Richard A. Guenther - A potential draftee who joined the Navy verses being drafted in the Army in 1953. It worked out well for Richard and he had a great tour of duty in the Navy, minus the almost 2 ½ months of Mess Hall duty he had to serve.
Richard served a total of eight years of service primarily out of Naval Air Station Pensacola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Pensacola He served on the USS Saipan (CVL-48) Light Aircraft Carrier http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/48.htm that was turned into a training vessel to train young Naval Aviation Pilots. One of the pilots that went through the training while Richard was stationed on the Carrier was Senator John McCain.
After his tour of duty on the ship Richard was assigned to a photo lab in Memphis Tennessee where he served out his remaining tour of active duty and then he went on to serve another four years as a Radar Sonar Operator at Pensacola in the Naval Reserves becoming a weekend warrior.
Richard is now 86 years old and lives in Lewisburg Tennessee
Timeline of Podcast
Introduction of Richard
1m:26S- Richard starts his story
10m:38s - Were you drafted Richard?
13m:07 s - Richards Transfer to Memphis Tennessee
22m:56s - Funniest thing Richard remembers about his tour of duty
33m:34s - The one thing Richard learned from the military
40m:46s - Closing remarks
