On December 11, 1958, I enlisted in the United States Navy

That morning, My Dad and I walked to Quincy’s Wollaston station and rode the Old Colony Line’s train into Boston’s South Station. He went on to work at Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York’s Boston office. I went to the Navy recruiting office on Atlantic Ave. and was transported to the the Armed Forces induction facility, Fargo Building for enlistment.

Boston’s Fargo Building looked pretty much the same in 1958 as this photo from 1940s .

Later that day, I was on my first airplane flight, an American Airlines plane to Chicago, for transportation to Great Lakes Navy Recruit Training Center where I arrived in the middle of the night and immediately began my twenty-year Navy career.

Welcome To Great Lakes Naval Training Center

Our “Bedroom” (Typical Great Lakes Recruit Barracks)

Great Lakes Drill Hall. Even though we frequently had to shovel the snow off the outside drill “grinders,” we did much of our training inside. 

Graduation Photo of Seaman Recruit, Forrest

After nine weeks of training in the freezing cold at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, north of Chicago and on the shore of Lake Michigan, I graduated as a Seaman Apprentice and went home on leave before reporting to my next assignment at Newport, Rhode Island. 

While I was home on leave, my dad had my two brothers and me put on our uniforms for this photo.

Three “Men in Uniform,” March, 1959. Cub-Scout, Andy, Navy Seaman Apprentice, Allen, and Boy Scout, Steve. (photo by Edwin Forrest)

 

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