Hello and greetings from Bahrain. No, I'm not Alton or Dave as he was known to friends, but his son. My dad served on Midway between late '73 to early '77. He wasn't a senior chief back then, but a 1st class. I'm looking for anyone who may have known him and if you have pictures of him. I don't care if they are Westpac liberty shots or rated PG. He's my dad, and I miss him. If you did not know, he passed away 30 Oct, 1984 in Bethesda. Massive coronary. Dad loved the Midway and Yokosuka more than anybody I know, and at times I would hear him say, "Fuck! This ain't the Midway!" whenever shit would get unwound on him.

When I reported to VFA-192 back in 94 on board Independence, there were some master chiefs eyeballing me as if they knew who I was. I was a LTJG, prior enlisted and was wondering who did I piss off now. One of them said, "Excuse me, sir... are you Alton's boy?" I was kind of shocked because I never saw these guys in my whole life, and my response was, "Ummmm... does he owe you money?" They started laughing, and for a minute I was still stupid to what was going on. Then they told me that they were on Midway with my dad and that I look exactly like him. Then the stories came out of my dad jacking one of them up against the bulkhead and shaking him down for the fifth of Jack the guy snuck on board. The guy said he had no idea how dad even knew he had did it, and then one of the other master chiefs said that once during a liberty port visit, he had duty in the ship's laundry and was pressing khakis. My dad came in, took down one of the shirts and checked the press. It had railroad tracks, so my dad ripped down all of the uniforms and threw a shit can full of garbage on top of them and told the guy to do it again. Heheheheh!

Anyway, I would love to have some pics of him back from that era for my collection or even stories.

I would have loved to have been a part of the magic, and I got to serve with a lot of guys who cross-decked to Indy from the Midway, as well as fly with some of the guys in CVW-5 who were Midway sailors, as well. I retired 2 years ago after 20 plus years.

Why Bahrain?

What was his rate and do you know what squadron or division he was assigned to? I could see if he's in any of the cruise books.

Did he have tat's, webs on the elbow and so on!!

I came to Bahrain to work on the staff of COMUSNAVCENT, and I just fell in love with the place... Wallahi (as God as my witness; arabic) Bahrain and the GCC isn't what anyone could imagine. Ex-pats are welcome, your retirement money goes a long way. Compared to what went down in the states with the economy, Bahrain didn't catch the worst of it compared to Dubai, which is nothing more than a hollow hulk of what she was before the crisis. Over speculized property value, lax controls on investments and borrowing, money could be had with ease. Kinda like Japan was in the 80's. When the shit hit the fan, a lot of ex-pats just drove their cars to Dubai International, boarded flights out of the region and never came back. Some crooks and others just plain scared from the writing on the wall. Anyway, I am sure U didn't expect a thesis from just two words! Lol!

But things are picking back up. I have a project I am trying to finalize for an Arabian Horse show on the 30th of next month and trying to drum up some more clients.

Eagle3 wrote:


Dad was a Ship's Serviceman (SH) and worked for the Supply Department. I'd really appreciate iit if U can check the cruise books. I would really love to have some pics of him from that period in his life

bubba4141 wrote:


dad didn't have web tats, but he had ink on both arms and chest.

If this helps any, his wife's name was Junko (my step-mom) and he had a 1967 Ford Fairlane 500. It was jet black with red pin stripes and blood red interior and GT rims.

Altons_boy wrote:


I'll have a look through the '74 and '76 books in the next couple nights.... I'll let you know what I find.

Buzz

roger! Much appreciated!

I checked the '74 and '76 cruisebooks and could find him in the supply dept sections. I'll check some of the other obscure sections and see if he ended up there. I'll also look inthe 76-78 book. IIRC most of that book is 76-77 material/personnel.

Buzz