TBS 2-67 Cruisebook_Updated_7Jan23

his Hooch and I wrote back from our little twobedroom
apartment. We sent cassette tapes back and
forth. I would tape the kids’ little voices, sing our
favorite songs like, “I’ll Have A Blue Christmas Without
You” and include pictures of us in my letters. Not
thinking, we would receive a tape from each other and
then tape over it to send back. Sadly, that did not leave
many tapes saved to date.
Separations were many but we all adjusted. Whether
Hank was picking the President up on the White House
lawn, mine sweeping the Suez Canal, or safely landing
a helicopter after losing power in Mexico, when he
arrived home he was “Hank” or “Daddy” and we were
glad to be altogether and thanked God for his safe
returns. We
vacationed in our
green pop-top VW
Camp Mobile, took
train and car rides to
Connecticut to visit
family, and lived a
wonderful loving
family life we all
believed. Our three
wonderful children
all earned their
college degrees and
are now raising our
four terrific
grandchildren.
Kathy Giedzinski,
November, 2017
Ainslie A. Gray
Second Platoon
Nickname: Scott
My Life Before Attending TBS: Born in Chicago, raised
in Michigan and on to college as a " Middie" in the
NROTC at the U. of Wisconsin. The oldest of six kids,
the Navy free ride was the only way I was going to go
to college. My dad rode an LST to Normandy, Sicily,
and Southern France so the Navy was my only option.
But my freshman summer cruise aboard the Essex
(then called "The Oldest and the Boldest") in the North
Atlantic where I learned how to push S2Fs around a
hangar deck and how to change boiler tubes in a 126
degree engine room plus the excitement of watching
an A-4 try three times to come aboard as we sailed on
the edge of a hurricane...all convinced me that the
Marine Corps Option as a land based Naval Flight
Officer was the only sensible alternative for my pay
back career in the military.
My Memories of TBS: I was married and the first of my
three girls was born in November at Mainside. My wife
had the good sense to go into labor on a weekend but
didn't deliver till early on Monday morning. Capt
Brickley was not at all pleased when I called to ask to
be late for our first class as I hadn't yet seen either wife
or child. A box of cigars didn't count for much, I had
missed 81mm mortar class. Tom and Jo Taylor were our
next door neighbors in Dumfries and we used to
carpool with Mo Fletcher and others. The worst part of
training was the night compass march and the three
hours of brambles, burrs and impassable creeks and
potholes we endured while our Vietnamese
compatriots breezed through the course in twenty
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