Contributed PhotoA young Tim Schmeck during his time in service.

Mission: To highlight some of the awesome veterans in this county, and as a form of education to the general public and reminder of the service, sacrifice, and sometimes fun of duty in the U.S. Military Services. Wallowa County has more than 7,000 residents; more than 1,000 of them are veterans. They are your friends, neighbors, workers and co-workers. Please take a moment and get to know them. Remember — “Support the Troops” and remember the veterans.

Tim Schmeck, Joseph, Oregon

Tim grew up and joined the Navy in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He served in the Navy from 1967 to 1971 and during his time of enlistment (actually enlisting in the Navy), the Vietnam War was in full-combat operational mode and on the TV news and newspapers every single day. Tim was attending the Oregon Technical Institute (now Oregon Institute of Technology) and had a 2S Deferment as a student (“2S” simply being the designation/meaning for an authorized student in a school of higher learning). However, Tim was not being “challenged” in school and the spirit of patriotism was rising in his very soul. So bam, he joined the Navy to serve his country and to see the world.

Tim went to “boot camp” (recruit training) in San Diego, California, Naval Training Center. Toward the end of training, each recruit is either assigned a job specialty (a rating) or given choices based on performance, test scores, and, of course, the “needs of the Navy.”

Tim said that initially he had six choices and that he wanted to be an “illustrator draftsman.” However, as he talked to his recruit company commander (RCC) and walked down the list of choices, they all seemed to not be available for one reason or another, until his RCC brought up a choice that wasn’t even on the list: parachute rigger (PR). Tim said, “Sure, why not!” After graduation from boot camp, Tim was on his way to Navy PR School at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

(Note: If you remember your American History, Lakehurst, New Jersey, was where the German dirigible Hindenburg (lighter-than-air, hydrogen aircraft) accidentally caught fire and burned to the ground on May 6, 1937).

At PR School (now called AirCrew Survival Equipment Maintenance man), he learned about packing parachutes for pilots, sewing machines (especially the 91 parts of a Singer 111-W151, which had to be memorized) and timing of them, packing parachutes, oxygen mask maintenance, as well as survival packs and rafts carried in the ejection seat. Another portion of the training included physical fitness by U.S. Marine Corps drill instructors, with the purpose of preparing the graduating students for a parachute jump at the end of the training and their very first parachute landing fall (PLF), i.e. hitting the ground without injury. (And most importantly, being able to report to your first command or duty station without being in a leg cast.)

Tim remembered the parachute jump specifically, “Because once you were out of the aircraft and the noise faded away, it got so quiet, that you could hear the people talking on the ground as well as those who were jumping with me.”

Tim’s duty station for the next four years was with Fighter Squadron VF-102 (The Fighting Diamondbacks) at Naval Air Station Oceana, near Norfolk, Virginia. However, he made two deployments overseas; one on the USS America (CV-66) and one on the USS Independence (CV-62). He also remembers deploying down to Naval Air Station Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico for what was termed “Hot Pad Duty;” in other words being available on the spot in order to support air crews and pilots conducting predeployment training.

Tim remembers the first cruise on the USS America very well, because it was a unique and highlighted one, which included cruising around the world and visiting many foreign ports. It was a “dream come true” for a new sailor in the Navy. Of course, the most arduous portion was off the coast of Vietnam on “line duty.” Sometimes almost 24 hours of flight operations, continuous jet noise, launching noise, jet fuel fumes, planes hitting their “afterburners” like rockets and just the monotonous continuous noise of a ship at sea. When people mention a “city that never sleeps” they might as well be describing a ship at sea, especially a U.S. aircraft carrier which is home to 5,000 men.

Tim has many memories of that first cruise, but one that sticks out was a refueling at sea from a British ship off the coast of South Africa. Seeing British sailors in shorts and talking about their “rum rations” (unheard of in the U.S. Navy). The British ship flying the “Esso Flag” just for fun (an old flag symbolizing putting a “tiger in your tank”) again, unheard of in the U.S. Navy — fun at sea that is. After a good portion of the around the world cruise on the America, the crew was rewarded with a few days liberty (time off) in Sydney, Australia, then to Wellington, New Zealand, and from there to sailing below South America, then to Rio de Janeiro, and finally they arrived back at their home port — Norfolk, Virginia, in December, and Tim and a shipmate were able to make it home to Klamath Falls for Christmas. A very good first cruise.

After a short stay in Oceania, Virginia, Tim’s squadron was transferred to another Carrier Air Group and soon deployed on another cruise, this time on the USS Independence (CV-62), getting underway first to the North Atlantic (six weeks) with a stop in England, and then the remainder of the deployment cruising the Mediterranean Sea for six to eight months. Tim recalls having liberty in the following countries: Malta; Athens, Greece; Naples and Taranto Italy; Cannes, France; and Barcelona and Valencia, Spain.

Tim comments, “We had more time in port than we had money!” Tim also remembers having a Sunday “lay person’s church service” in the forecastle (fo’c’sle) of the ship (where the anchor and anchor chains are let out and hauled in and stored, in the bow or front end of the ship). A time for the sailors to minister to each other and share the good news of Christianity in their lives, hopes and dreams. Tim came away from that cruise with a new perspective for his life and a mission to become a bonafide pastor himself.

Tim was honorably discharged from the Navy and set off to attend San Jose Bible College in Northern California, using his rightly earned “GI Bill” to pay for the schooling. After four years of school and a few steps and turns, Tim became a “pastor in training” in Oregon. First in ministry with the Church in the Forest on Bly Mountain near Bonanza, and later at Mountain View Christian Church in Joseph and finally merging with Enterprise Christian Church, where he has gone into semi-retirement. Another end to another very good cruise.