On the road

On the road

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Honor Flight DFW profiles Spring-Summer 2013


 

Gordon enlisted in the U.S. Navy partly on the recommendation of a Navy recruiting officer.

On July 1, 1943 at the age of 21 Gordon reported to Iowa State College. Soon after Gordon asked for a transfer and he was on his way to Oklahoma University. Gordon was enrolled in what the military called the “V-12” program. Basically it was a program where servicemen would go to school as part of their service, usually to learn a specific and much needed skill that the military needed for the war effort.

After completing his work at OU, Gordon was transferred with other V-12 students to the Portsmouth Virginia Navy base where he began Naval Reserve Officers Training School. This was a boot camp for officers where they learned the military and navy way of life.

In December 1943 Gordon was sent to the U.S.Naval Academy for additional training. His class graduated in April, 1944 and this time Gordon was on his way to Harvard University. He was there until the end of September, 1944 learning electronic theory and special circuitry.

After being sent to the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point, Rhode Island he was assigned to a duty station where his job was to control naval air reconnaissance and air traffic in the Atlantic.

Gordon spent New Year’s Eve 1944-45 in New York City with his new wife, Joyce but in a few days he reported for duty on the heavy cruiser, U.S.S. Augusta. Gordon sailed on the ship to exotic ports in the Caribbean such as San Juan, Trinidad, Curacao and Guantanamo Bay Cuba.

Later, Gordon was assigned to serve on the staff of the commanding officer of Destroyer Squadron Three in New York City. The squadron received orders to go to the Pacific, and while steaming towards the Panama Canal, the ship received orders to turn around and head back to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The squadron had been decommissioned with the end of the war with Japan.

Gordon was then transferred to San Francisco where the Twelfth Naval district was located. Gordon became ill on the train however and spent several months in the hospital. After recovering, Gordon was placed on inactive duty on February 21, 1946.        

No comments:

Post a Comment