Not Pictured

Gordon, George M.

Corrigan, Robert M.

th

nd

Anderson Jr., Lawrence E.

Davey, Bruce C.

Kirkland, Richard G.

Allen, John E.

Newton, John W.

Hunt, William T.

Eagle II, James N.

Buell, David G.

32      Company

O'Donnell, Gerald J.

Yates, Richard T.  

Edwards, Stephen A.

Stockdale, John J.

Cavanaugh, Thomas

Second Regiment

Smith, Baker A.

Sixth Battalion

Clancy, Kevin S.

Achenbach Jr., Paul L.

Ellis Jr., James O.

Strauss, John H.

Bohoskey, Michael J.

32

Feeney, James L.

Comiskey, Stephen W.

Wanner, Terry S.

Doempke, Gerald T.

Genrich, Michael G.

Corcoran, Thomas J.

Wilcox Jr., Donald E.

Bohoskey, Michael J.

Paul Leroy Achenbach Jr.

Caption Right for Photo Left

32

1970

Caption Right

Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue laoreet rutrum faucibus dolor auctor. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue laoreet rutrum faucibus dolor auctor. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue laoreet rutrum faucibus dolor auctor. Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor.

Cras justo odio, dapibus ac facilisis in, egestas eget quam. Maecenas faucibus mollis interdum. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Donec sed odio dui. Sed posuere consectetur est at lobortis. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Cras justo odio, dapibus ac facilisis in, egestas eget quam. Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue laoreet rutrum faucibus dolor auctor.  nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit.

Caption Left

Perry Dunn’s family

Caption Left for Photo Right

Date of Death: Month 00, 2055

Richard Thomas Yates

The high point, and possibly the most meaningful action I saw, was stepping in to defuse a racial incident during a basketball game between ships. During my service, I saw quite a few Mediterranean highlights; and perhaps more importantly I talked to Navy reservists about what they did in their civilian lives. After a discussion with an accountant, I took some courses on base. Then, after resigning from the Navy, I obtained an accounting degree at Oklahoma State and migrated to the business world. I decided to shun the high profile career path of public accounting, preferring the role of management accountant (think "business controller") where I could employ my knack for analytics and data retrieval to partner with operating managers to make well informed, logical decisions. This happened to be more of a behind-the-scenes position, but it felt natural to me.   I worked for 4 large companies over the next 40 years. Even though my success was dependent on individual management partners and company culture, I was satisfied with my work, and earned enough to support 2 wonderful children and their stay-at-home mom. Although my lifestyle lacked frequent military-like relocations, my jobs took me to diverse locales from a small Louisiana paper mill town, to a newly constructed Manhattan tower, and eventually to a Fort Worth suburb.

Donald Edmund Wilcox Jr.

50 years after graduating from the Naval Academy, and after recently retiring from the business world, I'm glad to report that I am fine and am enjoying life to the fullest. After commissioning as an Ensign in 1969, I spent an interesting, but somewhat uneventful 5 years in the Navy. I served during the Vietnam War, but on an East Coast surface combatant in those times of civil unrest, which just meant more emphasis on protocol and administration.

Don Wilcox

(Don)

Terry Scott Wanner

After 18 years “in the Army” as the son of a career Army officer, I thought giving the Navy a try was only fair. I must say, though, I did enjoy the travel we did growing up living in Japan and Germany. It would later in life influence the type of aircraft I selected after Training Squadron TEN (VT-10) training.   In the summer of 1965 I reported to the Naval Academy a bit later than most of my classmates. Living in Colorado Springs, I was prepared to attend the University of Colorado upon graduation from Wasson High School.  I received a late appointment to Annapolis, which voided the CU plan but, making things even later, I contracted appendicitis right before I was supposed to report to the Naval Academy.  When I did report, the surgery meant I was restricted from physical exertion for about half of the plebe summer. This made me very popular (not!) with the upperclassman, so I was anxious to get into the swing of plebe summer. After being medically cleared, I was quickly assimilated into the full plebe lifestyle. I learned that nothing that happens to you during plebe year should be taken personally. It is a test of mental and physical toughness and the ability to focus on a task at hand despite all distractions.

Terry Wanner handstand 1969

John Howard Strauss

Nancy and John Strauss saluted by Navy arch of swords at their wedding in March 1973

Lieutenant John Stockdale at the  conn of  USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN 657) circa 1973

On the day of my graduation from the academy in June 1969, Sylvia, my wife to be, and I got in our car and drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan where we were to be married the next Saturday. About 2 in the morning, we were approaching home and my head snapped back. I pulled over to the side of the road and she took the wheel, promptly falling sound asleep, only wakened when the car swerved onto the shoulder. We were right by a rest area no more than 15 minutes from our houses. We pulled over and slept for 2 hours before I dropped her off and went home. That summer I taught sailing at the academy, followed by nuclear power (nuc) school in Bainbridge, Maryland, prototype school in Saratoga Springs, New York and a start at submarine (sub) school in New London, Connecticut. About a week after I started sub school, I got a call from Lieutenant Commander Bill Richardson (class of 1959) and Executive Officer of the USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN 657). Bill spoke in 200 word compound-complex cumulative sentences. He asked me to see him after class that day. I know I should have said “ordered me to report to him” for Navy purposes. I just liked him so much it’s hard to use that term. The meeting basically went like this: “COMSUBLANT left me short of officers. Kiss your wife goodbye. You’re headed for Holy Loch, Scotland.”

John Joseph Stockdale

During my January 1965 high school tour of the Naval Academy and the John Paul Jones crypt, the midshipmen exuded an aura of history, quality and honor. These impressions overcame my interest in other academies when a Secretary of the Navy nomination arrived. That spirit persisted through our 4 years, and helped me graduate. In June 1965, the final leg from my Atlanta, Georgia home to induction was a Greyhound bus ride from Washington, DC to Annapolis.  I was alarmed to hear some of my fellow bus passengers reciting from Reef Points, since memorization of strange lingo had been a challenge for me. However, being able to absorb new data fast has shortened my response time to various life challenges.   My perception of what’s important and what’s passing was shaped by Shakespeare’s admonition that life is but a walking shadow.  One of the important things I absorbed at the academy was loyalty. In our shared trials, my classmates demonstrated loyalty to one another and to me. Subsequent to the academy, I have observed that loyalty is treasured by my associates, because as Proverbs says, a friend is always loyal, and a brother is born for adversity.

Service selection was Navy Line. My first destroyer cruise aboard USS Myles C. Fox (DD 829) as Antisubmarine Warfare Officer and Nuclear Warhead Officer was terrific, although USS Pickerel (SS 524) sounded chagrined that my dummy warhead torpedo had hit her hull.  A tour as Weapons Officer on the Coast Guard’s gas-turbine-powered cutter USCGC Hamilton (WHEC 715) followed, partly to evaluate a contemplated Navy switch from steam to gas turbine propulsion. Gas turbines were reliable, but I doubted their adoption since the steam cycle was so engrained that our USNA Engineering courses were nicknamed “Steam.” However, I was pleasantly surprised in 1977 when the Oliver Hazard Perry-class gas turbine powered frigate began to usher out the era of steam propulsion. I finished active duty as Aide to the Commandant of the First Naval District in Boston.  Our class motto, “non sibi” (not for self), made Navy seem less about me and more a calling, so I joined the Navy Reserve upon completion of my service obligation. The remainder of my 20 Navy years focused on surface ships, predominantly destroyers and minesweepers, including CINCLANT and the Pentagon, and were highlighted by command at sea as commodore of a minesweeping division, ComMineDiv 123.  

Baker Armstrong Smith

(Jerry)

Next came Washington, DC, as a junior officer detailer. It was a look behind the curtain and a great learning tour about how the Navy really works. Humanitarian sea duty followed as Executive Officer of USS Kinkaid (DD 965) in San Diego. Our deployment started out as a voyage to some exotic ports in the South Pacific. A major fire in an auxiliary machinery room caused the ship to detour to Guam for significant repairs. The night Kinkaid pulled in there was a murder on the pier. Two of our guys killed a sailor who was selling drugs.  What followed was nearly a month of safety investigators tripping over NIS (Naval Investigative Service) special agents and repair personnel. The voyage resumed with port calls in Cairns, Australia; Port Morsby, Papa New Guinea; and Honiara, Guadalcanal. Kinkaid then sailed to 7th Fleet and conducted normal peacetime exercises for the remainder of the deployment.  On return to the West Coast, Kinkaid went into Long Beach Naval Shipyard for a one year overhaul and modernization.  Assignment as the Surface Warfare Officer Community Manager in BUPERS (Bureau of Naval Personnel) in Washington, DC followed. 

Gerald James O'Donnell

The past 50 years have been quite a ride that I would not trade for anything.  My first ship was USS Rowan (DD 782). I was the Main Propulsion Assistant. After a brief shipyard period and refresher training, we sailed for Vietnam. The Tet Offensive had decimated the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, so our gunfire support for troops ashore and plane guarding for the carriers became routine. Singapore, Subic Bay, Keelung, and Hong Kong were our ports of call.  Destroyer School followed with a subsequent assignment to USS Davidson (DE 1045) at Pearl Harbor. The ship was in training when orders came to deploy to Vietnam. The North Vietnamese Army moved into South Vietnam and were attacking down the coast. We were assigned to provide naval gunfire in support of Marines in contact. During our first hour the ship was bracketed by enemy fire with shrapnel hitting the side of the ship. Very intense combat operations interspersed with brief visits to the ship repair facility in Subic Bay followed. We replaced our worn out gun barrels in Sasebo, Japan and had a port call in Hong Kong on departure.  I was assigned to lieutenant command in a fleet ocean tug, USS Tawakoni (ATF 114). It turned out to be a wonderful tour with lots of adventures during our Western Pacific deployment. 

(Bill)

I accepted these conditions and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) scholarship, graduating in September 1970 with a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering.  I met my wife, Dianne, in Cambridge while she was attending Boston University, majoring in chemistry and biology. MIT and the Boston area presented a vastly different educational and cultural challenge from my experience at Annapolis, and the first semester required difficult adjustments.  The disciplined, plug and chug method of learning I used at USNA was replaced by MIT’s theory and examples approach, with MIT exams consisting of novel problems that were to be solved from theory.  Even more challenging was the liberal social and political environment infused by anti-war sentiment with respect to U.S. support for South Vietnam.  As a result, I was advised not to wear my Navy uniform, and, except for one formal military event, I went everywhere in civilian clothes. The MIT extracurricular activity I enjoyed was intramural basketball with other residents of the graduate dorm. I competed in two different leagues with games or practices almost every day. I found playing basketball to be a lot of fun, and the exercise to be a great release.

