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BIO BOX INFO:
NAME: John Faur Jr.
AGE: 79
RESIDENCE: Warren
SERVICE BRANCH: Navy
MILITARY HONORS: National Defense Medal, Letter of Commendation
OCCUPATION: Retired after working over 50 years in the automotive industry
WARREN -- John Faur graduated from Warren G. Harding at 17 and enlisted in the Navy soon after. He was discharged three years later, a day before his 21st birthday.
"There were 859 students in my graduating class, the largest class ever to graduate from Harding. It was before they built Warren Western Reserve High School in 1967," Faur said.
He said he knew before graduation that he would enlist because his family tradition was to enter the military.
"Some were in the reserves, and some were in World War II, but my family always gave," Faur said.
Boot camp took place in San Diego. The four-hour flight marked Faur’s first time flying. The morning after they arrived, they woke the trainees at 6 a.m.
After boot camp, Faur was off to U.S. Navy radio school for five months. As a radioman, Faur sent and received messages by radio, maintaining the ship's lifeline to the rest of the fleet.
Faur served aboard a destroyer in Norfolk, Virginia, from June 1966 to September 1968. He was deployed to the Mediterranean for two five-month tours.
Faur explained that the term “tin can” is a Navy slang term for a destroyer because of the thin metal used in its construction. Tin cans were among the smallest ocean-going combat vessels in the fleet.
He spent Christmas of 1967 in Naples, Italy. He then took leave and spent three days away from the ship in Rome with other sailors on a package deal that included a hotel, a bus trip, a tour guide and food over the 1968 New Year.
"The guys ran out of alcohol that New Year’s Eve. We were in the hotel. Someone looked outside, and the hotel owner had liquor outside. There was a fence around the alcohol but no roof. The guys tied sheets together, tied them around a case of champagne and hoisted it up into the hotel," Faur said.
Soon after returning to the ship, in January 1968, Faur received the Captain's Meritorious Award from Captain W.J. Aston, as did seven other sailors.
"During the current Mediterranean deployment, while assigned to the USS Douglas H. Fox, you made an outstanding contribution to the operations of the Operations Department," Aston wrote in a letter to Faur.
Aston described Faur's "irrepressible smile" and cheerful outlook as being a ray of sunshine when things became bleak on board. Aston noted that although Faur worked many long, difficult hours, his duties and performance as a radio messenger greatly boosted the morale of everyone who interacted with him.
In May 1968, the USS Scorpion submarine stopped reporting during routine operations. "The Admiral came out and boarded us and told us to look for the submarine or debris. A year later, Popular Mechanics ran an article. They hired someone with a camera to find it. They found it at the bottom of the ocean in the area of the Azores," Faur said.
A plane coming in did not land on the carrier. Faur's crew spent the whole night looking for it in total darkness, with no moonlight. They could only find bits and pieces of the plane.
"Sometimes when you are on a destroyer, you are in rough weather. We had straps and had to tie ourselves to our bunks. We had partitions on our mess desks, our trays. I went out to get fresh air one time. The aircraft carrier was taking on water over the flight deck," Faur said.
Their ship made a cruise to New York City for a weekend. The captain knew Faur had a military driver's license. The captain's wife was coming up to a hotel and they had to meet her, which meant that Faur had to drive the captain to the hotel. Coming from Warren at age 17 and having never driven in a big city, such as New York, was another first for Faur.
"That was an experience," he said.
Faur was happy to have been able to find his tour in the Navy taking him to Miami, Florida, in February 1967, because Faur had an uncle there. His uncle always took the entire month of February off, so he was available. Faur was glad to have the opportunity to give his uncle a tour of the ship.
He served in the Navy for three years, finishing his career as a Radioman Third Class, pay grade E-4. Faur explained that when one enters the military at age 17, as he did, you serve three years. If you entered at age 18, you served four years.
Faur is a lifelong Warren resident. The vocational classes he took while in high school, which included a two-year automotive repair course, served him well. Faur spent more than 50 years in the automotive industry before retiring.