At Sea Aboard the USS Enterprise

Family and friends have characterized Art Benotti as "one busy guy," and to catch his story of military experience during the Vietnam war took a little bit of scheduling.

The vice president of the Muskego Athletic Association is also active in the VFW Post 8171 in Muskego, and according to his wife Carol keeps a pretty active schedule since 'retiring' after 28 years with the phone company.

Benotti's experience in the U.S. Navy as an internal communications specialist on the USS Enterprise led him to the career with AT&T, but it also led him to places criss-crossing the globe in the four years he served aboard the aircraft carrier.

Enlisting from his hometown of Boston, MA, an 18-year-old Benotti was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois for boot camp, then was assigned to serve at sea for about another six months.

"Pretty soon, I was sent back to school at Great Lakes to learn communication skills, and while I was there, I met my wife on a Liberty weekend at the Eagle's Club in Milwaukee."

Back out to sea aboard the Enterprise, Benotti said he got to see the world, as the ship was sent to the waters off the coast of Vietnam. Even though he wasn't part of the boots on the ground, the vessel and his role on it provided needed communications and a landing strip for naval planes performing bombing missions to refuel. The ship also operated as a massive water treatment facility, converting salt water to fresh water.

From Vietnam to the Phillipines to Hong Kong and Japan to Hawaii back and then back to San Fransisco, Benotti said the greatest challenge was staying sharp on a ship that would become his home for the better part of three years. In contrast, he said there were "plenty of sleepless nights" when problems in communications constituted an emergency and needed constant vigilance until they were corrected.

The Enterprise is a nuclear-powered vessel, which created problems when the ship neared Japan, and was refused entry into port for a time.

"They protested the ship being nuclear, and with the memory of the end of World War II and the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese didn't want us there," Benotti said. "However, after a while we were granted entry."

A less-than-friendly reception would be a part of the ship's docking in its home port of San Fransisco in 1967.

"It was the 'summer of love,' we would learn," Benotti said. "All I could think of when we got to port was 'What happened to my country?' There were all of these people, not wearing shoes, with the long hair, protesting. We stuck out like sore thumbs with our short hair and uniforms."

He said he was never called a baby killer as so many returning vets were in that era, but still felt the sting of how differently Vietnam and even Korean War vets were treated. He now works to make sure present-day returning soldiers don't experience the same indifference and animosity as they return home from Iraq and Afghanistan through his involvement in the VFW.

The Enterprise was also called to Korean waters in early 1968 to respond to the capture of another US ship, the USS Pueblo. The Naval intelligence ship was fired on and captured by the North Korean government, which alleged that the U.S. had entered their territory. Benotti would receive military ribbons and a medal for being a part of the military presence in response to the incident.

Returning home later in 1968, Benotti married the girl he met at the Eagle's Club and settled in the area. However, he would return eventually to the ship he called home for many years, just prior to its last deployment before being inactivated.

"It's such an impressive ship, and it was great to meet some of the kids now working on it and connect with them," Benotti said. "It was great to visit so many of my old work spaces, and it was certainly a lot different than my time - there are now 500 women who serve on it."