PDA

View Full Version : What did you do during the war



thedrifter
01-04-07, 07:11 AM
01/03/2007
What did you do during the war: Gene Hoyle
By: Jeff Hunt

It was 1965. Gene Hoyle stood on the deck of the USS Valley Forge, a helicopter carrier. He was stationed off the coast of Vietnam.

"We carried about two dozen helicopters and 1,500 marines," Hoyle said. "We served as an amphibious platform for the Marines. We flew them in by chopper. We served as a hospital, a communications ship, and a supply ship."

"I guess when you ask what stands out in my mind it would be to stand and watch the choppers go in and the choppers return. You see the wounded ... the deceased. But the thing that stands out is to see what we have in this country that people don't appreciate. They have no knowledge because they have never seen anything outside the borders of the U.S.A. They don't realize what they have.

When you go into third-world countries and see action you understand. You stand and watch a ship shoot a projectile and see where it goes. And then you wonder if it went where it was supposed to go. Did it hit where it was supposed to?

Did it kill who it was supposed to? All these things go through your mind. And I can still see it as vivid as if it were yesterday."

Hoyle said he was lucky that he went into the Navy.

"If I would have waited until I was drafted I would have probably gone to the Army or Marine Corps. I'm not putting them down, but at that time it wouldn't have been a good place to be. There were a lot of guys that went over there that didn't come back. I think about that a lot."

Hoyle said overall, he feels lucky that he served in the Navy. He added that his time in the Navy has affected his beliefs. Hoyle said he feels that people don't appreciate what they have.

"Freedom is one thing that a lot of people don't have. In the United States the average home has heating and air, carpeting and beds. In third world countries people sleep on mats on the ground. We have it made and a lot of people don't realize it and I think that's a problem with our country today."

Hoyle enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 29, 1964. He originally planned to enlist in the Marines but was persuaded by a friend to join the Navy. He traveled to Des Moines and then on to San Diego where he went through basic training.

He went through radio school and then on to his first assignment aboard the USS Valley Forge, where he stayed for the remainder of his time in the military.

Hoyle said he had mixed feelings about his time in the Navy.

"There were things that were not good. But I told one guy, my education I got in the Navy was the equivalent of two years in college, but what I learned in the Navy you can't find in books."

Hoyle said if he were needed he would enlist again.

"When the desert wars broke out I thought it would be good to help the troops out, but I knew I was too old. Would I do it all over again if I could? In a second."

Ellie