Temporary Additional Duty 

   Temporary Additional Duty (TAD) is a common thing in the U.S. Navy. It is a way in which commands help support other outfits when they are attached to or ship out aboard ship. With all of the additional people, help is needed in the basic areas of services, like Laundry, Feeding the troops, maintaining the berthing areas, etc. The Navy way is to send the lower rated personnel (E-1 thru E-3) to a 3 - 6 Month loan to the host command to be used as they see fit.

My first command, V-3 Division, aboard the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk (CVA-63), I had TAD as a Garbage Man for the scullery. Not that enjoyable as I and another Sailor carried fully loaded garbage cans of table scraps to the fantail and dumped them over the side when we were at Sea. We had at lease 15 full cans per meal. It seemed like my helper would always be smaller than me, which meant, I would be on the bottom going up the ladders. Not the best position when the ship is moving and rolling. I showered as often as I could, the smell was bad. In Port, it was a little easier as the Ship was pretty stable, but we had to take the cans to the pier to dump in a dumpster.

At my second command, I was a higher grade (E-3), we had just returned from a Westpac cruise and I joined my brother in VF-114, a Fighter Command. Upon returning to the States, VF-114 was home based at NAS Miramar, about 20 miles north of San Diego.

I was sent TAD to the Hobby Shop, where I worked on (rental) boats. I repaired and painted boats all day until I had them all done in about a week. So, they sent me to the Wood Shop, where I cut wood for people's projects on various saws. The Civilian in charge didn't like me for some reason and sent me to the Hobby Shop Garage after a couple of days. It may have been because I smoked at that time and I they didn't allow smoking in the Wood Shop, so I would tend to be outside a lot.

I loved it there in the Garage, I had worked as a mechanic's helper before going into the Navy and this was perfect for me. I gave out tools, helped guys work on their cars and ran a Valve Grinding Machine. The civilian in charge there liked to play the ponies and spend most of his time at the track. That left me and two other guys there to handle any and all of the issues that people had while working on their Cars. Most of the time I would be out turning wrenches with them. I was in Hog Heaven.

The best part was my weekend duty. I was sent out to the base Trout Pond to sit in an Air-conditioned booth, to check License's, make sure people didn't exceed their limits of fish, and that no one kept the small fish. My superior at that time loved fish, he brought me a fishing pole, bait, bag and paper to wrap the fish in. He told me that when it was slow or nobody around to catch as many as I could and wrap the in wet paper to keep. He would come around every couple of hours and take what I had. I enjoyed it so much that I started to volunteer for weekend duty.

Then it happened, I had made E-4, too high of grade to be working at such menial tasks. I was sent back to my Command.