John William Newton

My father and his three brothers served in the Navy during World War II.  My father’s youngest brother, Bill Newton (my namesake), was assigned to USS Reuben James (DD 245), the first U.S. warship torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in World War II. He did not survive the attack. My father also had seven sisters, and several of their husbands were Navy men. Our family tradition of serving in the Navy greatly influenced my decision to attend the Naval Academy. During my four years at USNA, The Naval Academy Glee Club was the one extracurricular activity that allowed me some occasional respite from the rigors of academics and military training.  I travelled with the glee club to several outside events, including our annual visit to the Mike Douglas Show in conjunction with the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia.   As our June 1969 graduation approached, I wanted to continue my education, so I asked the Navy if I could attend graduate school immediately.   I was told that if I could apply and secure my own admission; would personally fund my tuition, fees and books; and would agree to extend my commitment by 3 years; I could attend graduate school for 1 year with all pay and allowances.

Richard George Kirkland

(Rick)

Flying went on hold for awhile, first when I was attached to the USS Constellation (CV 64), then when I was on duty with BUPERS in Washington, DC. While both of these assignments were challenging, fast-paced and rewarding, I was glad to return to the cockpit with a series of flying tours, including command of the Mad Foxes of Patrol Squadron 5 (VP 5).  Washington, again in BUPERS, was another break in flying, but soon replaced with a tour as commanding officer of Patrol Squadron 30 (VP 30), the P-3 replacement training squadron. In the summer of 1989 I was selected for CNO Strategic Studies Group IX for a year of study and discovery.  It was an honor to be part of this small group and to enjoy boundless interaction with the leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps.  I returned to NAS Jacksonville for the last of my flying tours, as Commander, Patrol Wing Eleven. All of my fleet tours remain vivid memories, for the dedication and professionalism of our young men and women who I served with.  Following my last flight tour, I again drove up I-95 to Washington, this time as the director, Navy/Marine Corps Senate liaison office, and then as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. 

My arrival at the Academy on 28 June 1965 was not much of a surprise to most of my friends and family. My father (’43) and I had spent afternoons watching Navy football, and had made summer trips to sail on the USNA yawls, so the Academy was a natural choice. I and Dave Lumsden ‘69, my high school classmate, had together walked through the Maryland Avenue gate in 1965, and he and I shared a first salute on 4 June 1969. Dave earned his Naval Aviator wings, but died tragically in an A-6 accident in the early 1970’s.  My memories of those four years, I assume like most of you, have become a kaleidoscope of recollections, now covered with the great patina that comes from the passage of time, burnishing special moments, while diminishing struggles such as 2nd Class engineering and math. Pensacola immediately followed graduation, and I found myself in Class 4 of the Navy Cooperative Masters Degree program at the University of West Florida. Al Platt ’69 and I carpooled and studied together, and we earned both a Master of Science and our Naval Aviator wings on 31 October 1970. I joined Patrol Squadron 56 (VP 56), the first P-3C squadron, and made deployments to Keflavik, Iceland. After this tour, I joined Ronald (Rabbit) Christenson ‘69 in Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VX 1), the test and evaluation squadron for all anti-submarine aircraft. 

Bill Hunt, Waikiki Roughwater Swim, 1981 2.4 mi, finishing ahead of the slowest 25%,  steady as she goes.

I was a Navy junior and my family bounced around the world. My father, commissioned through OCS after Pearl Harbor, completed his 30 year career as a Captain. He was the skipper of the USS Token (AM 126), the 2nd US ship into Tokyo Bay at the end of World War II, sweeping for mines before the fleet came in. I had visited the Academy as a Cub Scout, and used to watch “Men of Annapolis” on television. My dad suggested that if I wanted to attend the Academy, I should consider enlisting in the Navy Reserve. This I did in Charleston, SC in the summer before my senior year of high school, and was appointed to the Academy out of the Navy Reserve. Who would have thought? After I received my appointment, a couple of assistant coaches (Citadel cadets) for our high school track team started calling me “Admiral.” Unfortunately, not only did I not make admiral, I never got beyond midshipman 4th class. My USNA time was cut short when a routine X-ray following a shoulder sprain sustained during wrestling revealed a bone malformation in my left humerus, unrelated to the wrestling injury.  The shoulder was fine, but the Navy doctors were concerned about my upper arm bone. Possibilities included cancer, susceptibility to trauma with complications, etc. After consulting with the Chief of Orthopedics at Bethesda, disenrollment from the Academy was recommended.

William Tallmadge Hunt

George Gordon

My first observation of the past 50 years since graduation is how young the midshipmen appear today. We seemed much more mature…didn’t we…until I look at some of the old photos I have from plebe summer. As I began to dust the cobwebs off, first class year emerged from the memory banks. I remember service selection. I was planning on surface warfare, but before selection night our company officer, Major Stensland, called me in to tell me Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, “the father of the nuclear navy,” wanted more officers for the naval nuclear propulsion program (“nukes”), and I should interview.  I knew I didn’t have the grades to get accepted, but I thought it would be an experience to add to all the other Rickover stories. Indeed, the admiral told me what he thought about my grades, but he must have been hard up, because he accepted me. After graduation, Tom Fahy and I had a short but fun temporary additional duty (TAD) stint at the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit at Yale University.  Afterwards, when I showed up at Nuclear Power School in Bainbridge, Maryland, and looked at the condition of the Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ), I thought, “no way I’m staying in that dump,” so Tom Cavanaugh and I found a one-bedroom apartment.

George Minot Gordon

Mike Genrich loved to fish the Michigan lakes!

Date of Death: April 10, 2012

The following is taken from Michael’s obituary and the 1969 Lucky Bag. Michael Gordon Genrich, 66, of Ontonagon, Michigan died at Aspirus Ontonagon Hospital after an extended battle with throat and neck cancer. Michael was born and raised in Wausau, Wisconsin, graduated from high school in 1963 and joined the Navy in January 1964. He attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS). Early in his naval career, he was chosen as a candidate and won an appointment to the Naval Academy, entering in June 1965. He graduated from the academy with an engineering degree in oceanography in June 1969. After attending Nuclear Power School, Michael was an officer aboard USS Swordfish (SSN 579), a Skate-class nuclear-powered submarine, After serving for 10 years in the Navy, Michael went to work for the General Dynamics Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. Michael then came to Michigan, where he worked for Consumers Energy until his retirement. While at Consumers, he worked at the proposed Midland Nuclear Plant, the Big Rock Point Nuclear Plant, and for more than 10 years at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert. 

Michael Gordon Genrich

James Leo Feeney

The following is from James Feeney’s wife, Patsy (True) Rowan, classmate Gerry Doempke, and Jim’s obituary at the USNA Memorial Hall website, which includes the Panama City News-Herald, and the 1969 Lucky Bag. It is also from Shipmate: “A Gesture of Remembrance” and Stars and Stripes.  James Leo Feeney, 27, a Navy pilot, was killed at sea on July 11, 1974 in the A-7A Corsair II jet he was piloting.  Jim graduated from Salpointe High School in Tucson, Arizona. He attended the School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota before coming to the Naval Academy in June 1965.  His academic field was Electrical Science. He displayed a competitive spirit in company sports, as well as a keen sense of duty. Jim chose naval aviation at service selection. Jim graduated from the academy in June 1969. When Jim introduced Patsy to his family, his sister Terri shouted "She must be Jimmy's true love!" Since “Patsy” was also Jim’s mother’s nickname, the other nickname for Jim’s love became “True.” On December 28, 1969, Jim and Patsy were married in the Naval Academy Chapel.

Patsy and Jim Feeney wedding at Naval Academy Chapel on December 28, 1969. Swordsmen (l to r): classmates Mike Corrigan, Dave Buell, Tom Corcoran, and John Allen.

Date of Death: July 11, 1974

James Oren Ellis Jr.

(Jim)

After a couple of cobweb-clearing years in nuclear power training, I was executive officer of  USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and, for deep-draft experience, served as Commanding Officer of USS La Salle (AGF- 3), the Bahrain-based flagship of the Commander, Joint Task Force, Middle East. In 1991, I assumed command of USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and participated in Operation Desert Storm while deployed during her maiden voyage in the western Pacific and Arabian Gulf. As a flag officer, in June 1995 I assumed command of Carrier Group Five/Battle Force Seventh Fleet, breaking my flag aboard USS Independence (CV 62), forward deployed to the Western Pacific and homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. As Carrier Battle Group Commander I led contingency response operations to both the Arabian Gulf and Taiwan Straits. My shore and staff assignments included tours as an experimental/operational test pilot, service in the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs, and duty as F/A-18 Program Coordinator in the old Op-05.  In 1993, as a newly-minted one-star, I reported as Inspector General, and subsequently served as Director for Operations, Plans and Policy (N3/N5) on the staff of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. In 1996 I assumed duties as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Plans, Policy and Operations (N3/N5).

I was a Navy brat, the son of a World War II Naval Aviator, and arrived in Tecumseh Court on June 30, 1965, straight out of high school at the ripe old age of seventeen. Academics had always come easy and I was a veteran of my father’s “come arounds.” My lessons from the Academy would be others as I, literally, grew up physically and emotionally, experienced and practiced leadership, and learned the real value of friendships. I will be forever grateful. After graduation in June 1969, I selected Naval Aviation but deferred for a year the trip to Pensacola as I acquired a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech and then married my high school sweetheart, Polly. Flight training was followed by the West Coast F-4 RAG and a deployment that just caught the end of the Viet Nam war with none of the heavy lifting that others had shouldered at its height. Test Pilot School and a stint at Pax River followed as I pursued my (unrealized) space program dreams.   My sea duty billets as a Navy fighter pilot included tours with Fighter Squadron 92 (Phantoms) aboard USS Constellation (CV 64) and Fighter Squadron 1 (Tomcats) aboard USS Ranger (CV 61). I was privileged to be the first commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 131, deploying in 1985 with then-new F/A-18 Hornets aboard USS Coral Sea (CV 43). 

Steve Edwards

(Steve)

The following is taken from classmate recollections and the 1969 Lucky Bag. Stephen Albert Edwards, died of thyroid cancer around age 30 in the mid-1970s. Steve was a native of Camden, South Carolina. One year at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, Steve took the oath of midshipmen in June 1965.  After graduation in June 1969 Steve was commissioned in the Marine Corps. He was then married to Joanne Nagel (the late Joanne O’Donnell).  Upon completion of The Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, Steve earned his Navy wings at Pensacola, Florida. He then qualified as a helicopter pilot at the Army helicopter flight school at Fort Rucker, Alabama.   Steve was next assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 (HMH-463) at Marine Base Kaneohe, Hawaii. During that tour he deployed to Southeast Asia. Steve participated in Operation End Sweep, a Navy and Marine Corps operation to remove naval mines from Haiphong Harbor and other coastal and inland waterways in North Vietnam between February and July 1973.

