Charles Hock

One week past my 17th birthday I joined the Navy in 1962. I spent the first two years in California for boot camp and then to the Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach. This is where I got the first of many security clearances for the Navy. I then went to the Naval Radio Station in Thurso, Scotland for 18 months. I completed my GED in 1963 18 months before I would have graduated high school. The next 5 years was spent at Sub School Staff in New London, Connecticut. I met my future wife while going to survival school prior to being sent to Vietnam. I married my wife 3 weeks before going to Vietnam. We have been married for over 57 years. After 10 months in Vietnam my baby brother a Marine came to Vietnam which allowed me to leave 2 months early. It turns out both me, my baby brother and our brother-in-law were in the same area of Vietnam for a few days. After my trip to Vietnam I got orders in 1969 to my first ship the USS Macdonough a guided missile destroyer. My new wife and I made the long drive together from Los Angeles to Charleston, South Carolina. That long drive was how we really got to know each other. In 1971 my wife and I made another long drive to the Ninth Naval District Headquarters in Great Lakes, Illinois which was nice as her parents lived in central Illinois about 100 miles from the Navy Base. Both of our children were born at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital in 1972 and 1975. In 1972 I became part of a new rating in the Navy. I became an Intelligence Specialist. A very difficult time for my wife and I happened in a 3 month period when I was given orders to the USS Albany late In 1976. The ship was homeported in Gaeta, Italy and one day I received a call that my daughter was in the Naval Hospital Naples, Italy in a coma. When I got to the hospital she was still in a coma and never regained consciousness. She was 2 months short of her second birthday. No one can ever get over the loss of an infant child. After a time of bereavement I was given orders to be part of the commissioning crew for the newest (at the time) nuclear powered aircraft carrier the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. When I reported to her she had not even been christened yet. It was quite a sight to see and be part of her introduction to the Navy. I completed the CLEP test in 1980. In 1981 i was assigned to my last duty station at the JSTPS (Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff) in Bellevue, Nebraska which was commonly called the SAC Underground Command. I retired from the Navy in 1982. I graduated from Bellevue University in Nebraska with a degree in Business in 1984. Approximately 1985 I got a job as a counselor for Aid to Dependent and Family Services in Florida. About the same time, I got very interested in Project Literacy and still volunteer on occasion to both young and old alike. On my 59th birthday in 2004 I got a birthday present of me skydiving for the first and last time. I am an avid wanna be golfer and hope to get back on the course maybe next year. My book took 3 months from inception to publishing (April 2025 to 14 June 2025) on my 80th birthday.