Page 42 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine
P. 42
by Larry Williams
After graduating in 1962, (The carrier was decommissioned
Jerry held a few odd jobs. in 1973 having received five battle
In April 1963, he thought stars during WWII and 12 battle
about enlisting. “I could stars during the Vietnam War.)
either join the Army and Jerry was onboard for four of those
serve two years or the Air battle stars.
Force or Navy and serve
four years. I decided on “We headed for Vietnam out of
the Navy because I heard North Island. We stopped at Pearl
that you made rank faster Harbor in Hawaii and eventually
at that time. I enlisted in arrived in the Tonkin Gulf. We
Roswell and was flown up to were there during the “Gulf of
Albuquerque for induction. Tonkin incident” off the coast of
I was sent to Camp Nimitz Vietnam. Two unprovoked attacks
in San Diego for boot camp. by North Korean torpedo boats on
At that time, there was the destroyers Maddox and Turner
a bad outbreak of spinal Joy led President Lyndon Johnson
meningitis, so we had to to escalate our involvement in the
take two pills a day. Instead war. The scariest time for me was
of eight weeks of boot camp, when the general was called. We
we finished in six. heard over the intercom, ‘This
is not a drill.’ It was extremely
“I didn’t go to any advanced difficult to get to my duty station.
ubbock resident Jerry training schools but was I was four decks below the water
Troublefield was raised assigned to the USS Ticonderoga line in the auxiliary steering
Lin dusty Hagerman, NM, CVA-14 as a shipfitter/pipefitter section, and you had to climb to
midway between Roswell and (SFP) trainee. We boarded on the top of the ship through several
Artesia. Jerry was the youngest November 22, 1963. I’ll never sealed doors.
of five children born to Charlie forget it because that was the day “We did several ‘pineapple cruises’
and Polly Troublefield. Charlie President Kennedy was killed in to Hawaii. Other cruises were
started out as a farmer and later Dallas. I spent Thanksgiving and to Hong Kong, the Philippines,
became the Deputy Sheriff of Christmas on ‘Rust Bucket’ as and Yokosuka. One time we went
Chaves County—the fourth largest we called the Ticonderoga.” It was over to ‘Monkey Island.’” (Ed.
county in New Mexico (6,000 built in 1943 and was the fourth Note: Saru Shima Island near
square miles). Jerry graduated from ship named Ticonderoga. The one Yokosuka is uninhabited but has
Hagerman High School where he that Jerry boarded was an Essex- several fortifications from the
played basketball and ran track. class aircraft carrier and had a Tokugawa and Meiji era and is a
Jerry recalled, “They didn’t have a compliment of 3,448 Officers and National Historic Site. According
football team back in those days, Enlisted onboard. The ship was to tradition, a priest was traveling
and I wasn’t the greatest student.” also home to Carrier Air Wing 5.
near the island when his ship was
42 Lubbock Senior Link
