Memorabilia

U.S. Navy

Memories and Memorabilia donated by David Watkinson to support The FineDay Academy

I was in the Navy for four years from 1964 to 1968 as a Midshipman who went on active duty for two months every summer. Because the Navy gave me flight training and eventually orders for the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, I owed them four years service as an officer for my time at university plus one year for the Vietnam war plus one year as a pilot.  Unfortunately, illness prevented me from completing the program and accepting my commission. 

My plan was to recover and regain my commission through OCS (Officer Candidate School) but during my recovery in 1968 the world changed. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated.

Those tragic events led me down the rabbit hole of political research which eventually caused me to reverse my belief about the righteousness of the Vietnam War.

Nevertheless, I honor those who served, especially those who didn’t return from Vietnam which include a Midshipman in my class Ed Hammerbeck and a Delta Upsilon fraternity brother Ted Edwards.

1967 Memory – Kind of an amusing video coming soon – On liberty in Spain dealing with the goons working for WWII Fascist dictator of Spain General Francisco Franco who was still in power in 1967.

1967 Memorabilia – A small greek sword I bought during liberty in Athens.

1966-67 Memory – Video coming soon of my minimal Navy flight training (only 2 hrs solo)

1966 Memorabilia – Official 12×16″ navy photographs of instruments in the cockpit of a T-28 that I flew one afternoon at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (non-solo with a real pilot in the back seat.)