Sharing Our StoriesDoug Yarborough I was a sophomore in college in 1965 and graduating from junior college. I had planned to transfer to a four-year college, but was drafted into the Army. I went by to see a friend of mine who was in the Navy stationed at Jacksonville, Fla., to say my goodbyes. He told me if I went into the Army I would go straight to Vietnam, and that I should go see the Navy recruiter. I saw him, and he got me into the Navy. I took my basic training in San Diego, Calif. I was then sent to the USS Bon Homme Richard (cva-31) an aircraft carrier out of Long Beach, Calif. This sounded good. What I found out was they were training to go to the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. My job was in ordnance. I had a secret clearance that was very valuable when flying, etc. I stayed there for three tours. It was hard work and very dangerous, but is an experience I will never forget. While at sea in the Gulf of Tonkin during the height of the war, my girlfriend Judy, who is now my wife of 34 years, was employed as a long distance operator with Bell Telephone. One day I heard my name called over the loudspeaker to come to the quarterdeck because I had a call. Understand that no one ever got a call unless someone had died, and then it was from the Red Cross. All the guys were saying,” Sorry Doug, hope everything is okay." As I walked to take the call, all kinds of things were going through my mind. I arrived at the quarterdeck and saluted the Officer of the Day identifying myself. He pointed to the phone. I picked it up and said "Hello?" The voice on the other end that was my girlfriend saying, "What are you doing?" How she ever got this call through, I don't know. I almost laughed out loud. In January of 1970 we were scheduled to go back a fourth time. I was called to personnel and told I was to given an early out -- three months. It was one of best days of my life. In all, I served in 23 campaigns in Vietnam. My unit received the Presidential Unit Citation twice.
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