Last Sunday Sharon asked that those of us Treepers who had served in the military share their stories with the rest of us.  We are proud to present Installment One, in the story of our good friend Otis P. Driftwood.  The following will be the Reader’s Digest Condensed version of his life and career in the service of We The People.  Otis, we Salute You, Sir! ~ W2

Otis P. Driftwood’s Naval Career

In 1975, after 5 1/2 year in the Army Reserve, I decided to go on  active duty. The Army wanted to drop me from E-4 down to E-2. I
wasn’t having any of that, so I walked out of that recruiter’s office and straight across the hall into the Navy recruiter’soffice. He said I would have to drop to E-3 and after he explained how the Navy Petty Officer system worked I said OK. 3 weeks later I
was at Great Lakes Naval Station in Waukegan, IL.  It was December and the first time this Florida boy had EVER been involved with snow in any size, shape, or form. While there I attended a 3-week OSVet (Other Service Veteran) class.

At the completion of that I received orders to the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) home ported at Naval Station Alameda in CA. I was in V-4 Division within the Air Department. V-4 Division is responsible for
the fueling of aircraft. On the flight deck everyone wears different colored jerseys for identification. Fuels wear purple -‘grapes’ as we are affectionately known. Or in Navy parlance an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Fuels), shortened to ABF. I made 2 9-month Western Pacific (WesPac) cruises while on board. Stops in Hawaii; Singapore; Hong Kong (twice); Mombasa, Kenya, Fremantle
(Perth), Australia; Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; and the Philippines more times than I care to remember.

In 1978 I got out of the Navy as an ABF2 (Petty Officer 2nd class) and lived in St. Petersburg, FL. when I decided to re-enlist.  And so in June of 1981 I found myself reporting aboard the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) home ported at Naval Station Norfolk, VA. I was V-4 Division Assistant Flight Deck LPO (Leading Petty Officer).  I made 2 North Atlantic (Norwegian Sea) cruises (Portsmouth, England (twice); Lisbon, Portugal; Brest, France), 3 Caribbean cruises (Barbados, Antigua, and St. Thomas), and 3 Mediterranean cruises
(Tangier, Morocco; Alexandria, Egypt; Haifa, Israel (twice – GREAT liberty port); Athens, Greece (3 times) Monaco; Palma de Majorca, Spain; Taranto, Italy; Livorno, Italy; and Naples, Italy more times than I care to remember. In 1983, we were on a Med cruise when the suicide truck drivers slammed the U.S. Marines and French troops in
Beirut. That pissed us off. For the next 3 months we stayed 20-50 miles off the coast of Lebanon, planes taking pics of all the Druze missile sites that were later bombed by U.S. planes. ( If you look very carefully at the upper left-hand corner of the ‘K’ in Ike, you will see Otis!! – W2)

I left the ship on Jan.1, 1985 in Naples and went to shore duty at VT-86 at Naval Station Pensacola, FL. We were a training squadron, not pilots but what they NFOs (Naval Flight Officers). They are the guys in the back seats of F-14s (RIOs – Radar Intercept Officers. Remember in Top Gun where Goose tells Maverick, “Do some of that pilot stuff, man!!”. Goose was a RIO). We flew the TA-4J, which is a 2-seat version of the A-4. At VT-86 I was the Line LPO (Leading Petty Officer). The Line is mainly in charge of launching and recovering aircraft, and doing “Daily” and “Turnaround” inspections on the planes. At our squadron Christmas in 1986 I was surprised when I was called up in front of the entire squadron and awarded
“VT-86 Plane Captain of The Year”. Another plaque for my ‘I Love Me’ wall. That award enabled me to get back seat qualified for the TA-4J. I made 4 separate flights for about 7 hours. God Bless America. My first flight was with LCDR Lloyd ‘Bozo’ Abel. The next time you watch Top Gun he’ll be in the credits twice. Once right after the main actors are listed when the show the pilots’ names, and once again toward the end of the credits where he is listed as ‘F-14 Aerial Coordinator’. Bozo was a Top Gun instructor when they filmed the movie before he was stationed at VT-86. It was here that I picked up First Class Petty Officer (ABF1) before rotating back to sea duty.

After VT-86 I was stationed aboard USS Dubuque (LPD-8) home ported
in Sasebo, Japan. 2 years in Japan was a TRIP!! An LPD is roughly half the size of an aircraft carrier and nowhere near the crew. It is part of the Amphibious Navy, commonly called Gator Navy. I was the Air Department LPO. The only aircraft we had was helicopters.
While on board I went to Pusan, Korea; Pohang, Korea; Inchon, Korea more times than I care to remember; Phuket, Thailand; the Philippines; and the Persian Gulf with stops in Dubai and Bahrain.  In the Persian Gulf the temperature did not drop under 100 degrees
Fahrenheit until one night in October. We got there in June when the temperature is normally 120+.

In 1989 I left Japan and went to the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) home ported at the Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA., where I was V-4 Division Flight Deck LPO. The ship went into drydock the day before I went aboard. If you have never walked UNDER an aircraft carrier, you are missing a treat. When it left drydock after a year, we did sea trials and all that, then went to the Persian Gulf for Desert Shield. Back to Bahrain and Dubai. But this time it wasn’t as hot as before because Saddam had lit all the oil wells on fire and there was this haze covering the sky. On the way to the Persian Gulf we stopped in the Philippines and Singapore for 5 days each. On our way home from the Persian Gulf we stopped In Pattaya, Thailand and Hong Kong for 5 days each. I took 20 days leave for all of that.

In December 1991, I transferred to Naval Station Long Beach, CA for shore duty. They were in the process of shutting the base down and calling it all Long Beach Naval Shipyard. All of the ships home ported there were being re-routed to San Diego and Pearl Harbor for
new home ports. I was part of the Transient Personnel Unit or TPU. Riding a desk. What fun. I was mainly in charge of all the guys who had managed to get themselves on restriction, awaiting court-martial, you name it. I have never worked with so many losers in my life.

I got out of the Navy in 1994 and moved to Jacksonville, FL. With my active duty time and reserve time, I will get a reserve pension starting next year when I reach the age of 60. I always managed to
have fun in the Navy (being single helped) and I got to see a ton of stuff that I never would have seen and do a ton of stuff that I never would have been able to do. I look back on those days with fond memories of places and friends. I have been to quite a lot of places and seen all of the attractions, but do you know what the main attraction of any country is? The People. My best times were when I was in a place where little or no English is spoken. Stand
on a corner and wait for a bus. Have a handful of change and let the driver get the right amount. Get off the bus in the middle of some neighborhood and start walking around. Find a little Mom and Pop bar or restaurant and go inside. Within 1/2 hour you will have friends for life. I was the first, and so far as I know, the onlyAmerican a lot of these people have ever met. I hope I left as good an impression on them as they did on me.

Otis P. Driftwood