Blog 36 Nuclear Medicine School (phase one)

(Washington, DC bound for Naval School of Health Science and associated with George Washington University)

(What the heck did I sign up for?)

When I arrived at school, the Navy had allotted me enough money to live off base. I was only going to be there for 17 weeks so they did not want us living on base and wasting rooms for permanent duty men (and women). Yes, they crammed two years of college into 16 weeks. This was , overall, a great idea, yet it meant daily test and quizzes, and lots of homework. In exchange we only did college classes that were directly related to my specialty. Many of my friends received an associate’s degree, as well. I personally still needed one more semester of English (a mandatory) to get mine. I never did the class to this day. The certificate from the Navy was equivalent and actually opened more doors when I got out.

Since I took the lower Hwy 10 from Florida, and came down hwy 55 from Chicago (Great Lakes) via St. Louis first, I decided to take Hwy 40 to Washington, DC, which allowed me to see many new states. When I checked into my school, I had the weekend to find a place to live. I visited the home of an Iranian,(that is what I said), and he had a furnished bedroom at a decent price and I saw no threat being there so I accepted the room. It was in Chevy Chase, Maryland, but only 15 miles to the National Naval Hospital and School. Of course, Mom came with me. (I joined the Navy so that mom could “see the world!”)

When I attended my first day at Nuclear Medicine School I learned that it was the only military school of its kind and students were from the Army and Air Force, as well. We had 8 army men, 8 Navy men, and 6 Air Force men. The wildest thing was that I had not placed nuclear and radiation together yet. So when they said we would be injecting liquid radiation into patients on a daily basis, and we would be handling over 1.0 curies of radiation per day, I freaked. I had heard so much bad things about high doses of radiation, I could not understand how it had a medicinal purpose that could help save lives. Most of the students had already done some work in Nuclear Medicine Departments, so I got them to help me understand. It was not long before it made sense and I began really getting into it and knew that God led me to this program for a special reason.

(Being kicked out of my rented room because the owner was Iranian.)

I enjoyed my rented room and my roommate, we played a lot of chess, checkers, and other games that made you think. My roommate’s name was Reza Rechshaw. (He joked that it sounded like “Resurrection”. He was a bartender and I always got my drinks for free. But, after a week and a half, the Navy said I could not stay there because he was Iranian and they were moving me to the Ramada Inn right down the street from the school. I found out the other students were already there. Many in the Ramada suites. I found a guy that was in a regular room, (not Dan), that wanted to share a suite. Since, I did also, we became great friends and perfect study partners. He was married, so he did not participate in many things the rest of us did. He had already worked in a nuclear clinic, so he taught me plenty about our job to be.

The sleeping arrangement was great, we were paid $45 per day while we were there. We were able to keep a tab at their bar, restaurant, and rooms that were paid on payday. We felt like kings. I got to know everyone and we had poker night, movie night, and visited many clubs and went to the monuments many times. All compliments of the military. It was September to December. I sat in the back of the school room so that I could lean my chair against the wall. My friend, Dan , sat next to me. We did talk sometimes, and one day it turned into an argument that everyone heard. One guy said, “You two argue worse than a married couple!” That is all that had to be said for me to back off from Dan except about school or if many people were in the conversation. Unfortunately, that left Dan with very few friends.

(An embarrassing secret comes out and they never let me let it go!)

I am sure that everyone knows that there is a chain of command in the military. They go from enlisted 1-10. (E1-E3,PO3-PO6, CPO-SCPO- and 1 MPO), then they go to civilian officer (WO1-3), officers O1-O6, Upper Officers (Navy- RAdm-5*Adm),(All Other-(Gen1-5*) At this time , I was a PO3. Most people who do not retire from the Navy get out at either PO3 or PO2. Few enlisted people make Chief Petty Officer, and less make Senior Chief. As for Officers, very few make Captain or Colonel. And a special few reach Admiral or General. So, being a petty officer E5 or E6, is the best you can do.

I had to explain this for my secret to make sense. Our Commanding Officer of the School was a female Captain in her late 50s or early 60s. She was tall, petite, and had the best looking legs of any female officer I had seen at the time. When she would address us, I guess I got caught looking at her legs by one of the guys because when she left, I was addressed by the guy (out loud in class) that I sure was staring at her. Still being in a state of awe about her body, I said out loud, “Man, if she had a bag on her head, I could really like her. Boy does she have legs!” Someone had to have told her about everything, except the bag on her head, because every time she came to our class, someone would say,” Here comes Dallas’s girlfriend.” I’m sure I was red-faced.

When an Officer enters your room, you have to announce them, and stand at attention! She would deliberately come down my isle and stare me in the face with a smile before she would let us sit down. Then she would walk up and down my isle during her visit. After she left, everyone would give me heck. They even told our teachers! I never lived it down, but I did meet this girl at a party that I dated about three times. Things were very good with us.

(The trip back to San Diego for Phase-two (on hands for eight months) and the final part of my schooling.)

If I told everything that happened in DC. we would never get to the fun stuff that began happening in San Diego. But I must include my trip back because of what happened.

It is always great to say that coming into a specialty not knowing what I got into for real, that I made a 96.5 average at graduation. Even with that score, I was 10th in my class. I put out an offer to have someone ride with me to share in cost and driving. I still have my Subaru Brat truck that was a two-seater in front (clutch car). My best offer came from a sailor that was going to fly home, with a layover in Dallas. I had 10 days to get to San Diego. I accepted. We were to leave directly after the graduation.

After the ceremony, I had a classmate ask me if I had room to take him to Portsmouth, Virginia on the way. He would give me $50 and agreed that he had to sit on the compartment between the seats and on the gears, put us up for the night, and I would skip the money. He agreed. I am so glad he came because the other guy went directly asleep the minute we took off. It was raining, so all our gear was in the back covered by a heavy tarp.

I decided that the fastest way to Portsmouth was to go north through Maryland and then down a strand that went straight to Virginia. And it also allowed me to go through a few more states. We began the trip , and it was quite funny for the guy in the middle. He had to straddle my gear shift and his knees were resting on the dashboard. Until we got to the Strand, we had to make many gear shifts during that time. To say the least, we were having to hit between his legs many times. It was getting very late, our extra rider still asleep, when I said that I smelled something burning. About the same time, the middle man, with his knees on my dashboard, started bouncing around and yelling that his knee was burning. I saw a hole in his blue jeans at his knee. I pulled the car over and we all jumped out, in the rain. I looked inside the car and found that he had somehow pushed into the lighter for quite a while. It got so hot that it melted the plastic around the lighter.

We laughed very hard and made sure he was alright. We returned back on the road and our third guest immediately went back to sleep. We finally made it to his drop off, and were allowed to sleep on the floor until morning. I am sure to this day, we still remember the burning knees.

(BLOG 37- making it back to San Diego and beginning phase two!)