Calling Net54 Retirees....tell us how Retirement has influenced your hobby activities

[SyrNy1960]

James, thank you for your service. I retired in January 2009 with 30 years of service in the Navy. Started out as an E-1 and retired as a CWO4. Continued to work another 13 years with the Navy, retiring this past February with 43 years. Fully retired, will never have to work again. Financially set, so I'm still able to collect as always, but am more selective on what I buy.

[pitchernut]

Way too much time but card prices are way too high.. So, built a greenhouse and now all I buy are fresh packs of seeds

[mikemb]

I retired last August. I was an Actuary for 40+ years a few small pension administration firms.

A lot more time to enjoy looking at my cards. Especially cards form the 1960's and prior.

Planning on "cleaning up" some of my collection. I have card sets from the 1990's I put into binders 20 years ago and have not looked at since. Time to put them in boxes to save space and maybe sell. (They are in binders by team so I'll want to put them in numerical order.)

My two youngest grandsons (age 2 and 7) live a block away. They keep me young!

Mike

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by 3arod13

James, thank you for your service. I retired in January 2009 with 30 years of service in the Navy. Started out as an E-1 and retired as a CWO4. Continued to work another 13 years with the Navy, retiring this past February with 43 years. Fully retired, will never have to work again. Financially set, so I'm still able to collect as always, but am more selective on what I buy.

Tony that's awesome! Thank YOU for your service!

For me it went by like a snap, and I would do it all again, no problem.

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Tony that's awesome! Thank YOU for your service!

For me it went by like a snap, and I would do it all again, no problem.

Yeah, same here! Carriers I deployed on were the USS Truman and USS George Washington.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by 3arod13

Yeah, same here! Carriers I deployed on were the USS Truman and USS George Washington.

Mine were USS Midway, USS Independence and also USS George Washington! I was on the Cruiser-Destroyer Group 2 staff while on the GW, and the Admiral on that staff was Rear Admiral Mike Krekich. He played football at the Naval Academy with Roger Staubach, and he was a great guy. That was back in 1994-95, and she was a beautiful ship back then.

[tedzan]

James and Tony.....Thanks for your service to our Country.

I was a Radar Specialist in the Air Force in the early 1960's....stationed at a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base in Maine. We had a squadron of B52 Bombers and F102 Fighter planes.
Oct 1962, when Russia threatened us with the "Cuban Missle Crisis", our Bombers and Fighter planes all went South (Florida and So. Carolina). It was an amazing site to watch all our
Aircraft leave the base.
The B52 bomber is an amazing piece of machinery. The first group of B52 bombers were built in 1952. Over 700 B52 bombers were originally built. I think about 80 are still in service.
I will never forget the excitement of being in the cockpit of one of these "big birds". I felt like Slim Pickens in the movie "Dr. Strangelove"

This is me when I was in Radar school (in Illinois, 1960). The last year of my 4-year service, I was re-assigned back to this Technical School to teach Electronics & Radar fundamentals.


.


Take care, guys.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by tedzan

James and Tony.....Thanks for your service to our Country.

I was a Radar Specialist in the Air Force in the early 1960's....stationed at a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base in Maine. We had a squadron of B52 Bombers and F102 Fighter planes.
Oct 1962, when Russia threatened us with the "Cuban Missle Crisis", our Bombers and Fighter planes all went South (Florida and So. Carolina). It was an amazing site to watch all our
Aircraft leave the base.
The B52 bomber is an amazing piece of machinery. The first group of B52 bombers were built in 1952. Over 700 B52 bombers were originally built. I think about 80 are still in service.
I will never forget the excitement of being in the cockpit of one of these "big birds". I felt like Slim Pickens in the movie "Dr. Strangelove"

This is me when I was in Radar school (in Illinois, 1960). The last year of my 4-year service, I was re-assigned back to this Technical School to teach Electronics & Radar fundamentals.


.


Take care, guys.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

Ted, thank you for your service and sharing your story!

Tony

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by tedzan

James and Tony.....Thanks for your service to our Country.

