I was enrolled in Navy ROTC so my low draft number was irrelevant. Ever since a Boy Scout trip to Norfolk Naval Station, I had wanted to be a naval officer. I spent the summer after my graduation/commissioning at Brunswick, Georgia attending Combat Information Center Watch Officer school, then proceeded to the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida. My first (and only) cruise was to the Mediterranean and lasted almost one year as all the other carriers were in, traveling to, or traveling from Vietnam. After about 2 1/2 years of active duty (my total obligation was for three years) I was given the choice of leaving active duty a little early or serving on active duty for a total of four years. By 1972-1973, the Vietnam war was winding down and the Navy had a surplus of junior officers. I chose to leave rather than make the military my career. I thoroughly enjoyed my military service, however.
