Destroyer School was coming to a conclusion. It was autumn 1973. i was disappointed to learn i would not be returning to a weapons or operational job on the East Coast, but had received orders to be the Chief Engineer of the USS Hollister (DD 788), home ported in Long Beach. The mitigating factors were i felt i needed to have more experience in engineering, and my old friend Earl Major also would be going to Long Beach. His ship, the USS England (CG 22), was in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

My wife and daughter pulled up stakes in Newport and headed home with my parents, who had flown up to help. i went to Norfolk for almost a month of engineering training. As nearly always happened with me, i was not trained on a FRAM destroyer like the one i would be attached. They put me on a 1200-pound steam plant, a Forrest Sherman class destroyer. i learned a bit, but not like the plant i would inherit.

Earl and i returned to Newport and traveled to Tennessee, switching off driving in Earl’s 1967 Porsche 911. Then Kathie, Blythe, and i headed west.

i was entering a new phase of my Navy: West Coast, engineering, and the new split tour program, which meant in about 18 months, i would go to an amphib or service force ship.

A new world was about to begin.