USNS Kilauea T-AE 26
Last updated January 6 2012
Here is my old Navy ship that I spent most of my enlistment on. In 1981 while I was aboard the USNS Aeolus the Navy transferred Kilauea to Military Sealift Command for civilian manning. The engine placement officer in Oakland was looking for volunteers that had served aboard the ship while in the Navy and so I volunteered. I was transferred I believe in early October 1981. I reported to the ship at Braswell Shipyard in Charleston, South Carolina. There were only about 10 of us aboard overseeing the refit for civilian manning so basically I was serving as a conversion representative. The other 2nd Electrician was a black fellow from Texas that was known as triple J. He was called that because his name was J.J. Johnson. JJ was from Dallas, Texas and had been on a rodeo circuit for part of his life. In later years he would land a job working at the fuel pier in San Diego, California. While we were all paid per diem and expected to stay in a hotel most of us opted to rent apartments and rent cars to get back and forth to work. JJ was rooming with a black 3rd Engineer by the name of Robinson, I have since forgotten his first name. Robinson would serve in later years aboard one of the tankers I was serving on during my third employment. Robinson owned a Jaguar and it was not uncommon for he and JJ to be pulled over by the Hanahan, South Carolina police on suspicion of car theft. I guess the police in that jurisdiction were not used to seeing affluent black folk. I once remarked to Robinson that he ought to tell the police when stopped again that black folk in Oakland were driving Rolls Royce's.
Later in October I flew to Dallas Love Field to confirm my engagement with Ginger Woods, it was the 21st if I recall correctly. I should have paid attention to what God was telling me, friends at the church in Hanahan warned me not marry her since she was not a believer. Enroute to Dallas the flight stopped at Atlanta and as it was landing a freak wind shear hit the vicinity of our gate tossing the luggage carts around like they were Tonka toys. At least one luggage handler was killed and another seriously injured during that event. Our time at the gate was only supposed be half an hour but I believe we sat on the plane for at least four hours before they took us off and we boarded a plane at a different gate to continue on to Dallas. That trip to Love Field was to confirm the engagement. I would make another flight to Love Field in November for the actual wedding. We had been married in a ceremony in the employee lounge of the Dobbs House restaurant. It was an off duty South West airlines mechanic who happened to be a Baptist preacher that married us. After a brief honey moon I returned to my duties on the Kilauea, and it was not soon after that I was receiving calls from my new bride suggesting suicide. Right after we had just rented our own apartment this had taken place. In December of that year because of the woman's emotional state I resigned and returned to Dallas. I could not maintain a job because of no car and soon she lost her job as well.
After the new year in 1982 we made the fateful move down to San Antonio right after my mom had divorced my dad. He was living across the way from moms apartment with a quasi mentally deficient woman. Not long after the move to San Antonio we found ourselves homeless after being forced out of my Uncle Bob's apartment. This was the year that my Grandmother had died. She is buried in a cemetery bordering Austin Highway and Eisenhower Boulevard in Terrell Hills, Texas. Terrell Hills is a bedroom city within the confines of the current San Antonio City Limits. On the very day that Grandmother died my Uncle Charlie who had been attending the funeral found that his home had been broken into back in Universal City and he died from a heart attack.