Stephen Albert Edwards

Plebe year is mainly a blur for me now. Only a few highlights are clearly remembered. For a short time, I played plebe football. And the recently graduated Ensign Roger Staubach was helping coach the plebes during the summer of 1965. Since I was an offensive end, I caught a few practice passes from Ensign Staubach, the first football player to win both the Heisman Trophy and the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player. These plays with Roger Staubach were truly the highlight of my Navy football career, as I was unceremoniously cut shortly after the Brigade of Midshipmen returned for fall classes.  What lessons did I learn from plebe year? Mainly to keep my head down and trust my classmates. For example, Mike Genrich taught me plebe skills like shoe polishing with a wet cotton ball, belt buckle shining, and uniform shirt tucking.  Being prior-enlisted and a Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) graduate, Mike was a much appreciated plebe year mentor for me.  Larry Anderson, my plebe summer roommate was kind, smart, level-headed, and supportive.  Bruce Davey brought out the best from his firstie at his 100th night celebration, and gave all of us wonderful enjoyment.

Within a month after graduation, I was sent to Submarine Officer Basic School in Groton, Connecticut with two classmates: Bob Amundson (7th Company) and Michael Smith (28th Company). I might have been anchor man in the basic school class, but I did learn to fly gliders during that 6-month school.  I was then assigned as Sonar Officer and First Lieutenant on USS Hammerhead (SSN 663). With those jobs came a few collateral duties. I was responsible for the ship’s NATO classified documents, and in that capacity was known as the COSMIC Control Officer. Maybe that’s the Navy’s best job title! I will never forget when Hammerhead surfaced at the North Pole on November 20, 1970. And since it was during the Cold War, we also had some other interesting North Atlantic Ocean deployments. After Hammerhead, I went to Stanford University for an MS in operations research. That took 2 years, after which I begged and pleaded with the Navy for another 2 years to finish a Ph.D. The submarine detailer was absolutely against it; but the extension was eventually approved. So at Stanford, I acquired a couple of graduate degrees, and most importantly, a wife--Maj-Britt, who was a graduate student in French literature. We were married in 1973 at her folks’ home just south of Los Angeles.

James Norfleet Eagle II

Gerald Thomas Doempke

I had decided as a boy, having grown up in the shadow of World War II’s Greatest Generation, and having watched numerous military movies and television shows, that I wanted to serve in the Navy.  Two days after my 1963 graduation from Brooklyn Technical High School in New York, I took my first oath of office as I enlisted in the Navy to start my career, and to eventually earn a college degree from one of several programs.  Two years later in June 1965, as an Electronics Technician Petty Officer Third Class, I stood in Tecumseh Court in my Summer White uniform and took my second oath of office. Following graduation in 1969, and my third oath of office, I went to Pensacola, Florida for ground school, and basic Naval Flight Officer (NFO) School. Following that, I went to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas for advanced navigation training. Upon completion of navigation school, I was awarded my NFO wings, and chose the patrol aviation community with duty at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, California. At Moffett, I trained in the P-3 Orion aircraft, then joined the Patrol Squadron Forty (VP-40) Marlins, operating out of Moffett with deployments to Okinawa and Japan.

Gerry Doempke completing a navigator's pilgrimage to the Prime Meridian at The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England 2018

(Gerry)

(Squire, Bruce, Dax)

When I arrived in Annapolis from Moscow, Idaho in the northern panhandle of that state, I was very impressed by the accomplishments of the class of 1969 as related by the commandant at our Tecumseh Court swearing in.  As the years have gone by, my arrival impressions have not changed, and I view my contributions to the legacy of the class of 1969 as modest, but personally rewarding.  I completed flight school while obtaining an MS at the University of West Florida, then stayed on as an instructor in Kingsville, Texas for 2 years. I next went to Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31) to fly the F-4 Phantom II in Oceana, Virginia. Following a short tour as a detailer, I felt myself especially favored to be selected for the Blue Angels. Not being a high striper, a class officer, or an exceptional student, one of my most thrilling moments was a Blue Angels air show for the Naval Academy with the narrator announcing, “A graduate of the Naval Academy class of 1969,” when I flew over USNA. 

Bruce Charles Davey

Bruce Davey was Slot Pilot with the Blue Angels in 1979

Robert Michael Corrigan

(Mike)

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the Naval Academy. I lost my father in an industrial accident in 1951 and my mother in an automobile accident in 1960. Our Congressman had been helpful in both instances with legal matters.  I received an appointment to the academy when I was a senior in high school, but was not accepted due to low math scores. I worked full time and went to school at night, and was fortunate to receive an appointment the next year and was accepted.  Plebe year was rough academically. My math prof spent a lot of time tutoring me in calculus, and I eventually developed confidence in my academic abilities. I was on academic probation after first semester, but improved every semester afterwards. The academy instilled in me a strong sense of integrity and honor and the sense that I could succeed by working hard and being focused. I was commissioned in the Marine Corps. After attending the Basic School, I attended Combat Engineering School at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and then served a couple of months with the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion (2nd Engineers) before being assigned to 1st Engineers in Vietnam. While enroute to Vietnam, I was reassigned to 3rd Engineers in Okinawa, Japan. 

Jackie and Mike Corrigan

In 1986 I received orders to CINCPACFLT staff at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for what was to be a quick tour before returning to San Diego to live happily ever after.  A 1,000 pineapples and 32 years later, Linda and I still haven’t left the rock. I was extended at CINCPACFLT and then went up to CINCPAC for my twilight tour. After 6 years of staff duty in Hawaii, I retired from the Navy. Let’s go back to 1969. After June 1969 graduation it was off to Pensacola to wait 3 months to start Training Squadron 1 (VT-1).  After flight training, I was assigned to a squadron in Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst (NAES Lakehurst) New Jersey to become one of the first LAMPS (light airborne multipurpose system) pilots.  My helicopter detachment deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin where we set records for flight time. After Vietnam, it was back to Lakehurst and then back out for a Mediterranean Sea deployment.  Next I had shore duty as a RAG (replacement air group) instructor in Norfolk where I had the privilege of having as my boss Medal of Honor winner Commander Clyde Lassen.

Tom and Linda Corcoran back in the day

(Tom)

Thomas Joseph Corcoran

Steve Comiskey’s boys at USNA graduation 2011. (l to r) Joe, 2010 USNA graduate, served in combat overseas and completed active duty as a captain USMC. Barrett, MIT graduate, is an international entrepreneur currently in the Far East.  Will, 2011 USNA graduate, is now is a captain USMC currently deployed overseas leading his Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) Raider Team.

Stephen William Comiskey

Three days before my 1965 high school graduation, where my father (class of 1940) would be giving out military scholarships including my NROTC slot to attend University of Southern California, he announced my rejection of the scholarship.  He quickly added that I would be attending the Naval Academy. The cheers went up! So, 10 days after graduation from Santa Clara High School in Oxnard, California, I was on my way east to Annapolis.  I had heard scary stories from my dad about his alma mater, but hey, that was in the 1930s. I was sure they didn’t put you in a cruise box, and roll you down the stairs anymore. Rick Kirkland, George Moran, Mike Bohoskey, and Terry Wanner were some of my first summer roommates, and I learned to blend into the pack.  I remember Joe Eddie Trujillo (class of 1967) sent me to sickbay one afternoon after my St. Christopher medal turned on one vibration of chest-pounding, and produced just a dot or two of blood on my T-shirt.  Sickbay was air-conditioned, and the corpsman on duty told me to sit and stay awhile. That was my first break.

Kevin Sean Clancy

Kevin and Dawn Clancy

Tom & Chris Cavanaugh with grandchildren. Grandson Declan, granddaughter Maggie, grandson Nate (in Tom’s lap) granddaughter Taryn (in Chris' lap) grandson Conor, grandson Everett, and granddaughter Darcy

Thomas Joseph Cavanaugh

Dave’s final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery

David Graham Buell

Date of Death: November 4, 1983

The following is taken from David Buell’s obituary at the USNA Memorial Hall website, which includes The Washington Post, Shipmate, and the 1969 Lucky Bag. It is also taken from A History of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115. David Graham Buell, 35, a Marine Corps pilot, was killed November 4, 1983 when his F-4F Phantom II jet crashed at sea off the coast of North Carolina.  Major Buell was the Executive Officer of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115 (VMFA-115), which was based at the Marine Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina. A Marine spokesman said the plane crashed about 16 miles southeast of Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina. Captain Donald W. Spearel, Jr., USAF of Clearwater, Florida, an exchange officer, was also killed in the crash.  Their plane had been orbiting in bad weather while they were participating in a flyover as part of a Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune memorial service for the Marines who had been killed in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The Marine barracks bombing on October 23, 1983 was an Iran-backed terrorist attack killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors and 3 soldiers, and 1 civilian, while wounding 115. A simultaneous terrorist bombing at the nearby French barracks killed 58 French paratroopers and 5 civilians while wounding over 35. 

Mike Bohoskey

I remember standing outside the tiny airport in Yakima, Washington about to board a plane to Baltimore, on my way to Annapolis in June 1965. About nine or ten friends and relatives made a tunnel for me, holding small American flags and encouraging smiles, as I walked past them in my green, three-piece handmade wool suit. Baltimore was smoldering hot, humid, dark, people-ridden, and alien as another planet. I went unconscious and next remember walking down some tunnel where I was to surrender my clothes and take on the anonymity of one more plebe in a starched white sailor suit with a shaved head and a new book to memorize, full of ships and Navy facts and such.  I still remember passing the hateful eyes of one upperclassman who was to be my squad leader for the summer of my birth.  He evidently saw some entitled rich kid which pushed his emotional buttons.  He never really let it go. Even after I shot double expert, 45 pistol and M1 rifle, just me and Joel Cooley from Alaska, out of the whole class, he was reluctant to bump me up the command ladder.  I kept doing noncompliant stuff, like play my guitar in the middle of the day, when I should have been memorizing that little blue book.

Michael John Bohoskey

Lawrence Edward Anderson Jr.

The complex 3-D flow modelling continued, and a detailed data collection effort to validate the model was conducted. The result provided the Navy a detailed flow and temperature distribution model for use in design of marine gas turbine systems.

John Edward Allen

John came to the Naval Academy in June1965 from Pleasantville, New Jersey. He played hard in intramural soccer, football and rugby. He was the editor of the Trident Calendar. Upon graduation in June 1969, John became a Marine Corps officer.  He earned a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at Cranfield Institute of Technology, United Kingdom. After assignment as a faculty member at the Naval Academy, John decided that teaching at the academy was his calling.  He became a professor in the USNA Division of Engineering and Weapons, Aerospace Engineering Department. In 1990, one of his USNA faculty research projects was “Flow Distribution in the Exhaust System of the ICR Engine” sponsored by the David Taylor Research Center, Annapolis Laboratory. His research was to conduct an experimental program to investigate flow conditions in an intercooled regenerative (ICR) engine exhaust. A scale model test facility was constructed, and preliminary cold flow measurements were made. 

