ETC Brad Bradfield, USNR (Ret)

NEW: Chief's Initiation 2002

I enlisted in the Navy (one step ahead of the draft board) at the Naval Reserve Center in Sioux City, IA on 13 November 1969. I went to boot camp (Company A014) at Naval Training Center Great Lakes, IL on 1 February 1970. In July of 1970, I started Electronics Technician "A" School at Great Lakes. Because of my previous electronics experience, I was able to bypass the regular classroom training in Basic Electronics class, and the first phase of "A" school. After "A" school, I was assigned to the USS Kansas City (AOR-3), homeported in Long Beach, CA. I spent parts of 1971 and 1972 in WESTPAC on the Kansas City, operating heavily on Yankee Station and Operation Marketime in the Gulf of Tonkin. On 3 July 1972, I waved goodbye to my Kansas City shipmates from the Alava Pier at Cubi Pt in Subic Bay, RP, and headed home to the States to get out of the Navy on 12 July.

After returning home to South Dakota, I stayed in the reserves, drilling at the Naval Reserve Center in Sioux Falls, SD, and went back to college on the GI Bill. After graduating in 1980, I moved to Texas and again drilled in the reserves, this time at NAS Dallas. At NAS Dallas, I was assigned to the NAS Key West, FL augmentation unit, and did my two weeks active duty many times at NAS Key West. I was selected for Chief Petty Officer in 1981, and assumed division officer's duties with NAS Key West. In 1991, I transferred to the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) as Command Chief, a position I held until I retired from the Reserves on 1 January 1996. In addition to NAS Key West and USS Kitty Hawk, I also did active duty over the years aboard the USS Putnam (DD-757), USS Arnold J. Isbell (DD-869), USS Hamner (DD-718), and USS Tulare (LKA-112).

In my 26 years and 48 days in the US Navy and Navy Reserves, I had the honor of serving with many fine shipmates, and for a fine group of officers and Commanding Officers. Shipmates like Bill Hutton, Jim Ardapple, and Grayson Koogle on the Kansas City, Chiefs Jerry Miller and Cary Grant, Senior Chief John Hawkins, Master Chief Mike Ross, LT/LCDR (later Cdr and Capt) Phil Schwab, and Captain Galen Carpenter in NAS Key West, and Pete Sottnik, CWO4 Chuck Martinez, and Captain Ross Campbell on Kitty Hawk.

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