T.Spoon arriving

[TSpoon]

Good Day All,
I am Timothy Spoon, aka T.Spoon, and I qualified aboard the USS Balao SS-285 on 5-13-1963. My Dolphins were pinned at Gitmo and on the 14th I put on EM3. The water there was warm so a  pleasant toss over the side. Drinking your fish at the Air Station EM Club, Gitmo was not good as the booze was cheap so the tumbler was full. From there went to Bainbridge for NUC school.

I  flunked out and returned to the USS Tirante SS-420 at Key West for the next three years. Yards at Portsmount, Virginia, two Gitmo sojourns, and a Med cruise in early 1966. I bought a retired Portsmouth PD Harley in the yards and had it painted Fire Engine Red. Had to ship it to Key West as the XO hated bikes. I did ride it through the Gate Bar one balmy Saturday afternoon in about 1964.

After the Med cruise I swapped with another EM2(SS) to the USS Ronquil SS-396 out of San Diego in May, 1966. While home on leave I met my wife to be and got engaged. After a great WestPac (mentioned in Blindmans Bluff) , August 1966 - March 1967, we spent two months in Hunters Point for a new battery. That was at the height of the Hippies so a very interesting time in SF. My wife made the Ronqil dependents cruise with us in about Aug 1967.

I got out after 6 years and moved to Northern California. Went to school on the GI Bill while working in a saw mill and got a BS in Accounting. Moved to Sacramento and worked for the Air Force as an Accountant / Budget Analyst until they closed the base by BRAC and forced me to take early retirement in 1999.

Since 1999 I have been a docent aboard the Pampanito. Part of that time with Cowboy of the "Bash at the Ranch" fame and Gary Walker who started the BESS site. I had brought my granddaughter Briana to the Bash after Cowboy found out she is the Great (5) Grand Niece of Charlie Goodnight who is the subject of the song "Charlie and the Boys" sung by the Sons of the San Joaquine at the Bash. She is now in the Air Force and the "Imaging Analyst / Weapons" controller for the Global Hawks and Predators. Luckily for me she is stationed near Las Vegas and not in harms way directly.

Many Thanks to Dean for starting this site.

T.Spoon, DBF

[Darrin]

Tim,

Welcome aboard shipmate, good to see you here after all this time... pull up a chair and stay a while

Darrin

[Tom Bowser]

Welcome aboard TSpoon, You are lucky you got out of the nuke program, you had more fun. I grew up across the bay in San Lorenzo, moved back there in '75 and left a year later, too many people. Don't have too much fun on the Pamp'
Tom

[JTheotonio]

Welcome aboard T.Spoon.  Hum we shared some of the same waters for sure.  I was on the Picuda out of Key West in the mid 60's.  Then off to a Boomer (VonSteuben).  I was a California kid all my life before moving to NJ in 2001.  Picuda is the 382 and was a double launched boat with Pampanito during WWII.  I used to work downtown SF for many years and had reason to visit the Pampanito many times. 

So glad to have you on board - jump in the water is fine.  (PS - had my tour in Gitmo too - nice place)