Thing is, I was pretty much sleepwalking my way through this entire journey, much like a dream, where self-punishment was unconsciously mixed with destiny and unrealized purpose.  I had issues with my mother, and issues with my own self-confidence and worth. Annapolis was 3000 miles from my mother, and it was free, and my parents never talked about money, but I knew they didn’t have what I needed to take a different route.  Truth be told, I never particularly liked the Navy, or had any desires thereof. Yet I chose Annapolis and know that there were forces at work drawing me to challenges and learnings and that were needed to shape me and prepare me for what lay ahead. I had the distinction of being the only one in our class to fail senior cruise. Again, sleepwalking. I threw my manual overboard. Then I showed up for scolding to see the superintendent and had the wrong uniform on.  Major W. C. Stensland was disappointed. He actually liked me, and wanted to believe that I could accomplish something. When our company gave slackers an opportunity to actually lead a squad for a semester, me being one, and I led our unit to a top five marching award, he was hopeful. 

But then one day after seeing my hair long, for too long, and this was senior year, he commanded me to the barber pits and had me butchered. I lost it. Trashed my room, cursed every particle of that place and my life in it, and wrote the major a raging nasty letter saying as much. But once again dear Bruce Davey stepped up and destroyed the letter, and kept me from being shipped to Vietnam in a swift boat. My grades stunk, but Admiral Rickover seemed to like me. Go figure. Five minutes talking about philosophy and I was done, and off to Mare Island.  I chose subs so I could defer going to sea, and stay in school. Still sleep walking. And then it happened.  Toppenish Fire Weed, shared with a couple of fellow academy grads I barely knew, on the eve of checking into nuclear power school, with spaghetti dinner prepared by one of their girlfriends, smoked in quiet celebration of our new venture, ended up being the exit window for me from this entire trip in the Navy. Another classmate, whom I will not mention, turned us all in, after dropping by while we were eating, and toking. A good friend of my other companions, I fessed up. It was mine. The other two pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

I’ve spent a lifetime healing from a toxic relationship with my mother. In 2008 she died, after I’d divorced a third time. I moved to Kansas, the middle of nowhere, perfect for continuing my healing.  My son is thriving in New York, and has been an inspiration to me. Full of passion and fearless in pursuing his dreams of being a film maker. Last June I had a heart attack, after an ecstasy journey. I was ready to go. But didn’t. After three stents I now have more blood flowing than I have in 30 years.  I then finally healed the core issue with my mother I’d blocked out. Then I felt a rush of unfettered creative energy, and lack of fear, and motivation to finally step into my power as a healer and professional chiropractor.  After scraping by working part time and playing a lot of golf, I created a job in Kansas City running a large clinic where I see now 80 clients a week and work with a wonderful team, for owners who are ambitious and supportive, serving a community of marginalized souls of color, and I’m finally thriving myself.

Good idea. I never thought of it. Even the ONI investigator told me I didn't have to tell them everything. But I’m from Yakima, and they probably bugged my apartment anyway. I was lucky. General discharge under honorable conditions. Couldn't wear my uniform home, or work for the government, ever. I think I signed a paper stating that I forgot everything classified or sensitive. I thought they had actually brainwashed me, so I went into an adjacent room and reproduced an equation on a blackboard, just to make sure. Then began another journey. I later went to Berkeley, California to theological seminary on a scholarship and GI Bill, became an Episcopal priest, and wore another uniform, for about six years. Then began writing songs for guitar, and painting with oils, and keeping a journal.  I learned cabinet making, worked in hospitals as an orderly, went to Cornish School of Allied Arts for a semester, divorced, remarried, moved to Santa Fe, divorced, traveled to Mexico, moved to Maui, remarried a third time, lost my money in the market crash of 1987, moved back to Santa Fe, had a child, Josh, made cabinets, waited tables, drove a UPS truck, painted, realized I was getting older and making no money, nor using my abilities, and went back to school for chiropractic, at the age of 47. I’ve been doing that ever since, but not very successfully.

I made contact a year or so ago with a few old friends when I went to Jim Ellis’s award ceremony.  It was deeply healing for me. A great joy indeed. I’m thankful for those years, however lonely and difficult.  Unconditional love was exchanged and bonding created that has endured to this day.  And I absorbed some useful principles of honor and dignity and character. So blessings to all of you and thanks for your contribution to my life’s walk.

A Navy junior, David was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of Thomas C. Buell, Capt., USN, (Ret.), class of 1941. David moved to Arlington, Virginia in 1960.  He attended Yorktown High School in Arlington. In preparation for the Naval Academy, he graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute.  As a midshipman, David was remembered by his classmates for his outstanding leadership qualities, having served on the regimental and battalion staffs, as well as the Class Ring and Crest Committee.  While achieving academic honors, David was also noted for his handstands in the hall and his ever-present puns. He was commissioned in the Marine Corps upon graduation from the Naval Academy.  After graduation he proceeded to The Basic School (TBS) at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Subsequently, he completed flight training and was designated naval aviator. His Marine Corps assignments included duty in Vietnam as well as at posts in Hawaii and the continental United States, including Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. He earned a master's degree in aerospace systems at the University of West Florida.

He was survived by his wife, Kari Hansen Buell of Laurel Bay, South Carolina, and three children, Thomas, Sarah and Amanda, then of Beaufort, South Carolina; his parents, retired Navy Captain Thomas C. Buell of Coronado, California, and Jacqueline O. Buell of Falls Church, Virginia; and two sisters, Carol Buell of Guilford, Connecticut, and Catherine Buell-McFarlane of Masawa, Japan.

Chris finished nursing school at the same time. We found a weekend the Navy would allow us enough time to get married, and we tied the knot on October 30, 1970. After Submarine School, I was assigned to the USS Nautilus (SSN 571). While on a NATO operation, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and ended up north of the Arctic Circle. So I am an official Blue Nose!  Switching to the surface Navy, we headed to the west coast for duty on the USS Long Beach (CGN 9).  Fulfilling the advertising campaign to “join the Navy and see the world,” Long Beach crossed the Pacific Ocean, and supported the Vietnam War, so I earned my membership in the “Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club.” Having decided the nuclear Navy was not a career path I wanted to pursue, I applied for the Excess Leave Program for Law School. Ten days before the selection board was to meet, a BuPers Manual revision was promulgated that effectively eliminated me from consideration.  That’s when I decided to seek my fame and fortune in the civilian world. Fame has come my way, at least if you are one of a dozen or so denizens of the public sector retirement world! 

I have hesitated to write this piece because I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to read it. After all, I have not had a long and/or distinguished naval career, received a Nobel Prize in anything, nor won an Olympic medal.  But I am nothing if not a proud, yet humble, graduate of USNA and member of the Class of 1969. If our class leaders think this is a great idea, far be it for me to question that wisdom. So here are some highlights of my adult life. My memory being what it is, our four years together by the Bay, as the lyrics of our alma mater Navy Blue and Gold so eloquently put it, are a bit of a blur. My personal highlight was proposing to my one and only (OAO) on Mrs. Eckley’s sun porch first class year. Chris said “yes,” and has been stuck with me ever since.  On the professional front, during my naval nuclear propulsion program interview with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, “the father of the nuclear navy,” my claim to fame was getting thrown out of his office three times. Despite that experience, I was accepted into the nuke community following graduation in June 1969. Nuclear Power School was in Bainbridge, Maryland, and prototype training in West Milton, New York.

USS Nautilus

During the four years living and working near Hartford, Connecticut, I completed the requirements to be designated a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.   At the same time I used the GI Bill to earn a little extra cash (the family was growing) by getting an MBA at the University of Hartford. At that point we decided to move back to Long Island, New York where Chris and I had grown up, and where our families still lived.  I began my actuarial consulting career in Manhattan, working for several companies over the ensuing 37 years, the last 9 years with a firm I co-founded, Cavanaugh Macdonald Consulting, LLC.  All that time was spent providing actuarial consulting services to state and local government employee retirement systems. The work was very rewarding and allowed me to visit every state in the USA. Fortune has come to me through my family. Chris and I have 3 children who between them have given us 7 grandchildren—3 girls and 4 boys. If you have grandkids, you know they are the greatest gift God ever created.

I decided to retire at the end of 2014. Time is spent now volunteering, traveling, going to the local range to prove to myself I can still hit the broad side of a barn, and visiting those aforementioned grandkids. Life has been great, and it isn’t over yet, now is it!?

We strolled in and immediately went up to 3 young ladies at their picnic table (in an almost empty restaurant), and asked if we could sit down.  Dawn, her sister Blair and friend Sandy simply said, “Sure.” Dawn and I locked eyes, and I didn’t see anything but her all that night. I did manage to get her phone number, and the rest is history. Dawn was responsible for my irresponsibility on the weekends. Bruce Davey was responsible for teaching me how to wear and care for a cowboy hat.  The rest was a blur, but I can remember all the MGB convertible cars in the company, a certain house at Turkey Point near Mayo Beach, then 1969 June Week in Sherwood Forrest. Hooray! Hats up into the air!  Dawn and I got married December 21, 1969 in the lower St. Andrews Chapel at the Naval Academy Chapel, and wish to thank all of you who made the wedding—I forgot to send thank you notes!  It was the week before Jim and Patsy Feeney had their wedding at the chapel. I had finished Training Squadron 1 (VT-1), so Dawn and I went straight to Meridian, Mississippi where I flew the T-2 Buckeye Jets at last.

The second break came when Peter Barnett (class of 1966) in 8th Company, who chaired the Reception Committee, volunteered me to host a few visiting sports teams on the weekends plebe year. I must have done a good job because the Reception Committee was passed on to me. Fewer formations meant happier underclassmen, so we were all pleased. My dad was a naval aerospace engineering duty officer (AEDO), and had a command tour in Philadelphia. Our quarters were at in the converted terminal at Henry C. Mustin Naval Air Facility, also known as “Mustin Field.” In November 1965, the Brigade of Midshipmen gathered at Mustin Field to march into John F. Kennedy Stadium for the Army-Navy football game.  My mom came up with the idea to invite my whole company of plebe classmates (my new best friends) over to the quarters after the game for lasagna and relaxation. Quite a few of you came and enjoyed the festivities. Several raided my civilian clothes and those of my brother Dion (future class of 1972), and really relaxed out of uniform. My third and biggest break came on the first weekend of youngster year when George Moran, Joe Eddie Trujillo and I went on liberty and decided to go to Buzzy’s for a pizza and a pitcher of Coca-Cola.

My deepest impression of my naval aviation career occurred on my third wedding anniversary December 21, 1972 when I was orbiting over Hanoi, Vietnam in my A-7 Corsair II. I counted 50 SAM missiles fired during the hour I was there. Although that wasn’t the flight in which I received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), I was elated that all the rockets missed.  The DFC mission was to bomb an ammo depot on islands very near the China mainland. There was intense AAA (anti-aircraft artillery) fire and many secondary explosions making that flight fraught with danger but successful.  Thank you, Bud Edney (class of 1957), for your guidance and leadership. Attack Squadron 27 (VA-27) was my home aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) from fall 1972 until the Vietnam cease-fire in 1973. After the POWs including John McCain (class of 1958) were released from the Hanoi Hilton, I remember seeing their plane and cheering as they flew over our ship. I decided to get out of the Navy and pursue commercial air flying. I eventually joined Braniff Airways, and flew to South America and Europe. I loved international flying. After Braniff’s bankruptcy in 1982, I started over with People Express Airlines in Newark, New Jersey. I was on the team that certified the Boeing 747 for flights from Newark to London for People Express.

