childrens furnishings Armoire Childrens Furnishings
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Armoire Childrens Furnishings childrens furnishings
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Armoire Childrens Furnishings childrens furnishings Information
In the year 1965, the United States sent troops to Vietnam to aid the
South Vietnamese against the communist Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. As
the fighting increased, the United States was in need of more troops in order to
support its commitment to South Vietnam. Therefore, thousands of Selective
Service registers were called and drafted. The United States also asked its
closes ally the Philippines to help send troops to South Vietnam and in addition
this, the United states requested for an increase of recruitment for the United
States Navy in the region. Thus, the U.S. enlisted thousands of Philippine
natives, including myself.
My involvement started in July of 1968, when I
was flown to the United States beginning my military training in San Diego.
Recalling the eight weeks of hard, intensive training, I still considered myself
fortunate to be enlisted in the United States Navy. Although, when I did
graduate boot camp, I cherished the prize of rest and recreation for 72 hours.
My short-lived vacation began with a group of my fellow Filipino recruits. We
decided to catch a bus to downtown San Diego. As we boarded the bus, I stopped
in confusion when I noticed a sign with "Black" written at the back section of
the bus. Looking for the driver for direction, I was informed by the driver that
was no longer enforced. Even with him saying this, I still sat in the middle row
since my skin color fell in between black and white. As we arrived downtown, I
experience culture shock. The town was colorful and filled with live
entertainment. Although, I did want to spend more time exploring the place, my
vacation time was up and I had to go back to the base.
As our company
gathered for the last day, we waited for our next order of job training. I was
wondering why Filipino recruits and few African American were separated. Having
the same order to attend SD "A" school (Steward), we are not aware that our
General Classification Test was high enough to be qualified in other ratings.
This discrimination was puzzling to me since, the Americans I knew back in the
Philippines were good people and America itself is known to be the land of
opportunity. Despite this slight discrimination, I had accepted my rate and
still considered American as good people of good will.
My very first day in
steward school was a terrible and memorable one. I was punished to stand all day
for laughing at my superior when he stood on a podium with a loud harsh voice
saying, "these are your tools and in four weeks you will learn how to use them".
Looking at his left arm, all I saw were utensils: kitchen fork, knife and spoon.
I laughed in disbelief that I joined the Navy to cook. However, I accepted the
job, as if I had another choice, assuming every recruit started out as a cook.
As the man said, in four weeks I learned how to use them, I became a designated
Navy Steward. Upon graduation, my orders were to board a ship leaving for
Vietnam, the USS LONG BEACH CGN-9, the first nuclear surface ship of the United
States Navy. I was assigned to a division of 10 Black Americans, 29 Filipinos
and 1 Caucasian the division officer. The officers of that ship lived like
kings, we served them breakfast, lunch and dinner. In between meals, we worked
in their staterooms, dressing their beds with clean sheets and towels, shining
their shoes, cleaning their rooms and doing their laundry. This was the daily
routine of a steward job aboard ship.
After our first six months in Vietnam,
we were sent back in the States. My plan was to escape such slave-like job. So,
I enrolled in Long Beach City College to further my education and hoped that
someday the U S Navy will change its policy toward Filipino servicemen regarding
their job assignments. It was my third month in school when all Navy ships in
the Long Beach area were in the state of emergency and pulled out enroute to the
Token Gulf. Our ship, powered by nuclear reactor, arrived in Vietnam in eighth
days two days ahead of the rest of the conventional ships. Our Navy had deployed
mines surrounding the Russian supply ship in the Vietnam port. President Nixon
declared an ultimatum address to the Russians to leave the harbor in 24 hours or
our Navy would activate the mines. So the Russian was scared off and left
peacefully. Since our ship had a nuclear powered reactor, it was extended to
stay in the gulf for ninety days. The days were long boring where the only
entertainment was at night, viewing the bombing fireworks above the land of
Vietnam. Admiral Rickover, founder of the nuclear Reactor, had asked additional
stewards to help his staff. My division officer had chosen me to work with the
admiral's staff while they were onboard. At the end of our ninety days, I was
content and rich receiving a three-month combat pay added to my paycheck, a ship
port call to the Philippines. This was my chance to go home, and spend time with
my family. As the Admiral and his staff flew back to Washington DC, I took
advantage of submitting a request to change my job assignment. My request was
hand carried by the Admiral's steward who came back to inform me that my request
was granted. I now became a Navy Engineman. It was but two years later, in 1972
that the secretary of the Navy had issued a new policy Navy-wide those service
members to have a choice to change their job classification if they met the
requirements. Service members who were minorities, as myself, who were not happy
with their jobs now had a greater chance to change their ratings.
After my
six-year contract in the military, I applied for citizenship but there was
problem came across in my naturalization process to become a United States
citizen. The Naturalization Service office told me that I was not qualified for
naturalization since my 6 years time in the military was a broken residency. The
time, I had accumulated in the service was least than five years in Continental
United States. Although I spent six years in the U S Navy, the three six-month
tours in Vietnam did not count toward the requirement for naturalization. I
signed up again for four year, and waited my time to sworn in for
naturalization. I was now an official U.S. citizen gaining all the rights of
one. Therefore, I expected my treatment to be equal to those Caucasian decent.
As I look back, I still wonder the Navy allowed certain races to be assigned as
stewards. Through thinking the Political science class of Professor Robert
Bacon, I realized the mistake of our forefathers in writing the constitution in
allowing slavery practice. Applying this to the Navy, I also realize how it was
allowed that certain races were assigned to be a steward. In conclusion, I am
grateful for the individual rights ruling of chief Justice Earl Warren. Through
this ruling, many benefited from it especially minorities, as myself, in the
United States.
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