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James A. Sollee Sailor and Truck Driver
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About Me
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Name: James A. Sollee
Born: January 28, 1943 At: Phoenix Arizona
Location: Tampa, Florida "Sunshine" "The Beach"
Hair Color: Mostly Gray Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5'10'' Weight: #200
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My early years were spent in Arkansas. I could tell then by looking at my history and geography books that the rest of the world didn't live the same as we did in Arkansas. The license plates read "Land of Opportunity" and that is what I did, I got out the first opportunity I got. And never went back....... :) Pickin Cotton........ Yuk
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Back in the beginning. Somewhere in Wyoming
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My first major move:
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My mother brought me to St. Louis when I was 14, in 1957. What a change from Arkansas. I really changed a lot in the next three years. Some for the better some not. I hated school with a passion, I wasn't doing well at all so the day I turned 17 I joined the United States Navy. Join the Navy and see the world the posters said and I was ready. I have been on my own sence that day, January 29, 1960.
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Second major move:
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Wow is it possable that I was ever actually this young......... :) After boot camp at Great Lakes Training Center between Chicago and Milwaukee, I was sent to The US Naval Photographic Interperation Center, right outside of Washington DC. Hell I joined the navy to go to sea and see the world. I kept putting in for transfers until they finally shipped me out. (There was a little more to it than that, there was a woman involved. She was and still to this day is my nemisis. It hasen't been good. ) In December of 1960, I reported on board the U.S.S Newport News (CA-148) a heavy cruiser home ported out of Norfolk Virginia, WOW that was the biggest damn thing I had ever seen. Big guns........... :)
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Third move: The United States 2nd Fleet Norfolk, Virginia
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This was my home for three years. I saw most of the major sea ports of the east coast of the USA. From Portland, Maine to Port Everglades, Florida. to Mobile, Alabama, now those Red Necks know how to have a good time............. :)
In the Carribbean: I saw the American Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Hati, Dominican Republic, Martinique.
In Europe: I saw Rota Spain, Barcelona was a really great liberty town. Cannes and Breast France, Naples and Polermo Italy, Hamburg and Kiel, Germany, Amsterdam Holland, Lisbon, Portugal, The Rock of Gebraltar.
In Asia: I saw Ismier, Turkey
In The North Atlantic: Copenhagen, Denmark, Oslo, Norway, Stockholm, Sweden and lets don't forget Rejiveck, Iceland. You talk about a cold place...... Brrrrrrrrrr !
In Canada: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Quebec City, Quebec
All in all I really had some gooe times. I wouldn't trade all my experiences there for anything but........... I have no regrets on taking my discharge and leaving. I could go back now and make it just fine, but in my teens I hadn't realized yet that you are going to have a boss telling you what to do all your life, not just there in the Navy.
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Heavy seas. Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
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Are we having fun yet? When a ship this size takes water over the bow the smaller ships were catching hell. The fun part of heavy seas......... no line in the galley...... a lot of the guys that though they were "Old Salts" found themselves hanging over the toilet, if they could make it that far....... :)
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My Favorite Links
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