I later flew and was check airman on the 747 for Continental Airlines as well as assistant chief pilot in Honolulu. I became a chief pilot at Continental Micronesia Airline in Guam, and finally got my command! We had plenty of fun on the islands of Micronesia. Dawn and I had no children, but we helped raise two nieces and a nephew. Dawn’s sister Blair was a flight attendant with People Express and Continental, and lived with us for 16 years.  Now the family is together again in Boston where we have a four-family home. Blair lives in the upper unit; Katy and her family live in the middle unit; Dawn and I live over the garage; and our gluten-free residential bakery is in the lower unit of the main house. Life is good!

Navy Wrestling Coach Ed Peery called me on June 18, 1965 to tell me that neither of the two high school wrestlers that he preferred over me were coming to Annapolis, so he was stuck with calling me, his third choice. I hadn’t received a nomination for an appointment from my Nassau County, New York, Congressman.  Instead he had nominated me as a qualified alternate. Coach Peery said there wasn’t enough time left to get all the paperwork done before the June 30th induction day, but I should just show up and it would all work out fine. Before Coach called me, I had been nursing the idea of just showing up, thinking that someone who had an appointment might fail to show up, and they might just swap me in. His telephone call made my decision a lot easier.   On June 30th I did show up, was told to report to the 8th Company, and I became a member of the USNA Class of 1969. I was a cocky kid from Wantagh, on the South Shore of Long Island, who wanted to go to Navy to serve my country and to see if I could be a big fish in a big pond.  Among many things that our classmates and other midshipmen at Navy taught us during Plebe Summer was that survival, success, and excellence required neither a big fish nor a little fish, but a school of fish. Leaders emerge, they are not pre-ordained or self-ordained. Everyone at Navy had arrived at Annapolis as a big fish from some little pond somewhere.  

So as I look back now, more than 50 years since we lived those days together as midshipmen in Bancroft Hall, I cherish the fellowship, the brotherhood that existed among us.  Whatever was thrown at us, we were all in it together. Survival, success, and excellence—for all of us and for each of us—have always been our shared goals.  I had great high school coaches. I felt confident competing for starting positions on the Navy wrestling, lacrosse, and soccer teams. Training tables were an additional enticement. Those were glory athletic years at Navy. Navy Soccer won a national championship. Navy Lacrosse was in the midst of a decade-long run of national championships. And Navy Wrestling was a national powerhouse of individual champions. It was a heady time to be a midshipman and to be competing for a place at training tables in three sports, even if the starting lineups might have been a reach for me. Plebe Soccer classmates Dick Bartlett, Glen Reid, Ronnie Sadler, Pat Stroop, and George Sara, helped me improve my respect for the concept of teamwork.   Our Plebe Wrestling team set the standard for all that I expected from the Academy and from myself. Our team went undefeated and Andy Van Sant, Bob Ahrens, and I, each pinned our opponents in every match that Plebe Wrestling season. However, the most remarkable thing about Plebe Wrestling was that it seemed that everyone I knew who was about my size—Mike Bohoskey, 

Terry Wanner, and John Allen, just to name a few—were all talented high school champion wrestlers and they were all in my weight class. Or as each of them would more accurately say, I was in his weight class.  We were the best as a team, and I was better than I otherwise ever would have been, because every day I had challenge matches with these champions who each wanted to represent Navy as much as I did.   Plebe Lacrosse introduced me to lifelong friends including Dennis Yatras, Tom Hagan, Chris Everett, Dick Long, and Dennis Colin. My Navy Wrestling teammates selected me as their captain, which meant more to me—both then and now—than had I ever won the individual wrestling national championship.  During our four years together we all enjoyed fabulous successes as teammates and champions. We continued the streak of Navy Lacrosse national championships.  Navy continued winning the NCAA Wrestling “Easterns”—the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championship—and Classmates Bob Ahrens, Ed Bannat, and I each won prestigious individual wrestling honors and admission to Navy’s Athletic Hall of Fame. 

As a company—first 8th then 32nd—we, like Lazarus, rose from the dead when Major Bill Stensland arrived in the final days of our second class year. As the upcoming first set first class company commander he called me to his office and said that he didn’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be the color company that next year. Since I couldn’t come up with any reason to disagree with him, he dismissed me saying, “Good, then it’s settled. Go be the color company.”  Which we did. Once again it took all of us working together as shipmates. Led by all of you, and including especially Rick Kirkland, Bruce Davey, Kevin Clancy, and Tom Cavanaugh and with the support of our even higher stripers Dave Buell and Jim Ellis, we were the best company at the U.S. Naval Academy.   We didn’t stop excelling at graduation and commissioning. Our class of ’69 has gone on to be the pre-eminent USNA graduate class. We have our own 501c3 foundation that has supported the academy and done good deeds for decades. We initiated and continue to totally underwrite the annual Michelson Lecture bringing STEM Nobel Prize Winners to Annapolis to meet with and to speak with midshipmen and faculty. We have underwritten the fabulous restoration of the Naval Academy Chapel. 

As each of us review all of our class accomplishments, we continue to appreciate how survival, success, and excellence depend upon all of us working together, as we have done since June 30, 1965, and as we will always continue to do. Coach Peery’s counsel remains correct: It has all worked out fine.  Honored to be your classmate, Steve Comiskey ‘69 The Rest of the Story (with apologies to Paul Harvey): I did wind up wrestling each of those two gentlemen who Coach Peery had preferred over me. I beat each of them every time we wrestled.  Coach would probably say that that didn’t prove that his choices were wrong, but rather—unlike them—I had the benefit of his great coaching. He’d be right, of course. Semper fidelis. Non sibi.

Steve Comiskey at Morgan Stanley 2018

To memorialize our unique American naval history we have designed a gavel and a sounding board made from wood of the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”), the still-sailing War of 1812-era American sailing warship. We have delivered that gavel and sounding board to each graduating class to be used at their meetings, events, and reunions forever.   We have created our USNA Alumni Mentoring Program (AMP) that now has more than 3,000 Navy alumni in mentor-protégé pairs improving both Naval Service retention and protégé professional and personal development. Our AMP has enjoyed the passion, creativity, perseverance, and financial support of well over 100 of our Classmates. Our AMP Team is led by Stephen Leaman, Bob Ahrens, Doc Hudock, Bert Bennett and Stan Bryant. AMP is the standard against which all other USNA alumni class projects are measured. We are wrapping up our Link in the Chain four years led by Rabbit Christianson, and the midshipmen of the class of 2019 are the beneficiaries of your professionalism and generosity. As your class president and class foundation board member for many of our years since 1969, I have worked with long-serving class leadership Mike Michaelis, Pat Stroop, Doc Hudock, Stephen Leaman and many of you to accomplish these achievements

Then it was time for more sea duty, so I headed west to San Diego to be the Flight Deck Officer and later ACHO (aircraft handling officer) on an LPH (landing platform helicopter). My follow-on shore tour was on COMNAVAIRPAC staff at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego where the ways of manpower managers were revealed to me.  I picked up an MBA at night, and was designated a subspecialist in accounting and personnel management. My department head tour was with an HSL squadron (helicopter anti-submarine squadron light) at North Island—good for one more deployment as OIC (officer-in-charge). Are you keeping track? That’s 3 tours back-to-back in San Diego.  Hey, may as well do a fourth—this time to the Navy Manpower Analysis Center at the Broadway Complex in downtown San Diego. It was a different setting with civil servants and a whole lot of esoteric algorithms and computer-generated output. Halfway through the tour the Navy told me I was a proven subspecialist in manpower engineering—and yesterday I couldn’t even spell it! In 1986 after 4 consecutive tours in San Diego, it was time for an overseas tour.

The overseas tour was Hawaii. In 1988 I married the love of my life, Linda. We scored quarters in Makalapa, historic but updated housing in a fantastic area of Naval Station Pearl Harbor. We made lifetime memories of wonderful people and magical times. In 1992 I retired and started Act 2. For a second career I wanted to teach, so I went to the University of Hawaii, and graduated with teaching credentials for secondary mathematics. Just to use up my VA money, I later graduated from Chaminade University with a professional degree. I started my teaching career at Pearl City High School and later moved to the Intermediate School. 8th graders are more fun than full-on drama-packed teenagers.  As a bonus, Hawaii Pacific University invited me to teach as an adjunct, so I teach college one night a week on the side. It’s a blast. I enjoy teaching, so why retire?  There’s plenty of time in the summer, during breaks, and after 3 o’clock to play pickle ball with Linda’s crew and work on her honey-do list.  She doesn’t want to leave Hawaii and neither do I, so we’re all good. Aloha to all my classmates and let us know if you’re out this way. Take care of you and yours!

Tom and Linda Corcoran just yesterday

I earned an MS in Project Management while on active duty and an MS in Petroleum Engineering after beginning to work for Amoco. In 1987 we began our international work, and expatriated to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). After 3 years we relocated to Gabon in West Africa for 2 years.  We moved back to Houston to work on projects for the South China Sea for a couple of years, and then expatriated to Shekou, China for 4 years. Jackie and I repatriated to New Orleans to work on a Gulf of Mexico project. Amoco merged with BP in 1999, and my project was relocated to Houston.  The following year we expatriated England to work on a development for Angola. After 1 year in England, we relocated to Luanda, Angola where we lived for the next 4 years. After Angola, we moved to Kuwait City, Kuwait. I retired from BP in 2005, and we repatriated to Houston. After a short time, I began working with a new company focused on developing oil fields in deep-water Gulf of Mexico and Angola. I retired from that company in 2012, and consulted for the next 3 years before retiring for good.   I had remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after leaving active duty, and served with infantry battalions located in Detroit and New Orleans. We had relocated from the UAE to Gabon when the First Gulf War began.

After 5 months in Okinawa, I was transferred to 1st Engineers in Vietnam where I served as a platoon leader and battalion staff officer. Many of my classmates were in Vietnam at that time, and I was at the same fire support base as Dave Buell and Jerry Creed. My battalion withdrew from Vietnam in May of 1971, and I had the misfortune to ride an LST back to San Diego. After several months at Camp Pendleton, California, I was stationed at Marine Barracks Treasure Island, California. My next duty assignment was an advanced engineer officer course with the Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Next came a tour as a research & development project officer at the development center (Marine Corps Development and Education Command) at Quantico, Virginia. My last assignment was at Marine Barracks, Washington, DC, also known as “8th and I.” After leaving active duty, I worked as a design engineer with Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. The auto industry was interesting, but the weather in Dearborn was terrible. After 2 years, I left Ford, and joined Amoco Production Company in Lafayette, Louisiana. After 2 years in Lafayette, I and my wife Jackie along with our son and daughter relocated to New Orleans and then to Houston where I began working on international developments. 

