1970

Pax River on the green star

  Moving on.  I said goodbye to Alameda for the last time and we moved on the Maryland for my very first east coast duty, Patrol Squadron Forty-nine, the Woodpeckers.  It was a family move, Betty had recovered enough to be released from the hospital and she and Jeff were in Alaska, her day was dieing.
  After a three week school in Norfolk, Virginia (Aircraft Maintenance and Material Control); don't ask me why I was there, I think it required of everyone?
  I reported down in Lexington Park for duty at VP-49, the Squadron was in Puerto Rico for some practice so there were only two of us, a yeoman second class and me, we just rode around and drank beer in different places; we were asked to leave one place, it was for blacks (we were told by the owner) and they were uncomfortable with us being there, so we left).  Lexington Park is "country", maybe 50 miles south of Washington DC, and the largest town near by is only maybe 8,000 people.  Lexington Park had two restaurants, a few bars, a movie theater and a grocery store and a number of sandwich shops; I'm sure that has all changed a lot since then.  There were beaches nearby, I did cover Lex earlier over in Tehachapi Pete.
  The Squadron returned, and in the fall we all left for Keflavik Iceland, my first of two 6 month deployments, this first one was for the winter and I was curious.  We were also told that when we came home, we were packing up to move.  Now; I had been told by Navy Personnel that the outfit was moving, either to Brunswick, Maine (which I wanted), or to Jacksonville, Florida (which I got).  Before we left for Iceland, Jeff was enrolled in Kindergarten (I think he went to about 10 schools in 12 years, but at least 8).
  I'll cover the deployment tomorrow because that's when the winter came, interesting.

We lived in units like this, it wasn't in base housing.



A P3C Orion (like VP-49 flew) over the coast of Iceland



Our squadron patch, the Woodpecker on the glove is painted on the planes tail(s).
I should say "was painted" no unit I served in is now active.