After completing my training, I was ordered to the USS Gilmore (AS-16), a Submarine Tender ported in La Maddelena, Sardinia, off the south-western coast of Italy. (Because I was going overseas, I moved all my stuff back to my parent's and stored it; SEE...I stopped in to visit them...finally...and this was in August...AND their house was still completely decorated for Christmas! I thought this was a really nice gesture, except for the fact that I thought they were going to be trucked away!!!) I was assigned to 38 Shop (Outside Machine Shop) there from July 1973 to January 1974. The Gilmore was the last tender in the fleet that still made quarterly liberty cruises to maintain sea-pay; therefore, just after I came aboard, we sailed for Villefrance in the middle of the French Riviera, where we stayed for 15 days. Being in the Repair Department was great because, with no submarines alongside to repair, we pretty much had "Gangplank" liberty...you only had to be back for whatever watches you had, and they were very few!!! Then, just before my tour on the Gilmore was done, she again sailed on a liberty cruise, but, this time, for Tunis, Tunisia in North Africa. Both trips were extremely memorable for me!
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