I called Headquarters Marine Corps to make sure they knew where I was. I thought I might be useful based upon my familiarity with the Middle East and my experience with mines and demolitions in Vietnam.  The master gunnery sergeant that I spoke with said, “Colonel, we know where you are. If we need you, we will call you. You don’t need to call us.” They never called, so I retired from the Marine Corps Reserve. My wife Jackie and I began dating in high school. On June 4, 1969 we were married in the small St. Andrews Chapel of the Naval Academy Chapel on the evening of USNA graduation day.  We have a son and a daughter. Working and living overseas was exciting and enlightening. It was great having our kids with us, so we could share the experience as a family. We were able to travel with them in Europe, the Far East and Africa.     In 2010 we bought property in the Texas Hill Country, and began designing our retirement home.  We had moved 22 times in our married life, and we looked forward to staying put for a while. We both do volunteer work with local charities, and we continue to travel.  

Her husband, Ryan Briggs, graduated #1 at CSM, and then garnered a Ph.D. at Cal Tech, writing his dissertation on Hybrid Silicon Nanophotonic Devices.  He works for Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The two of them presented us with our first grandchild, Aurick (Germanic for “noble ruler), named for his maternal grandfather.   As the son of a class of 1939 graduate, I was gratified when our second child, Nathan, graduated with the Naval Academy class of 2008. He is presently an F/A-18 pilot, and the strike fighter tactics instructor (SFTI) at Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106) in Oceana, Virginia. He is an impressive naval officer and fighter pilot.  Most importantly, Nathan is husband to the fair and beautiful Courtney, a Fresno State graduate with a business degree in interior design, and they live happily in Virginia Beach. Nathan and Courtney have been blessed with the impending arrival of a Davey boy. Our youngest child, Hailey, was a soccer star at Fort Hays State, playing with the same reckless abandon that produced her father’s concussions, and her mother’s skiing trophies. After leveling the soccer field in the middle part of America, she turned her attention to the East Coast.

After getting out of the Navy, my prayers were answered by Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, when I met my wife, Leigh, while skiing back home in Idaho.  Leigh, a ski racer at the University of Colorado, was not impressed with my resume or my skiing, but we were married after I landed a job at Eastern Airlines. While I was with Eastern, we spent 9 years in Pensacola, growing in our Christian faith, and raising our first two children, Nathan and Hannah.   Following the collapse of Eastern, I was fortunate to be hired by United Airlines, where I flew for the next 20 years.  During that period, our third child, Hailey, was born. At the same time, Leigh worked on my skiing and snow-boarding.  We were simultaneously blessed as we saw our children flourish. Following my retirement from United, I started Aviation Efficiency Group, consulting with airlines about operational efficiency.  Hannah, our first child, was an All-American runner, Academic All-American, and NCAA National Champion at Colorado School of Mines (CSM). She then went to Stanford for a Masters in Science and Engineering. After a stretch at Northrup-Grumman, she presently works as a software engineer, writing code

The Lord is good, and His mercy is everlasting! A good checklist for joy: θ Recognize that the Lord is in charge. θ Be faithful and loyal to those who trust in you. θ Eliminate personal pride as much as is possible. θ Live life in a participatory way. θ Do not shrink from danger or fear of failure. θ Encourage others when discouraged. θ Forgive quickly and unrelentingly. My personal prayer is to follow this  checklist better and sooner!

She presently teaches high school math in Stafford, Virginia, coaches soccer, and keeps her mother and father in a constant state of excitement about life. Her boundless enthusiasm, complete engagement, and strength of character assure me that my life has been fulfilled.  Hailey is now engaged to Shane Brittain, who is a Marine Corps second lieutenant and an infantry platoon commander.

Bruce Davey family photo and final use of USNA greatcoat in 2006.  Nathan, Hailey, Bruce, Leigh, Hannah, and Ryan

Our youngest child, Hailey, was a soccer star at Fort Hays State, playing with the same reckless abandon that produced her father’s concussions, and her mother’s skiing trophies. After leveling the soccer field in the middle part of America, she turned her attention to the East Coast. She presently teaches high school math in Stafford, Virginia, coaches soccer, and keeps her mother and father in a constant state of excitement about life. Her boundless enthusiasm, complete engagement, and strength of character assure me that my life has been fulfilled.  Hailey is now engaged to Shane Brittain, who is a Marine Corps second lieutenant and an infantry platoon commander.

Bruce Davey family photo at Copper Mountain, Colorado in 2018 after Shane proposed. Shane, Hailey, Bruce, Ryan, Hannah, Nathan, Leigh, and Courtney

My next flying tour took me to Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, to serve with the Patrol Squadron Eight (VP-8) Tigers, with missions over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. My last tour of duty brought me back to Washington and NAVAIRSYSCOM, from which I retired from the Navy to join the civilian workforce as a program management and acquisition management consultant to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and to various Department of Defense (DOD) avionics programs. During that NASA effort, I supported the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs.  I supported the safety committee for the Return-to-Flight STS-26 Space Shuttle mission, which carried our classmate, Mike Lounge, as mission specialist. Interestingly, our former upperclassmen, Jim Buchli, class of 1967 from 8th company, and Brian O'Connor, class of 1968 from 32nd company were also there, then as astronauts.

Detachments and operations took me to missions from Guam, the Mariana Islands, the coast of Korea, the South China Sea, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and even the Persian Gulf. During my tour in VP-40, I served with our 1969 classmates Lanny Hunt and Fred Jones.  As my tour with VP-40 was ending, my detailer gave me a choice of duty assignments, and I chose to serve in Washington, DC early in my career.  I was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as a reconnaissance intelligence analyst, with duty in the Pentagon intelligence center, part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) command center. During my DIA tour, I earned a masters degree in systems management from the University of Southern California. Following my tour at DIA, my disassociated sea tour took me to Naval Station Keflavik, Iceland as air traffic control officer, later as personnel officer, and eventually as a department head. The true boon of that assignment was that it involved active flight duty as the navigator for one of the station aircraft. At NAVSTAKEF, I served with our classmate, Tim Sullivan. For my next shore tour, my subspecialty brought me back to the DC area to serve as an acquisition project manager at the Naval Air System Command (NAVAIRSYSCOM).

I later returned to the government, my fourth oath of office, as a program manager, and member of the DoD Acquisition Corps, serving at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, from which I retired, having dedicated a full half-century in service to the government. I am now retired in place, a stone's throw from George Washington's Mount Vernon, with my sweetheart, Courtney, a retired education psychologist. My daughter and son are both postgraduate professionals who travel even more now than when they were Navy juniors.

After graduate school, it was off to Washington, DC for my interview with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, “the father of the nuclear navy.”  It was a bit rocky at first (he addressed me as “Doctor Lieutenant Eagle”), but eventually accepted me into the naval nuclear propulsion program training pipeline.  That pipeline led first to Bainbridge, Maryland for Nuclear Power School, and then to Windsor Locks, Connecticut for reactor prototype training. Each school took 6 months.  My second submarine was USS Bergall (SSN 667), where I was assigned to the Engineering Department and rotated through most of the engineering division officer jobs. My favorite was Reactor Control Officer, mainly because I had a chief who saved my bacon more than a few times. My third SSN assignment was USS Shark (SSN 591), where I was Navigator and Operations Officer. We deployed mainly to the Mediterranean Sea, with local operations in the Western Atlantic Ocean. After that tour, I transferred to the Navy Reserve, worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence, and eventually retired as a captain in 1994. 

My first civilian job after USNA was with a small startup in New London, Connecticut where I helped rewrite the Submarine Search Manual (NWP-73).  After that project, Maj-Britt and I moved to Monterey, California where I joined the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). My main academic interests at NPS were military applications of operations research, particularly in search theory.  I taught courses in probability, statistics, and military modeling. Eventually I became chairman of the Operations Research Department, serving in that capacity for eight years.   After retiring from NPS and federal civil service in 2014, Maj-Britt and I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We do a lot of hiking and are still trying to adjust to not going to work regularly.   We have two children, Claire and Nathan. Claire teaches French and Second-Language Acquisition at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. And Nathan is founder and chief executive officer of Jana, a telecom startup in Boston, Massachusetts.

USS Hammerhead (SSN 663)

Jim Eagle on the Naval Postgraduate School campus in Monterey, California.

The operation fulfilled an American obligation under the Paris Peace Accords of January 1973, which ended direct American participation in the Vietnam War.  The operation also was the first operational deployment of a United States Navy air mine countermeasures capability.  Steve was subsequently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was taken from us much too soon.

In 1998 I reported as Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe headquartered in London, England, and Commander in Chief, Allied Forces, Southern Europe headquartered in Naples, Italy, where I oversaw U.S. and NATO forces in combat and humanitarian operations during the 1999 Kosovo crisis.  My final active duty tour was as Commander, U.S. Strategic Command. I retired in 2004 after 39 years of active naval service. After my retirement from the Navy as a result of Polly’s illness, I became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, an independent non-profit organization promoting safety, reliability and excellence in the operation of nuclear-electric generating plants.  Additional corporate board service has included the Lockheed Martin Corporation, Inmarsat, PLC, Level 3 Communications, and Dominion Energy.  Pro bono activities have included the Military Advisory Panel to the Iraq Study Group, the Space Foundation, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and the Users’ Advisory Group to the National Space Council. Currently I serve as Annenberg Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

LTJG Jim Ellis after soloing at  Pensacola, September, 1970

In 2008, Polly, the love of my life and my wife of 38 years, passed away. We have 2 children and 4 grandchildren. Our son, Colonel Patrick J. Ellis, a West Point graduate and most recently in command of the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, and his wife Brenda have 2 children, Deirdre and Oren. Our daughter Lauren Ellis Brandy is an accomplished artist. She and her husband Paul have 2 children, Maya and Piper.  I remarried in 2013 to Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, a professor of engineering at Stanford University. She and I make our home in Portola Valley, CA. In 2015 I was very humbled to receive the Naval Academy Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Award “for lifelong achievement and service to the nation.” As I said then, the real honor came from knowing that the nomination for the award came from all of you, my classmates.  In my remarks to the Brigade on that day, I attempted to put into words what all of us in the Class of 1969 know to be true: “All of us in the class of 1969 walked good, if different paths. The real honor comes from those with whom we began the journey and the many, many more that we met along the way. What you will share with all of us who have gone before, is the deepest admiration for those with whom you serve.”

I often note that my biography tells you two things about me: first, that I am old, and, second, that I can’t hold a job. Selection board accidents gave me opportunities that I could never have imagined on that long-ago June day when we stood together in Tecumseh Court.  When asked how I am doing, I sometimes answer: “Better than I deserve.”  With the one exception of losing Polly, life has been incredibly good to me. I owe most of that to the journey we began together.  I do believe that they call them “service academies” for a reason.  Non Sibi!

