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FEE ARY 1968

Tico Sets Fast Pace Crewmen in the attack carrier uss Ticonderoga (CVA 14) may earn the equivalent of a high school diploma, college credits, or technical train- ing through correspondence courses when the ship is at sea. Members of the crew may attend college classes on board through the Navy’s Pro- gram for Afloat College Education (PACE ) .

PACE brings teachers on board from San Diego State College to teach seven freshman-level courses to more than 100 Ticonderoga crew- men. Each course offers three col- lege credits, acceptable at most col- leges and universities, for a cost of only $10 to $15, plus books.

In addition, a sailor student may choose from among more than 6000 correspondence courses from 46 colleges and, universities through USAFI, which also offers some 200 of its own courses covering pre-high school, high school, college and tech- nical subjects.

The college correspondence courses cost about $10 to $25 each, includ- ing books, whereas USAFI charges

A GOOD TOUR-Master Chief Petty Officer Paul N. Cockreham is piped

ashore during retirement ceremonies at Patrol Squadron 17, Chief Cockreham

ended a 27-year Navy career that started 10 months before Pearl Harbor.

$5 for the first of its courses. If the student passes, he may take any other USAFI courses at no cost. About 400 Tico men are enrolled in USAFI courses each year.

Ticonderoga’s Educational Serv- ices Office, which maintains a train- ing library that houses about 300 training films, also administers en- trance exams for colleges, handles applications for the Navy’s own serv- ice schools, and gives Navy-wide

tests for advancement in rating. It even has on record that it adminis- tered the final exam for a teaching certificate to a civilian-the wife of a crewman.

All this points to the fact that on board Ticonderoga, or anywhere else in the Fleet, a man needs little more than the desire for an education. The Navy, as a rule, takes care of just about all the rest.

-Frank Silvey, J03, USN

According to the Navy boat crews and the soldiers of the Mobile Riverine Force at Vung Tau, they live in the first APL to arrive in Vietnam and the only green one in the entire country. The paint job is for camouflage against a jungle background.

Their home is an auxiliary per- sonnel lighter (APL 26) which serves as a hotel for Navy Task Force 117 and also supports one river assault division and squadron staff, two rifle companies and one headquarters company as well as a Navy explosive ordnance disposal team.

Although the residents of APL 26 don’t claim their home is the most peripatetic in the world, they do say it has been around quite a bit. According to their calculations, APL 26 has traveled more than 7000 miles in the past year un- hampered by the fact that it has no means of self-propulsion.

The floating barracks, which was built in 1944, was taken out of the mothball fleet at Seattle and modernized for service in Vietnam.

Home Away from Home Just before Christmas of 1966,

she began her long voyage under tow bound for Vung Tau where, after a short stop at Subic Bay, R. P., she arrived on 22 Feb 1967.

Additional mileage was accumu- lated as APL 26 was towed up and down the rivers of the Mekong Delta and the Rung Sat Special Zone accompanying the other ships which make up the base for the Mobile Riverine Force.

Steam and hot water are pro- vided for APL 26 residents by two boilers and its evaporators produce

more than 24,000 gallons of drink- ing water a day.

Two electrical generators pro- vide power for lighting and air- conditioning.

In addition to the utilities on board, facilities also include a minor surgery ward and a sick bay which accommodates 10 patients.

Although the residents of APL 26 agree that it isn’t the Ritz, it ranks favorably with the other float- ing barracks located elsewhere in Vietnam and, anyway, it beats sleeping in a pup tent on the beach.

FEBRUARY 1968 41

LOOKING into HIS FUTURE

TRAVEL... I

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I I ADVENTURE... I ! ADVANCEMENT... I