Robert (Bob) Stockton's Blog – December 2011 Archive (5)

© 2010 Bob Stockton. Excerpted from 'Listening To Ghosts' (Xlibris Press) by Bob Stockton. All rights reserved.



It was the winter of 1959 and our destroyer was  docked at Pearl Harbor while shipyard workers and a few civilian contractors loaded some sophisticated electronic equipment  and antennae aboard that was to be set up in a…

© 2011 Bob Stockton. Unauthorized use prohibited.



Monday was Francis Albert Sinatra's birthday, a day that in my opinion should be declared a national holiday. I thought that it would be a nice tribute if I did a bit of YouTube research and posted my three favorite Sinatra songs to my Facebook page. I had posted the first two and while I was copying number three I began to think about... Cora.



It was the summer of 1967. The Carrier Task Group to which I…

The Incredible Tale of Chief Harold Brooks Who Survived the Wasp-Hobson Tragedy



©2010 Bob Stockton. Excerpted from 'Listening To Ghosts', (Xlibris Press). Unauthorized Reproduction Is Prohibited



In between my primary duties as Recruit Company Commander I was assigned a “hold job” to work with other Company Commanders in a human relations project that the Navy had begun. This afforded me a bit more free time than my  main duty as Company Commander which often meant long…

©2011 Bob Stockton. Excerpted from Chapter 1 of 'Fighting  Bob,' AuthorHouse. Unauthorized use prohibited.



It was while I was recovering from a particularly nasty motorcycle accident last year that I decided to write the book. I had been threatening to put pen to paper and write an autobiography that would chronicle my many adventures and mishaps during a twenty year Navy career but had never done anything about it. The project would be just the ticket to keep me busy while all…

©2010 Bob Stockton. Excerpted from 'Listening To Ghosts,' Xlibris Press. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.



My father, Wilbur Chaffey Stockton, was twenty years old when I was born. At that time he was employed as a bus driver for Safeway Trailways driving the New York to D.C. route, and was the best bus driver I ever saw. He could park a big ACF bus on a gnat’s backside. He hated the name Wilbur and always insisted on being called Bill.  As Pop always had an eye for the…