Family - Military - Joe

A number of people in our family have served in the military. 

THANK YOU for your service. 

Joe Todd - Military Service

I had completed one year of college: one semester at U of Dayton and 2 quarters at Ohio State. I found out that  my college draft deferment was tenuous as the Champaign Country Draft Board had run out of eligible men to draft (or, so they said) so they were going to begin drafting college deferred men. Since I was not a long term resident of Urbana, I figured my time was up. I had had enough of the Army type experience at Howe Military School so I considered the Air Force, Coast Guard, and the Navy. I talked to the Coast Guard closest recruiting center in Cleveland, Oh on the phone – they were not very encouraging. My dad had always talked up the Navy, I met a Navy guy home on leave in Urbana – the Navy it was.

U.S. Navy 10/13/53 -  off to Bainbridge, MD bootcamp – Yeoman school in late winter of 1953 (at Bainbridge); 1st assignment to Torpedo School in Newport, Rhode Island as Yeoman in  late Spring of 1954 with rank of Seaman; obtained rank of Yeoman  3rd class petty officer;

 Recruited by U.S. Naval Security Group and had to extend my enlistment by one year; departed Newport, R.I. as Communication Technician 3rd Class; arrived in Kodiak, AL on Thanksgiving Day 1955 – had a turkey sandwich on the way up. Served the Armed Forces Courier Service in a vault in the air base hanger.  

Departed for U.S. Naval Security headquarters on Nebraska Ave., Washington, D.C. on Election Day November 1956. Spent several days in Seattle, and reported into Washington, D.C. in December.

Became a Communications Technician 2nd class petty officer (CT2). Resided in the Hawthorne Hotel; Many civilians worked at Nebraska Ave; a number of whom had been discharged from the Navy – rank had almost nothing to do with your assignment.  Was discharged on August (18th I believe) 1958 – five years. Resumed my college education at Ohio State University. 

photo - Joe thinks this might be his high school senior photo, 1952

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More on Bainbridge here and here

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1/1/2018 corrected date