Who’s Q.? [PART 2], by Q. Reyes – Artistic Warfare #8

February 1, 2009 Q. Reyes 4 Comments

The U.S. Navy was a real life-changer and I don’t think I’ll ever have as much fun again in my life as I did during my time in the military.  I made some of the best friends ever and saw and met some of the most interesting people.

Great Lakes, Illinois was cold, cold, cold.  It seemed that God was mad at the people that lived there and he wanted his wrath to be felt as soon as you stepped outside.  I remember during bootcamp having to go on runs with my company wearing little Navy shorts while the wind chill factor must have been in the negative degrees.

During bootcamp, something interesting happens… you realize that you can believe and depend on yourself.  I didn’t have my childhood friends, or my mother, or anyone that I previously thought I could never live without, yet I was surviving.

After bootcamp, which lasted about six weeks, I still had three more weeks of apprenticeship training, which is where you get specific training for the job that you’ll be doing.  I’d chosen to be an Airman, since I wanted to be stationed at an airbase, leftover wishes from wanting to join the Air Force in the first place.

The good thing about apprenticeship training was that we were not considered new recruits anymore.  Bootcamp was officially over and we could go out and about town, of course, under strict curfews.  That was when it all unfolded.

About six or seven of us Navy guys would chip in and rent a Limo for the day.  We would hit Chicago like if we were balling out of control, in our Navy uniforms, of course.  I went everywhere and did all I could.  Ate at Michael Jordan’s restaurant and I remember thinking the food was not that good, but I was there for the experience.

The Navy base had a club for the enlisted personnel, and that’s where I spent my weekend nights, partying like if it was nineteen ninety-nine.  I really thought my life was getting better, and I hoped my friends back home were having a great time of their own.

The orders came in, which is when they tell you during your apprenticeship training where you’ll be stationed, and mine were to the USS Carl Vinson CVN-70.  The Carl Vinson is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier stationed at the time in Alameda, California, which is an island a few minutes away from San Francisco.

San Francisco was on the opposite coast of home.  California and the Pacific Ocean were foreign places to me, but I was ready for the journey.  Meanwhile, I was done with my apprenticeship training, just in time, since it was December 24th. I was more than glad to be on a plane on my way home to my mother and sister, my only family, to spend Christmas at a warmer Orlando, Florida.

A couple of weeks passed and it was time to head to the West Coast for the first time.  I didn’t know what to expect.  From what I’ve seen on TV and movies I thought a bunch of gang members were going to be waiting for me at the airport, beat and rob me as soon as I got there.  Nothing like that happened, at least not at the San Francisco airport.

Me, and the others who also got orders to be stationed in the same aircraft carrier, got into a van waiting for us outside the airport.  It drove us through the Oakland Bay Bridge, and I remember being astounded at the magnitude of that structure.  It was an amazing experience and it was my first impression of the West Coast.

If I thought the Bay Bridge previously amazed me, when we got to the base and drove towards the aircraft carrier I was in pure shock.  The thing is HUGE.  It’s like a skyscraper floating in the water.  Now I really didn’t know what to expect, but I was eager to find out.

[TO BE CONTINUED…]