Nam, Sicily, Guam, Puerto Rico, Gulfport, and his very last duty station was American Samoa. He came to the Seabee reunion here this summer with his wife, Carmen, who he met in Puerto Rico. He is legally blind and you have to speak to him through his microphone, but he still has that same positive attitude that he had the very first day that I met him. Chet Urbati -- Navy Seabee Electrical Senior Chief and a first class person . . . and does he ever have stories to tell!

While at the landfill recently, a guy stopped by the side of my pick up. “Were you a Seabee?” he asked. I only have one sticker on my truck rear window and it is the Seabee one. “I was.” He said he recently was also, and was just returning from Fallujah. “What did you do over there in Iraq,” I asked? He said, “We built a hospital.” I said, “Thank you for serving.” He returned the compliment.

Bacon R.F.  CEW 2   693 -10 - 63

My Seabee Friend, John Waltner

Attention on deck !

Here is a photo of John Waltner and former wife Charlie (Charlotte) at their daughter's wedding in Jersey, 2012. They still look good together, don't they?

We met at Naval Air Station South Weymouth in 1967. He was a Seabee Equipment operator -- bulldozers, graders, tractor trailers, ETC.  He was in our wedding party that same year.

John was and still is known as JoJo to his friends in Joisey. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, JoJo and his fadder was walking down the street and Jo Jo said, "Hey Dad, listen to the boid." His fadder says, "It ain't no boid, it's a bird."

Jo Jo said, "It sure choips like a boid."

John & Charlie took good care of us when we ran the NYC Marathon twice -- 1978 and 1981. They announced their first pregnancy to Sandy and I in a Soho restaurant in NYC. It was an Italian restaurant where the maitre-de hugged everyone. Do you remember?

John & Charlie in the 1970s.

John & Frank Sinatra are both from Hoboken originally. John did two tours in Vietnam. And then he was married a long long time.

If you need support with ANYTHING, John is always there. Actually that seems to be a trait of all Navy Seabees. My first true friends were Seabees.

Sandy took both photos. The first one is at the Green's Harbor jetty in Marshfield. My guess is that it was taken in the seventies. Time flies.

Speaking of ..... I do not want a long church Mass or a wooden box or even an urn, but I would like to have my family presented with the Colors and a salute or two. No guns. It will scare the squirrels. I want it as an open house here at 110 where all the parties were. But I am not ready quite yet. Dress blues would seem appropriate. I would ALSO like it if Leonard Cohen makes an appearance. "Hallelujah" would be my first choice for him to sing. If Julie Christianson could back him up, all the better. I know it would be asking way too much for his Greek mandolin player to show. HEY! I don't ask for much, and this will be my very last party.

Maybe you could hire a professional mourner like Johnny Pescucci from the North End and he could cry his eyes out at my service.

In the sixties, he used to do it for five dollars. He probably gets more now. But I know that John Waltner will be there.

Thanks again for tuning in.