"Kiddie Cruiser" Dan Bernath, turns 18 years old
(40 yrs ago)

I just turned 58. It is hard to believe that my life has flown by so fast. I joined the Navy at age 16 and waited till I turned 17 to go in. My Dad and I didn't get along, to say the least and I thought going into the military and facing the commie guns was safer than being around him. We made our peace once I graduated from bootcamp at Great Lakes from the moment he first saw me in my dress blues with my seaman apprentice stripes, he treated me as a man-as his equal.
So here I am, in Vietnamese waters and my birthday is today...September 29, 1967. Tomorrow I shall be 18 years old. The deal with the Navy (as it was with Pat) is that you join any time in your 17 year and you get discharged exactly on the day before your 21st birthday (unless the Navy decides to unilaterally extend you for some emergency). The Navy recruiter told me it was a "Minority Enlistment" but once I got to the fleet I was forever branded "A KIDDIE CRUISER."
My 18th birthday didn't mean much to me but my buddies on the USS Kearsarge thought they would make it a big deal.
A PH2 Hardass (forget his name) told me, (Warrant Officer) Burgst is really pissed off at something you did. I was on the flight deck filming flight ops and I was relieved and ordered to get to the PhotoLab because I was in BIG TROUBLE. I could feel my shit start to move in my bowels as I knew I would get reamed out for something they caught me at. (It isn't that I was innocent of something...I was just wondering what shit I was doing and they finally found out about.)
So, with his firm hands around my arm, the PH2 Hardass led me into the admin office of the photo lab.

I saw that I was in VERY DEEP SHIT because not only was the nasty Warrant Officer there but SO WAS THE DEPARTMENT COMMANDER! But so were all my photolab buddies who should be toiling in the darkrooms and scattered around the ship taking pictures of something or other!
I was then showed a birthday cake that my buddies in the bake shop made for me and felt relieve that I was not about to be keel-hauled that day!

 

 

 

 

 

After a few nice words from them, I cut the cake and was asked to pose for a picture.

 

 

 

 

I used the officer's sword to stick it into the cook 3rd class' ear without him seeing...got a big laugh! I was basking in the good fellowship of my Navy comrades and was chatting away with them, drinking the bug juice that was also there when suddenly, 2 or 3 of my buddies grabbed me and took me into the film processing room.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a very large tub that held about 30 gallons of water and they had filled it with salt water from the Gulf of Tonkin. They lifted me up, against my will and threw me into the water with all my clothes on (all I had on were my Navy dungarees and clean white t. shirt as that was the uniform of the day in the tropics while we were at sea).

The insult was not over yet. Seeing a bar of soap, Airman Lothar then began to wash me thoroughly. I guess that all boys, who become men get a free bath? But it would have been nicer if it had been done by a nice Japanese girl in one of their rather cozy establishments of commercial virtue.

So that is my story of my 18th Birthday...40 short years ago. I have been a newscasters, a lawyer, a commercial photographer and back to being a lawyer but as General MacArthur says, "I am always drawn back to the Corps, the Corps, the Corps."

I love you guys, my fellow sailors. We did our duty to our beloved United States when our fellow young men were taking draft deferments and hiding in Canada. You have my admiration and love forever.