Jim and Polly Ellis, and their children and grandchildren on a ranch vacation in 2007

Admiral James O. Ellis Jr. served as Commander, United States Strategic Command from 2001 to 2004

Midway was operating 75 miles southeast of Yokosuka at the time of the accident. The Navy’s search and rescue effort found only a partially inflated life raft, but no other sign of the aircraft. The raft was positively identified as being from Jim’s aircraft. On the basis of this information, the Navy declared the Corsair lost at sea.  Jim was survived by his wife Patricia (Patsy, True) of Glen Burnie, Maryland, his son Sean, 3 and his daughter Kenna, 2.   He was also survived  by his parents Colonel John W. Feeney, USAF (Ret.) and Mrs. Patricia Feeney, sister Mrs. Terri Leigh Grammas, brother Timothy Michael Feeney, and maternal grandmother Mrs. Dessa K. Gallagher, all of Panama City, Florida; and by his paternal grandmother, Mrs. Essie Feeney, of Pierre, South Dakota. Memorial services were held at Arlington National Cemetery as well as at USNA Memorial Hall.  Sean graduated from Syracuse University and is a senior architect for RNL Designs/Stantec in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.  Kenna is married with 3 children and owns Precisely Pilates in Stamford, Connecticut.

In 1971 Jim earned his naval aviator wings at Kingsville, Texas. He was awarded the Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in March 1973. He was assigned to Attack Squadron 93 (VA-93). Beginning in October 1973, USS Midway (CVA 41) moved its homeport to Naval Base Yokosuka, Japan as a result of a 1972 accord between the United States and Japan. VA-93 was assigned to Midway, and moved along with the ship. Given the Vietnam War and the need for Far East readiness as budget constraints reduced the number of aircraft carriers in the fleet, the purpose of forward-deploying a carrier and attached air wing to an overseas home port was to increase readiness while improving morale by allowing sailors to live with their families when in port. Although Midway’s new home port was Naval Base Yokosuka, Attack Squadron 93 would normally operate out of Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan or Naval Air Facility Misawa, Japan when the carrier was at Yokosuka.  On July 11, 1974 Jim’s A-7A Corsair II crashed while returning to the USS Midway from Naval Air Facility Atsugi. Contact with the plane was lost when it was approximately 15 miles from the ship and preparing to land

Jim and Patsy Feeney family: Sean and Kenna in Marblehead, Massachusetts around 1990

Jim’s wife, Patsy (True), shared the following memory of Jim on February 24, 2015: Thank you all for sharing your memories of Jim.  I can't tell you how much they mean to me, especially Gerry's.  I remember that day well. Frank Sinatra accepted an invitation to perform aboard the Midway for the 4th of July. Jim had the duty that night—or maybe the watch—I may have my military terms mixed up.  He and an enlisted man had to be “upstairs.” Anyway, Jim had me stand on a stair platform and then he and the enlisted man took 15 minute turns to come down to watch the performance. I remember looking every 15 minutes to see where Jim was and finding him and just staring and thinking what a beautiful person he was and how blessed I was to be his wife and have his children. Then the weather turned really bad and the Midway was delayed a few days. Jim was one of the pilots taking the serviced planes from Atsugi to the ship on July 11.  One pilot radioed the ship that the weather was still too bad to fly but the captain said they had been delayed too long and told them to fly anyway (my friend's husband was the radioman who conveyed the messages back and forth). I left Jim that morning and drove home. I wanted to finish painting a garden room off the master bedroom.

It was early afternoon and I noticed that Sean (3) and Kenna (2) came into the room and curled up on the futon and fell asleep—both had given up naps long before.  As I was painting I had this feeling of sudden sleepiness and just wanted to crawl in bed with them but I resisted and kept painting. Then I looked up at the clock--about 1:40—and a feeling of overwhelming peace came over me.  It was beautiful. About 10 that night they came to my home. The priest said your husband had an accident, he's missing, but there's no hope, you'll never see him again.  And then the woman beside him took out a pad and pencil and said let's make a list of all the things you want to buy before you leave Japan. I asked when the accident happened.  He said about 1:40 this afternoon. Thank you for being there for Jim.  You have all been in my thoughts for many years.

James Feeney memorial marker, Arlington National Cemetery

Michael served in various engineering management capacities at the nuclear facilities. He held a senior reactor operator's license for many years, and was a licensed professional engineer. Upon his retirement in 2000, he moved to Iron River for a brief time before moving to Ontonagon, Michigan where he made his home until his death. Michael worked as a volunteer for the U.S. Forest Service for a number of years.  He enjoyed activities which ranged from fish tagging, to eagle observations, to turtle counting, and to anything else that needed to be done. An avid fisherman, Michael loved ice fishing at the Ontonagon Marina, as well as fishing for bluegills and brook trout at secret, unnamed lakes. Another of his passions was gardening. He loved working in his garden, and was known in the neighborhood for his tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and beans. Michael served as a member of the Ontonagon County Library Board, the Ontonagon Township Library Board and the Ontonagon Marina Commission, and also served as a member of the Regional Advisory Council for the U.S. Forest Service.

Michael was a member of the Ontonagon County Historical Society and volunteered as a tour guide for the Ontonagon Lighthouse. Among his other pursuits, Michael wrote a column for the Ontonagon Herald, called "Off the Beaten Path," chronicling his adventures in the western Upper Peninsula.  These articles were gathered into a collection called the Flatlander Chronicles. Among his proudest accomplishments were the writing and publication of three novels: Totem, Megis and Interior, which are thrillers set in Ontonagon County.  A fourth novel, Mill Town, was about halfway completed at the time of his death. Michael was survived by his long-time partner, Victoria (Vicky) James; two children, Daniel (Kristen) Genrich, a deputy sheriff for Okaloosa County, Florida, and Sarah L. Genrich, a student at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; his mother, Lorraine Genrich of Wausau, Wi; and two brothers, Kevin (Brenda) and Patrick (Susan). Michael has one grandson, Brandon Genrich. Michael was preceded in death by his father, Gordon Genrich and his sister, Susan Holderrieth. Michael also left behind his faithful and constant companion, his dog, Rusty.

Our landlady, a hairdresser named Claire, was kind enough to change out the double bed for twin beds. Tom and I appreciated that.  I enjoyed cooking, and Tom didn’t mind cleanup, so we became even better friends! Claire’s hair salon was right around the corner, so I got my unmilitary looking haircut there, much to the chagrin of an instructor who regularly gave me grief about it. Although I ignored him, I think he got even when he graded my final exam with 249 points.  It took 250 points to pass. After a thumbs up from the academic review board, Admiral Rickover gave it a thumbs down, and I was off to damage control assistant (DCA) school, the USS James E. Keyes (DD 787) and a WESTPAC deployment.  Next was diesel engine school in Great Lakes enroute to becoming chief engineer (CHENG) on USS Westchester County (LST 1167) at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan.  Out of 21 months on Westchester County, I spent 17 of them in the Tonkin Gulf off Vietnam or in U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, Philippines. This stint, in part, cost me my first marriage. Westchester County finished this tour as the mother ship for Mine Flotilla One, sweeping the mines in Haiphong Harbor, Vietnam. 

These mines were likely no longer live, but it was a good deterrent for Henry Kissinger, then National Security Advisor, to use as a negotiating chip for the release of our American prisoners of war (POWs).  When the talks would hit an impasse, we would be sent back to Subic Bay to wait, multiple times. This is where Judy and her brother Bert, the singers at the Chuckwagon, got to know us on a first name basis. Kissinger finally negotiated the release of the POWs, and we completed our mission before heading back to Yokosuka for decommissioning.  Next up was officer recruiting in San Francisco. I never figured out why our generation felt the military was responsible for Vietnam, but that’s what the students at University of California, Berkeley believed. The hardest part of my job was trying to be polite. It was here that I began a relationship with my soon-to-be second wife, whom I had met on a blind date just before I left Japan.  Destroyer School, or “Twin Screw U” as it was known, was followed by a CHENG tour on USS John Paul Jones (DDG 32). The CHENG’s nightmare was the Propulsion Examining Board (PEB). The Officer in Charge (OinC) was Commander R. E. Johannsen or “JoJo,” as most of us remembered him at the academy (he was a lieutenant then). 

Later, I co-founded Datamatix, my first e-commerce business. After selling, Donna and I moved to Silicon Valley, California where I was chief executive officer of a dot-com. We raised $54 million in early 2000. Then ‘the dot-com bust’ came in April 2000. Money was returned, and the company was sold. We left Silicon Valley, and moved to Tampa, Florida in July 2001. I took over as chief executive officer of Enporion, a utility-owned e-commerce buying consortium. I acquired that business in 2009, and sold it in 2011. We bought our home on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2014, and began our move there in May of 2017. Donna and I, with our 2 golden retrievers, boarded our boat in St. Petersburg, Florida, and headed south. Suffice to say it was an amazing adventure. Little did we know at the time we arrived on St. Thomas that we had only 9 weeks before we were to be hit by Hurricane Irma, and 12 days later, by Hurricane Maria. The devastation to the Virgin Islands was indescribable. We are still recovering, but it’s getting better every day. Reflecting on the impact of the Naval Academy, I now give it far more credit than I did back when we would all sing the song by the Animals: “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”! The academy is responsible for instilling life values and ethics, and Mother B is responsible for introducing me to life-long friendships that I cherish to this day.

He and I actually became friendly. Who knew that could happen? I was fortunate to have been spot-promoted to Lieutenant Commander on this tour, and moved to COMNAVAIRPAC as 3M and Force Boilers Officer. I was approaching the 10-year point in my naval career. Looking ahead, I foresaw 8 to 10 years on sea duty assignments.  Helping my decision to leave was a wife and 1 child (later 2), who deserved more of my time and attention. I remained in the Navy Reserve where I retired as a captain after 26 years. I fully expected to work for major corporations for the remainder of my civilian career. The first one was Gould in Chicago, an industrial conglomerate. I started out as the plant maintenance manager, and moved up the ranks before becoming the vice president of finance for Gould’s Defense Systems Group. Later, I became president and general manager of Gould’s Systems Protection Division in Philadelphia, the sole source for circuit breakers and switchgear for the nuclear Navy. I subsequently led a management buyout, was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, and never looked back.  My second marriage folded, which was a sad time. But then I met my forever wife, Donna, by a pool on July 4th, which just demonstrates that you never know what is coming next, even from sadness! 

Subsequently, I have never had a problem with the arm. Although I did not get very far in the Navy, with just over 180 days of active duty as a midshipman, I had officially become a veteran. After my last exam at the end of the first semester plebe year, I processed out at the Midshipman Personnel Office, turned in my uniform, met my dad who was waiting in the car behind the fifth wing, and headed back to Norfolk, where he was stationed at CINCLANFLT headquarters. Mid-year, what to do? My dad had met a retired admiral, a USNA graduate, at a cocktail party. The admiral was Dean of Admissions at the local college, Old Dominion University (ODU). I went to see him, and after a brief chat, accepted his offer to enter the school, no transcript, no application. My plan was to spend a semester or two at ODU, and then transfer. I never left ODU. Engineering, mathematics, finally an economics degree. Along the way I became a licensed pilot, private/commercial/instrument, ASEL, and soloed in a glider. My flight experience and lack of complications or symptoms with my arm prompted me to try for the US Air Force. I passed the Air Force tests and physical exam, but was advised there would be no chance with the previous medical issue, and my draft status was determined to be IV-F (not qualified for any military service).

