DeJongh Served At Sea
Pictured: LaVonne and Virg De Jongh were married in the midst of Virg’s years in the navy. They are pictured here at their graddaughter’s wedding.
By Jill Fennema –
We have told our readers about a group of young boys in high school in 1966 who skipped school one day to go to Sioux Falls to enlist in the navy. They knew that their draft numbers would come up soon, so rather than wait to be drafted, they enlisted.
Virg De Jongh was one of those young men. He was 18 years old, the oldest son of his family, with one younger brother and three sisters. His Dad was a widower. His mother was scared to death of the war. She died on Dec. 26, 1965. Virg remembers his mom reading in the Readers Digest about a fire on the Oriskany. Little did she know, he would spend quite a bit of time on that ship.
Virg De Jongh was stationed on the U.S.S. Oriskany aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War.
On Dec 20, 1966, he left on a bus for Omaha. From Omaha, they took a train to Chicago to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
One memory that sticks in his mind is that he and the other soldiers got off that train and were talking and maybe a little excited. And then the gates to the training center were slammed shut and they were all quiet. From that moment on they were cut down and made to feel small.
“From the minute you walk in in you realize you are not in charge,” Virg said.
The officer who had recruited them was in a big hurry to get them off to basic training, but when they arrived at the base, they were told that most of the soldiers were going home for Christmas and their training would not start for two weeks. So they pulled guard duty and scooped snow for two weeks.
There was a really big snow storm that December and even O’Hare airport was closed. Some of the Florida-boys didn’t know what to make of that much snow, but for a farm boy from Minnesota, the snow provided a good distraction – work to do.
Seaman recruit Virgil De Jongh.
For Virg, basic training was not so tough. Listening to orders and doing it the Navy way was a cardinal rule.
Virg getting his haircut at basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Academy.
Virg is pictured here with other navy recruits. He is in the front on the left.
The hardest part of his training was the water survival training. Prior to joining the navy, Virg did not know how to swim and had never had any swimming lessons. The water survival training involves jumping or being pushed into a big pool of water with your clothes on. The first thing they had to do was take their shirts off and fill them with air and make them into a floatation device.
Virg laughs now, but at the time it was not so funny. He hung back to watch what was going on so he would know what was coming. Any soldier who went under was allowed to go under three times before he was offered the rescue pole. If you needed the rescue pole, it was back to the beginning of basic training for you.
At their basic training graduation, each of them was given an envelope with their orders in it. No one knew where they were going until that moment. Virg’s orders were for the U.S.S. Oriskany – an aircraft carrier that had been badly damaged by fire and was at that time in dry dock being repaired.
Meanwhile, Virg’s high school sweetheart, LaVonne Krosschell of Chandler, was taking classes at Dordt College. When he finished his basic training, he called her on the phone and proposed.
When he came home for a week, he made his proposal official with a diamond engagement ring.
Virg’s advanced training took place in California at Treasure Island, a naval facility located in the San Francisco Bay. One part of that training was fire training.
On an aircraft carrier, the biggest enemy is not being bombed. The biggest enemy is that a fire will break out. Aircraft carriers carry a lot of fuel, so any fire carries the threat of massive casualties. As mentioned before, the USS Oriskany had been damaged by fire before.
When Virg and his unit boarded that ship bound for Vietnam, this was her first time out since being repaired. It was jokingly called the USS Zippo.
Virg explained that whenever there is a fire and they call general quarters, no matter how big or small, everyone goes to their battle station. If that fire is where you are at, you go after the fire. It’s very efficient.
“We had a number of those,” he said. “You have to put out the fire quickly.”
An aircraft carrier is basically a floating city with thousands of people on board. There is the ship’s own crew that stay with that ship and then there are all the fighter squadrons of airmen who come on board with their aircraft and supplies.
Virg was part of the S6 Aviation Supply Unit. His job on the Oriskany was to issue parts for many of the fighter jets aboard. He was in charge of some of the most expensive parts that were carried on the ship. He also had to document the repairs and which parts were used and by which aircraft.
He would often work the night shift. Most others found those hours undesirable, but Virg didn’t mind. He would sometimes have to wake up his commanding officer to have him sign off on paperwork in the wee hours of the morning.
There were benefits to being in charge of some of the more expensive supplies and having access to items that officers would find desirable – such as a new pair of expensive sunglasses. Sometimes Virg could use these items in his control to avoid doing undesirable jobs. They call this practice “cumshaw” in the military.
They stayed out to sea for months at a time and he could not call Von unless he was on shore. They would come into various ports – such as the Philippines – about every 45 days, but sometimes other ships would bring them fuel out at sea. For the year that he was on the Oriskany, Virg and Von never talked on the phone. They only wrote letters.
