On the Way to Boot Camp

I've been goring through some old letters and ran across a postcard I sent to my folks in 1971. I was leaving Des Moines, Iowa on my way to San Diego, California and the beginning of a 30 year Naval Career. It was also my first flight. Click on the image to make it bigger [and easier to read].

The gentleman I ran into in the airport was from my home town and he was the last friendly face I saw before arriving at Boot camp where the Company Commanders began yelling and screaming at us. I was joining the Navy under duress and Mr. Southerly made me feel better about joining the Navy. I have recently renewed an old friendship with his daughter, a high school classmate of mine, and shared the postcard with her. She told me it made her teary - didn't mean to do that, but did want to share a memory I had of her father. It's been 36 years since I met him in the airport. It must have been weird for my friend hearing a memory of her father come out of nowhere.