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.
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