I was a Radar Specialist in the Air Force in the early 1960's....stationed at a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base in Maine. We had a squadron of B52 Bombers and F102 Fighter planes.
Oct 1962, when Russia threatened us with the "Cuban Missle Crisis", our Bombers and Fighter planes all went South (Florida and So. Carolina). It was an amazing site to watch all our
Aircraft leave the base.
The B52 bomber is an amazing piece of machinery. The first group of B52 bombers were built in 1952. Over 700 B52 bombers were originally built. I think about 80 are still in service.
I will never forget the excitement of being in the cockpit of one of these "big birds". I felt like Slim Pickens in the movie "Dr. Strangelove"

This is me when I was in Radar school (in Illinois, 1960). The last year of my 4-year service, I was re-assigned back to this Technical School to teach Electronics & Radar fundamentals.


.


Take care, guys.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

Ted, did you go to radar school at Chanute AFB, Rantoul, Illinois? That is where I went to Weather Observer, Rawinsonde (upper air, weather balloons) and Weather Forecasting schools. The Air Force and the Navy go to weather schools together, to this day. Now they go to Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi since Chanute closed.

And I am guessing you were stationed at Loring AFB in Maine? I went to forecasting school at Chanute with an Air Force sergeant named Dennis Flanagan, who was at Loring before coming to school at Chanute. He and I went to White Sox games at old Comiskey Park on weekends when we could. It was only 100 miles or so to Chicago from Rantoul up I-57.

The photo of me in the "Cracker Jacks" dress blues was taken at Chanute AFB in 1983. It is a real WW2 uniform, and I still have it. It is very dark blue wool, not black like today. The reason I am wearing my white hat like that is because that is how they wore them in WW2. The photo of me as an officer was made in San Diego not long before I retired in 2007.

Thank you for YOUR service.

[jingram058]

I guess I should say that, if anything, I am better off now that I am "retired" from the Navy. But I was better able to collect because the prices were way, way less.

[Mark17]

It's been a bit of a Catch-22 situation for me. My last gig in IT ended June 2019 and I've basically been retired since. It's been great to relax, stay up late, sleep in late, not be concerned with commuting or work related issues, etc.

I've had a lot more time to grow my collection and it's been a lot of fun. In fact, I'm online for hours each day looking for stuff. Problem is, in order to keep growing my collection, and to be able to afford the really good stuff...... I've been thinking about going back to work.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Ted, did you go to radar school at CThat is where I went to Weather Observer, Rawinsonde (upper air, weather balloons) and Weather Forecasting schools. The Air Force and the Navy go to weather schools together, to this day. Now they go to Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi since Chanute closed.

And I am guessing you were stationed at Loring AFB in Maine? I went to forecasting school at Chanute with an Air Force sergeant named Dennis Flanagan, who was at Loring before coming to school at Chanute. He and I went to White Sox games at old Comiskey Park on weekends when we could. It was only 100 miles or so to Chicago from Rantoul up I-57.

The photo of me in the "Cracker Jacks" dress blues was taken at Chanute AFB in 1983. It is a real WW2 uniform, and I still have it. It is very dark blue wool, not black like today. The reason I am wearing my white hat like that is because that is how they wore them in WW2. The photo of me as an officer was made in San Diego not long before I retired in 2007.

Thank you for YOUR service.

James

You and I have a "double coincidence" here......

Ten months of my 1st year in the Air Force was going to Radar school in Rantoul (IL). The 2nd coincidence is my 1st tour of duty was associated with the Weather Service of the
Air Force.
I was stationed at Dow AFB in Bangor, Maine. I was responsible for operating....maintaining....repairing the Radar sets on this Strategic Air Command base that were associated
with the Weather Squadron. As a side consequence, I learned a lot about weather forecasting.
I am sure we could go on comparing notes regarding our Service that would fill several pages here. But, I will leave it with this......the smartest thing I did was enlist. The many
experiences, and meeting my wife in Maine has made it all worthwhile.

You look great in your Navy uniforms.


TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[SyrNy1960]

One of the great things about being in the military is being able to travel and be stationed in different places. I grew up in New York and have always been a huge New York Yankee fan and collector. I have always been a player collector, so being stationed in different places, I found myself watching teams and following players that I normally wouldn't have. When I was in Texas, I watched the Texas Rangers a lot. I liked Juan Gonzalez, as he was a pure power hitter, and I started to collect his cards and memorabilia. Hence, this picture shows just how much my Juan Gonzalez collection grew. I even had the opportunity to meet the Texas Rangers Owner, Tom Hicks, when he visited our squadron. Before ebay, the Navy gave me many opportunities to visit local cards shops and shows in other states, giving me more opportunity to find stuff I wouldn't normally have been able to find at home. Now retired, I have more time to search for memorabilia and also focus more on my collection.