ROCHELLE — Curt Preston reminisced while thumbing through the pages of “The Anchor,” which resembles a yearbook, describing life as a recruit at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California.

The Rochelle resident and VFW Honor Guard member recently sat down to share his experiences he had over 50 years ago, pointing out several places he was pictured, chuckling a bit, but enjoying the trip down memory lane.

Upon enlisting in 1962 and after an aptitude test pointing him in the medical field direction, Preston signed on to be a hospitalman recruit and was on his way from Des Moines, Iowa to sunny California for boot camp.

After 16 weeks of boot camp Preston studied in the hospital corps school and learned everything there was to know about the human body from head to toe, which at first seemed daunting.

“The first day in anatomy and physiology they introduced us to Charlie, the skeleton. The teacher told us we had to know all 206 bones and how they articulate and we had to learn it in 24 hours…they lost me on the word articulate. I had to look that one up,” Preston joked. “I tried and flunked that part, but I did pass it three days later.”

Preston remembers being amazed at the size of Balboa Naval Hospital, which serviced 13 military installations in San Diego. Preston said at full capacity it had a capacity for 50,000 people, contained three heliports, 15 X-ray departments, and 84 separate laboratories.

After graduating school and a two-week leave, Preston received his orders to report to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD), where he was stationed for the next four years. The MCRD is also located in San Diego.

“We had about 32,000 Marines to take care of…if they had a cold, we treated them, if they had a sliver we removed it and if they got cuts, we stitched them,” Preston said. “We were not the doctor, but we got a lot of doctor’s training.”

Preston recalls the many patients that he helped along the way from, recruits and officers to kids (Marines stationed there were also with their wives and children) who referred to him as “Doc.”

Preston’s brush with fame came not too long after when a production company by the name of Desilu Productions arrived at MCRD to begin filming a new television series called, “Gomer Pyle.” The show was a spinoff of the “Andy Griffith” show, telling the humorous tales of a Marine recruit, played by actor Jim Nabor.

“They got Jim Nabors on our parade field and his drill instructor actor. The remainder of his platoon was real Marines. At the beginning and ending of show, they march. If you check, everybody else was always in step,” Preston said. “I was usually standing on the sidelines watching them film that. There had to be medical personnel out there if they were filming on our base.”

Papers in hand

After being discharged in 1967, Preston headed to Colorado where his parents were living at the time, eventually finding a job as an orderly in an emergency room at a hospital in Denver before moving to Rockford.

“I was surprised when I got out of the service, and civilians told me what I couldn’t do…I said ‘What?’ I just did this for four years! It turned out I had to go back to school,” Preston said. “Becoming an LPN was not anywhere near what I did in the service.”

While in nursing school in Rockford, Preston admits he never “cracked a book,” and even surprised one of the teachers when it was time to practice administering shots. He also worked full time in a Rockford hospital emergency room at the same time.

“I’d already been through everything they were teaching. It was all review,” Preston recalled. “I’d be at school from 8 to 4, then head to Swedes and work there from 4:30 till 11:30 at night, get done go home and start up again the next morning.”

Preston eventually graduated, moved to another hospital, got a license to practice in Wisconsin, and worked for Beloit Hospital before going to school again — this time trying his hand at becoming a physician’s assistant.

Although that didn’t come to fruition, Preston continued on as a licensed practical nurse and as a personal care nurse for a Rochelle family. In all, Preston was an LPN for 48 years before retiring in early 2017.

Nowadays he enjoys his computer time, visiting with friends, and frequenting the VFW and Moose Lodge. He also likes participating in target practice with friends and the camaraderie that comes with it. He also attends veterans’ funeral services as a member of the Lee Ogle Honor Guard.

Although he originally had hoped to travel the seas during his military service, Preston still looks back on his time stationed in California with fondness.

“I joined the Navy to see the world…the only country I actually saw was Tijuana, Mexico,” Preston joked, with his sense of humor.