Main Characters: Coco and me,
Time frame: 1978-1979
Scene: Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, VA and Baton Rouge, LA
We ended my last sea story in Venice, Italy where I rendezvoused with the USS South Carolina after Coco and I spent 17 wonderful days on our honeymoon. I was long overdue for shore duty having spent four years straight on warships. My last assignment on active duty was Naval Station Norfolk– the home port of the US Navy’s Six Fleet and the largest naval base in the world.
About a week after I arrived in Norfolk and got settled in at the Bachelors Officer Quarters (BOQ), Coco arrived in my TR 6. When we met in the bar, I noticed that she had on her wedding ring. I whispered to her, “Coco, take off the ring”. “Why would I do that?” “This is a BOQ. It is ok for you to shack up with me here as a girlfriend, but bachelors don’t have wives.” Welcome to the US Navy.
Within a week, Coco had found a perfect apartment for us in West Ghent. It was near the CBD in a 3-story building. It had seven large rooms and wooden floors. We were tenants from hell from the landlord’s perspective. Among the torments we inflicted on poor Rusty Brown were: Coco overran the kitchen sink which caused the ceiling below to collapse; set the porch ceiling on fire barbecuing out there; trained our dog to go down all three flights of stairs by herself and do her business before coming back. Without telling us, the dog decided to stop on either the second or first floor landings, poop and come home – our fellow residents were not amused. And Coco bought some wooden clogs and wore them around on the wooden floor. Poor Ms. Durret on the 2nd floor. When we moved out of the apartment, Rusty told us he was keeping the deposit for damages. I was indignant and an attorney friend made him return it. (About ten years ago I tried to find Rusty, apologize, and send him the deposit plus interest. Alas, I could not find him.)
My job at the Naval Station ended up being the manager of the Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) and I reported to LCDR Jack Fergario who oversaw all the quarters at the Naval Station, including the BOQ. (I confessed about Coco staying there and he forgave me.) I enjoyed the job and put a lot of energy into it. (Who knew that 15 years hence I would be managing residential housing for my own account.) Even so, I had a lot of time to spend with my new bride and to thoroughly enjoy the quality-of-life Norfolk had to offer.
After a few months there, we went church shopping and settled on Second Presbyterian Church of Norfolk. It was small but filled with a lot of nice of people who took an interest in us. We made some excellent friends there and some are still good friends even now.
Coco had decided that she wanted to become an architect – something I fully supported. She enrolled in several courses at Old Dominion University that would transfer to LSU’s School of Architecture, when we moved to Baton Rouge the following year. I enrolled in an MBA program on the Naval Station offered by Golden Gate University. The problem I faced was that the MBA required numerous pre-requisite courses. I explained my time crunch situation to the program director, and we worked out an arrangement whereby I would take the masters level course in say statistics and then I would take a final exam for the prerequisite statistics course. If I passed the undergraduate exam, I would get credit for both the undergraduate and graduate course. My final exams were in late July 1979. So, whereas I could have left the service in June, having served five years, my resignation letter was effective for early August.
We packed up everything and headed for Louisiana. Two of my most prized possessions did not make the trip. The Triumph TR 6 was a cool car, but it required a lot of maintenance and was not very practical. I ran an ad in the local paper: “Ex-bachelor must sell his sassy, sexy baby blue sports car. Call wife” and gave Coco’s number. She received about 50 calls, and we settled on a mechanic as the car’s new owner. With the proceeds from the sale, we purchased a very practical Buick Skyhawk. When in Charleston, I had salvaged a Y-Flyer sailboat from the garage in the back of an old lady’s house South of Broad. I invested hundreds of hours restoring that boat, but it too needed a new home.
We began our life in Baton Rouge house sitting for friends of my sister who were away for several months. Coco and I both enrolled in LSU. She in architecture and me in construction management. One of my most vivid memories came the following summer when I was working as an apprentice carpenter on a big construction job at LSU. Our only auto was the Skyhawk which Coco used. I rode a bicycle to the job site – about three miles from our apartment. It turned out to be one of the hottest summers on record and we were working in the middle of big field with zero shade. I assisted in building forms for the concrete foundation, pouring the concrete into the forms, and then getting down into trenches and wrecking the forms when the concrete had sufficiently cured. I stayed soaked in sweat and covered with dirt and concrete splotches from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm every day. I remember walking to my bicycle one afternoon totally exhausted and thinking, “Good Lord, I sure hope none of my classmates see me now – they will think I have lost my mind.”
One of the courses Coco took at LSU was Real Estate Development that was taught by Dr. Rudy Aguilar from Costa Rica. She told me how exceptional the class was. I took the class the next semester. Dr. Aguilar remains as the single best instructor I have ever had. He opened my eyes to the world of commercial real estate and real estate development. He warned the class members that it was a path fraught with risks, high stress, and setbacks. But he also said it could be very lucrative and tremendously rewarding. He was right on all accounts.
Sometimes I reflect on the day that I gazed at the USS Jonas Ingram three years after I first met her and wept because she looked exactly as she had when I initially saw her, despite all the time, energy, and effort I had invested in that ship. There is something much more rewarding for me to visit an apartment complex that was in shambles when I first purchased it, and after investing a lot of time, energy, effort, and money find it to be transformed into a beautiful fully occupied place that residents are pleased to call their home.
Annapolis and the Navy were among the most important and formative experiences of my life. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to have those experiences. But for me it was not long term. I so greatly admire and appreciate those who chose to remain in the Navy or Marine Corps and make a career of it. those who chose to remain in the Navy or Marine Corps and make a career of it. They have provided an invaluable contribution to the wellbeing and security of our Country. We should all be forever grateful for their service.