Escaped from Pittsburgh 1978.
USNA '82.
Six months' temporary duty at the Naval Research Lab in Wash, DC, near my spouse-to-be.
15 months of nuclear power & submarine schools in Orlando FL, Ballston Spa NY, and New London CT.
'84-'86 USS JAMES MONROE's ballistic missile patrols out of Holy Loch, Scotland (near my spouse-to-be in Spain & the Azores) with offcrew training in Charleston, SC. Division officer jobs included chemistry & radiological controls, Damage Control Assistant, and a victory lap in radio as Communicator.
'87-'89 Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA) for degrees in Weapons Engineering & Computer Science. Upgraded to spouse.
Six months' brainwash refresher in New London's department head school followed by USS NEW YORK CITY 1990-92 as, believe it or not, Weapons Officer. Deployments to the Arctic, the Western Pacific, and the Eastern Pacific. Guam, Chinhae Korea, Yokosuka Japan, Esquimalt's ranges, and many hair-raising places in between that we don't discuss.
'92-'94 COMSUBPAC as Current Operations Officer. I took the long-range schedules a quarter at a time and shredded them within two weeks. I was in charge of "How soon can you MEDEVAC?" and "You want it when?!?" As the Cold War drawdown cut deeper, I learned that I wasn't going to make the cut for an XO job. Upgraded from "DINK spouse" to "parent".
'94-'97 Fleet Combat Training Center Pacific in San Diego (on top of Point Loma, looking down on Subase). After Instructor Training school I became the head of the over-the-horizon targeting department, teaching people how sensor networks enabled them to shoot at things they couldn't see-- and maybe even hit the target. Mastered acronyms like OTH-T/C4I. I became a Master Training Specialist and a thorn in the side of the training HQ staff.
1997-2002 Back to Hawaii at Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific for nearly five years as the Director of Ford Island Schools-- engineering, weapons, Instructor Training School, and (my favorite) the fire & flooding trainers. Terrorized training HQ staff by "telling it like it is".
June 2002-- retired and took surfing lessons.
Alex said:
I served most of my time aboard a Submarine tender (the USS McKee AS-41) out of Point Loma Ca working with 'bubbleheads' like Nords
there's nothing like being a QA inpsector working on 'Subsafe' or 'priority one' components :
what a freakin' paperwork nightmare! In spite of the paperwork I really enoyed working on Subs. I can still rebuild a Marrotta valve blindfolded!! I almost re-upped to get a set of dolphins and a 24K bonus (over 5 years) , but decided I'd rather be a civilian. I have no regrets.
Always a pleasure to meet a fellow QA weenie. Ah, the stories, including Marotta "percussive maintenance". Don't miss that a bit.
