Navy answered JL Weeks’ dream to travel

J L Weeks was about 11 years old when his older brother joined the Navy, needing his father’s permission, to serve in World War II. In 1953, he was inspired to join the Navy during the Korean War at 19 and have his own adventure in the military.

Weeks said his brother, the war and the desire to travel all factored into his decision to join the Navy, despite growing up near Fort Rucker in Ozark.

“(My brother) was an inspiration for me to join, and of course, what was going on,” he said. “I just wanted to go to support my country.”

Weeks said he was prepared for boot camp in San Diego, Calif., calling the training “easy.”

“I grew up close to Fort Rucker, so I pretty well knew what the basic training was going to be,” he said. “It was no surprise, and it was easy. I really enjoyed boot camp as well as the Navy. I had no problems.

“It was easy. I was not a rocking chair boy. I had work around home, so what I had to do (at boot camp), it was no effort. It was something I had to do.”

After boot camp, Weeks, a seaman in the Navy, was assigned to the USS McGowan DD678 in Boston, Mass., which was located near “Old Ironsides,” the oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. He said he had the opportunity to board this historic ship during his time in Boston, as well as visiting Bunker Hill and other sites around the city.

During this time, he also went to New York City, where he visited the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

During his time on the USS McGowan, Weeks traveled around the world, taking two cruises to the Caribbean, where he visited Santiago de Cuba, Port au Prince in Haiti, St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands, San Juan in Puerto Rico, Guantanamo in Cuba and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

The USS McGowan also made two cruises to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, leading Weeks to see more of the world than he thought he would ever see.

“In London, I got to see the changing of the guard,” he said. “In Paris, I was able to go up into the Eiffel Tower. In Damascus, I was able to go to this mosque that actually had the tomb of the head of John the Baptist. I actually saw the tomb of his head. In Haiti, I saw the tomb of Christopher Columbus.”

He was also able to see other historic sites, including those in Malta, Crete, Germany and more.

Weeks said the people in the places he visited were “very much” welcoming of him and his other shipmates.

“As a matter of fact, when we were in Spain, they had a Spanish holiday,” he said. “About four or five of us guys decided we’d go to this Spanish get together. They had a big band, and they were playing music. We were walking down the side of a hill, down into where (the party) was, when they looked up and saw us coming, they quit playing that Spanish music and starting playing “Anchor’s Away” for us.”

Another cherished memory of Weeks’ was that of meeting his brother on an island on the other side of the world.

“(Charles) was already there, and as our ship came in, some lights began to flash from his ship to our ship,” he said. “The guy came down and told me, ‘You got a note here. You’re brother’s on the ship over here. He wants to know if you can come over to see him.’”

He said in just a few short minutes he was able to meet with his brother in a city across the ocean.

“It was just a miracle,” he said.

Weeks spent four years on a ship. First, he served on a destroyer, and he ended his military service on an aircraft carrier. He served as a Yeoman Petty Officer Second Class, an administrative clerk, during his military career.

“(Ship life) was great,” he said. “The first time we went across the Atlantic, we went up almost to the Arctic Circle. Just before we turned (our ship), the Arctic Circle was probably less than 50 miles north of us.

“We were in one of the worst storms that you can even imagine,” he said. “There was one aircraft carrier in the convoy. The flight deck is 90 feet above the water. The water was so rough, the aircraft carrier was (rocking)... water would come over the front of the ship. It came over it so much and so heavy, that it actually ripped the flight deck, so they had to turn around and come back home.”

He said another destroyer in the convoy also sustained some damage during this intense storm.

“We have a huge 5 inch gun mount (on the ship),” he said. “It’s bolted to the deck... and water was coming over so heavy on it that it actually pushed the 5 inch gun mount off, so they had to turn around and come home.”

His experience on each ship, in terms of living close to his shipmates, also differed between his time on the destroyer and the aircraft carrier he served on.

On the destroyer, there were around 225 men, he said.

“You got to know everybody,” he said, stating that his job also helped him meet everyone on the ship. “You just make contact with everybody.”

On the aircraft carrier, he said there were around 4,000 men on it.

“There was one guy on there from Ozark,” he said about his stint on an aircraft carrier. “I knew him and I knew his wife. I knew them before they got married. I saw him two times the entire year because he was in one division. I was in another division, and we just didn’t see each other.”

He said he also learned about another person on the ship who was from his home that he never saw the entire time on the ship.

Weeks said the destroyer was crowded, but the aircraft carrier was not. He described the sleeping areas of the destroyer being filled with bunks closed in on each other.

“It was just the way it was, so nobody fussed,” he said, also describing each sailor having small living quarters and storage areas. “You didn’t have anything extra. You just had what you needed, and that was all.”

In December 1955, Weeks said he requested to be transferred to the ISS Saratoga CVA-60 aircraft carrier, which was being built at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard to be commissioned in 1956.

His request was accepted, and he was stationed at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard barracks to await the commissioning, making him an original crew member – called plank owner– of the ship.

“I was on a destroyer, and (the new ship) was an aircraft carrier, so I said, ‘Let me try something different,’ but come to find out, as soon as I got off the destroyer... my destroyer went back to Europe,” he said, stating he missed a third cruise to Europe with his transfer. “The only cruise (the ISS Saratoga) made while I was on board was to the Caribbean for a ‘test run’ cruise.”

After spending his final year on the aircraft carrier, Weeks’ enlistment ended in December 1956.

During his four years, he was able to add more visits to other countries to his list of places he had traveled to. His ship also stopped in: Argentia, Newfoundland; Gibralter, Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC); Tangier, Morocco in North Africa; Palma de Mallorca; Malaga, Spain; Souda Bay, Crete; Valletta, Malta; Athens and Phaleron, Greece; Damascus, Syria; Beirut, Lebanon; Cagliari, Sardinia; Genoa and Venice, Italy; Londonderry, Northern Ireland; Invergorden, Scotland; Kiel, Melente and Bremerhaven, Germany; Ferrol and San Sebastian, Spain; Paris, Rouen and Le Havre, France; Plymouth, Greenwich, Chatham, Portsmouth and London, England; Aarhus, Denmark; Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Holland.

“It was, really, more than I ever expected,” Weeks said about his travels. “We were just traveling all the time, from port to port to port. It was to some really interesting places, like London, Paris, Spain. It was just really good.”

After returning to civilian life, Weeks said he was blessed to receive a job at Fort Rucker soon after his discharge from the Navy.

“I applied for a job at Fort Rucker,” he said, stating he was hired by Southern Airways Company in its production control section. “After less than two years, I was promoted to Production Control Chief.

“It was just God’s blessing that I was immediately hired,” he said. “I came home in December, and I believe it was either January or February, I went to work.”

Weeks said he also met his first wife while working at this company. The couple had two sons: Kevin and Kyle. He is also a grandfather, with some of his grandchildren currently serving in the military.

Weeks said he felt no reservations about joining the Navy at 19 during the Korean War.

“I just felt like that I needed to serve my country in some way because they had gone to war,” he said. “I didn’t have any regrets or holdbacks; I just wanted to go.”

He also said he encourages any young person to consider the military, especially if he or she is not sure what they would like to pursue as a career or in education.

“I encourage any young person, if they don’t know (what they want to do), go spend some time in the military during your maturing years,” he said. “That way you’ll have the money to go to college, plus you’ll have a lot of experience behind you, and you come out mature.”

For Weeks, he does not regret a minute of his time served in the military.

“I look back on it as a special time in my life to be able to do things like (travel around the world),” he said. “I feel like I got my college education as well as tours that money can’t buy. You just don’t buy going all over Europe (and other countries).”