TOPEKA (KSNT) - Living in Topeka his whole life, Navy 3rd Class Petty Officer Ray Wadkins would see the world during quite a turbulent time.
Being born in the landlocked Sunflower State didn't stop Wadkins' fascination with the aquatic ecosystem.
“I was a marine lover all my life," Wadkins said. "When the Marines and the Navy come the Navy offered a two-year program, a buddy program, which I joined the Navy with a friend of mine that I grew up with. We went to basic training in San Diego.”
Shortly after that training, Wadkins made his way to Vietnam.
“I was stationed in Da Nang, my port, we would go up to the DMZ which is North of South Vietnam," he said. "We was pumping JP4’s, JP5 fuel to the beach there, jet propulsion fuel - which is high explosive.”
While in Da Nang, rocket barrages by the enemy forces were constant.
“They’d have a certain time every day they would come in and harass the military and then it would quit," Wadkins said. "You could almost set your clock to it when they would start, at five o'clock in the evening and it’d last maybe an hour. I sat off the coast of DMZ and the USS New Jersey which is a big battleship which survived World War II. Would shoot off the coast of the DMZ, shoot 10, 15, 25 mile inland with M16 inch guns. Watching them guns shoot at night was fabulous.”
Seeing those bullets fly wasn't the only part of his service overseas that stuck with the Petty Officer.
“The act of service made me a better person," Wadkins said. "I grew up a lot quicker than a lot of them did, because I was in a combat zone. I met a lot of friends that was very knowledgeable in certain areas. It just made me feel more like what I thought of America, and it’s my homeland.”
Wadkins would return to that homeland in the capital city, working in the local postal service for 32 years.
