How did I end up in the Navy?

Isn't she beautiful! This is my first duty assignment in the Navy, the USS Ingersoll. I served aboard this ship (my first tour of duty) from April 1961 to April 1063. I made two cruises to Westpac and one to Panama (during the Cuban Missile Crisis). But, this doesn't answer the question. I need to go back a number of years to say how I ended up in the Navy -- in my story, running away from God and ending up in the Belly of the Whale.

As I have stated before, I knew that God had called me into the ministry while still in High School. Not only did God really want me in the ministry, my mother wanted me to go into the ministry. I wanted to be a medical doctor. Then there was my violin teacher who wanted me to be a violinist and my voice teacher who wanted me to be a singer. I really didn't want to be a pastor. But, why the Navy?

Even though I was always a reader, I never had a library card until me moved to Bellflower -- and stayed there. I was ten years old and I found the library so exciting. So many books! I could take them home with me! I liked novels that were filled with adventure. I quickly became interested in books about the sea. I liked reading about sailing ships, pirates, old sea battles and of course ships involved in WWII. I never really considered going to sea myself but loved the romance of the sea. 

When I was in high school I read The Caine Mutiny. I loved the book. I wrote a term paper on it while in high school and two papers for English classes when at UCLA. I didn't always get an A on my term papers -- but my passion about this book seemed to work. All three of these papers received an A grade. The book takes place on a Destroyer type vessel in WWII. I could imagine myself as an officer on the bridge of such a vessel. That is partly why I was so excited to receive orders to the Ingersoll. I re-read the book when I got to the ship. I do need to state, that I didn't take part in any mutiny -- but it was a dream realized.

So, even though I never considered the Navy while growing up, even though I was called into the ministry and even though I wanted to be a doctor, I ended up in the Navy. I will actually begin to answer the question  of how this happened in the next installment.