Active Duty 1973-2003                                                                                                                                      contact: lrhargis@hotmail.com 

"It was dark and stormy night", well not really, but I always wanted to write that. First of all thank you for browsing my Web site. It’s not because of the work and thought I put into it this Web site, its the fact I lived it and you interested enough to take the time to give it a look. My life in the U.S. Navy, like everything else in life, had its times I wish would never end and times I wish had never happened. But without further adieu, here is my story.

I was born in the little town of New Market, Iowa, on a dark and stormy night, sorry it keeps slipping out, on October 12, 1955. (Don’t worry I am not going to take you through my complete life.) After making it through New Market Community High School, I enlisted into the Navy Reserve. Actually if you are still in high school it was called the "Navy Cache Program", they let you finish high school then you went active. That was 14 February 1973, and on 24 May 1973 I graduated and was flying out of Omaha, Nebraska the same night (my first time flying by the way) to sunny RTC San Diego, California. I did my Boot Camp there, Company 160, and upon graduating was accelerated advanced to E2 (1^st Academically in the Company you know, (save the applause for later please). I then moved over the bridge from RTC (worm island as it was affectingly known) to NTC San Diego for CS/SD "A" School to become a Commissaryman. I graduated on 12 Oct 1973, at the ripe old age of 18. I was ready for the Fleet, but was the Fleet ready for me? Ready or not I was on my way!