However, I found another way to serve. Although I had left the Navy, I still managed to “see the world,” with the US Army Corps of Engineers, as an economist. I traveled through much of America, the South Pacific, Europe, and Asia, while stationed in Norfolk, Portland, Honolulu, Washington, DC, and Jacksonville. During this time, I undertook graduate study at Cornell University as a Corps of Engineers Planning Fellow, and also at ODU in economics. I retired from my federal career in 2002, and have been a part-time freelance consultant ever since. I have done some surfing and outrigger canoe racing in Hawaii, marathons and some shorter runs (never very fast), long distance ocean swims, and some scuba diving. These days I golf, assist part-time at a golf course, and play amateur guitar and sing at open mic venues and jam sessions. 

My wife Margit and I stay busy with gardening and exercise. She’s a horticulturist and also a yoga and tai chi practitioner. She was born in Norway and grew up in Hawaii, where we met.    Her dad was a sea captain and retired as Chief Pilot, Honolulu Harbor Pilots, and then sailed to French Polynesia.  Our honeymoon was a memorable two weeks in Tahiti on his 39-foot sailboat, the Kai Ewa.   Daughter Amy from my first marriage lives in Chicago, where she is an actress, pet sitter, dog walker, and house sitter.  Son Billy is a computer scientist with Sony in Campbell, CA, after first spending 6 years in Japan working for Japanese companies and becoming fluent in Japanese. I think about my short time at the Academy often, and still remember things I memorized from Reef Points.  I have run into several USNA guys over the years, including Tom Clancy ’69 on his way to his youngster cruise in Rota (where my dad was stationed), Greg Dreyer ’67 (plebe summer squad leader), others through golf, and a few by email. 

Bill Hunt, Open Mic At Billy’s Boathouse, Jacksonville, 2014

Bill Hunt, Plebe Year Mug, 1965 8th Company class of 1969  switched to 32nd Company in 1967

Almost 30 years after walking through the Maryland Avenue gate and after much reflection, in 1995 I decided to retire.  Upon retirement, I joined Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, GA and, after seeing the industry from design to production, moved to the LM Corporation staff in Washington. International defense business involves interaction between customers and various U.S. priorities, so initially my work was with various embassies, government offices, and the U.S. Congress. I was fortunate to spend the majority of this 20 year career conducting business around the world as the Vice President, Corporate International Business. This global travel came to an end with my retirement in January 2015.  However, full retirement did not suit me, so I initiated a third career as one of the founders of Global Alliance Advisors. This group of former industry, government and military leaders all had worked together, served in senior level assignments, and worked with numerous allies in national security activities. Tom Burbage ’69 is one of the partners and we share the challenges of the work as well as of the memories of our years at Annapolis.  Patsy and I have relocated to Winston-Salem, NC, and have a blended family of 4 children and 4 grandchildren. Here we enjoy gardening, rounds of golf and a wonderful pace of life. 

(l-r) Rick and Patsy Kirkland

Then I joined the DOE Office of Defense Programs [later to become part of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)] which designs and builds America’s nuclear weapons.  I retired from federal service in 2004 and joined a small company in Maryland for six years supporting DOE, NNSA, and Department of Defense (DoD) programs.  Subsequently, I began my own company, and am currently providing part time support to the DOE Office of Science Isotope Program. In addition, I volunteer with the Montgomery County, MD, Department of Parks as a weed warrior. Weed warriors help remove non-native invasive vegetation from the parks.  I also volunteer with the nonprofit organization Project Management for Change whose mission is to “unleash the boundless potential of the project management profession to empower and transform communities around the world.” Dianne and I live in Rockville, MD. We have one daughter, Jennifer, who graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in mechanical engineering. Jennifer works as a project manager for Apple Computer in Cupertino, CA.

Upon graduation from MIT, I attended Navy engineering school in San Diego, then reported to USS Sampson (DDG 10), in Charleston, SC as Main Propulsion Assistant.  Sampson deployed on a six-month Mediterranean cruise, during which time Dianne and I were married at the Naval Academy Chapel. My second tour was as Chief Engineer on USS Mississinewa (AO 144), in Newport, RI and included an overhaul at the Boston Naval Shipyard as well as a six-month Mediterranean deployment. My last active duty tour was at the Atomic Energy Commission in Germantown, MD. In the 1970s the Navy had several training billets at the AEC in case future liaison was needed.  I was assigned to a civilian position to work on the liquid metal fast breeder reactor program. After my Navy obligated service was completed, I joined the Navy Reserve, supporting the Office of Naval Research and the Navy Theater Nuclear Warfare Program Office until I retired 16 years later as an O-6.   When I first left active duty, I worked as a civilian in the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy and obtained a Master of Engineering Administration from George Washington University. 

Bill Newton enjoying Montgomery County, MD, Rock Creek Park

This caused a stir in DC and the commander in the Gulf was directed to recover the boats to see if the serial on the Stinger missile was from the Iran-Contra affair.  Subsequently, it was determined that the Stingers were part of a batch supplied by the United States to Afghan guerrillas, who had lost them to Iranian forces in a skirmish after they crossed the Iranian-Afghan border. After that incident, Thach was assigned as commander of 6 tanker convoys transiting the Arabian Gulf under Operation Earnest Will, the Navy's operation to escort Kuwaiti tankers granted US flag status. That got exciting a few times, but ended well. When the Iranians fired a Styx anti-ship missile and hit a reflag tanker anchored in Kuwait, President Reagan responded by ordering Operation Nimble Archer, the takedown of Iranian gas/oil platforms in the Reshadat oil field. Thach embarked an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) detachment, a SEAL platoon, and a combat camera detachment. Four destroyers entered the Gulf and proceeded to shoot the platforms after warning the Iranians to leave. When the destroyers departed, I sent the EOD detachment and the SEAL platoon to board the Iranian platforms, and to blow them up since the platforms which still standing, although heavily damaged. Total destruction of the platforms brought oil production, previously 35,000 barrels per day, to a halt for the next 8 years.

Next came the Industrial College of the Armed Forces with a masters degree in cooperation with George Washington University. Two deployments followed as Commanding Officer of USS Thach (FFG 43), a guided missile frigate. The first was as escort for USS New Jersey (BB 62). This cruise was a real show-the-flag deployment that included a trip into the Sea of Okhotsk where Russian ballistic missile submarines have a bastion.  The second Thach deployment was accelerated by the Iraqi attack on USS Stark (FFG 31) in the Arabian Gulf which killed 37 sailors and injured 21. Thach’s first assignment was as escort for the barge Hercules. Hercules had U.S. Special Forces, Delta Force Army helicopters that only flew at night, and Mark III patrol boats. My LAMPS (Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System) helicopter was controlling Army helicopters from the barge when some Iranian boats fired on the helos.  A firefight followed with the 3 Iranian boats sunk. There were 6 Iranian survivors from the boats. All were badly wounded.  Two subsequently died. One of the four said he saw the aircraft warning lights (on my helo) and tried to get a lock on it with his Stinger missile. 

After that came Carrier Group One as the surface operations officer. The staff was embarked in USS Constellation (CV 64) for a deployment to the Western Pacific and the Arabian Gulf. When Constellation had a major fire, the staff transferred to USS Independence (CV 62). Once again DC beckoned and I became the Director of Enlisted Plans and Career Management. This job entailed managing the enlisted personnel budget of about $16 billion. There were lots of attempts to raid the budget and trade Navy sailors for platforms.  Sea duty came around again and I was assigned as Commanding Officer of USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), an Aegis cruiser. Chancellorsville deployed to the Arabian Gulf for operations against Iraqi oil smugglers and escort of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).  My last tour was as Chief of Staff for Naval Forces Central Command in Tampa, Florida. This tour involved travel to Bahrain, Egypt, and other locations in the Persian Gulf.  After retirement I moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where I took a job as a contractor at the Navy Warfare Development Command, a Navy war-fighting think tank. In 2008 the command moved to Norfolk, Virginia and so did I.

 Sadly, in 2014 my wife of 40 years, Joanne was taken by ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease”).  Looking back, it is the friendships and shared experiences that make life really worthwhile. I cherish our classmates and am truly blessed.  Life is good. I am still working in the Navy think tank and live in Chesapeake, Virginia. A wonderful lady named Peggy has come into my life. 

Jerry O'Donnell

USS Chancellorsville (CG 62)

After serving as deck officer on several Shell Oil Company liquefied natural gas carriers, he is currently Maritime Assurance Assessor in Houston, Texas for Shell for ships such as oil tankers. He is a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve. He and his wife, Maria, have a son, Sebastian. Emery, our fourth, is a graduate of Georgia Tech. He is a captain with the Air Force, pilots the C-17 Globemaster III, and is Wing Chief of Education at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. My civilian career included an assignment for the President-Elect of the United States as Transition Team Leader for 5 independent labor agencies. Following the election of Ronald Reagan, change was dreaded by some officials, so there were challenges. However, Take the Message to Garcia encouraged the team to persevere to completion. Similarly, Garcia has influenced my 30 years as a turnaround consultant in which I have assisted hundreds of under-performing, distressed and cash-short businesses, currently as Managing Director with Business Restructuring Services of BDO, a large middle market accounting firm.   Debby and I live in Marietta, Georgia. As Robert Browning wrote, the best is yet to be. 

As a civilian, thanks to the GI Bill, I undertook a master’s in business administration at Northeastern University. I enjoyed applying my naval experience to startups and turnarounds at several companies, while also completing a juris doctor from Suffolk University and a masters in law From Georgetown University. I met my wife Debby at a Bible study, and she has been the greatest blessing of my life. We have been blessed with 4 children and 4 grand-children. Ellis, our first child, is a graduate of the University of West Georgia. He serves as General Manager of Content at FreightWaves, the world’s leading go-to source for information about freight markets. He and his wife, Joy, an investigative reporter, live in Chattanooga, Tennessee with their two daughters, Virginia and Adeline. Elizabeth, our second, is a graduate of Liberty University. She is an athletic trainer for soldiers in Army basic training at Fort Jackson. She and her husband, Ira, an Army veteran with the state Department of Health & Environmental Control in Columbia, South Carolina, enjoy their sons, Liam and Damian.  Everett, our third, is a graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. 

Baker & Debby Smith, 2015

Baker Smith family 2018. (l to r): Emery Smith (son), Everett Smith (son) & his wife Maria,  Ellis Smith (son), his daughter Virginia & his wife Joy,  Baker & Debby,  Damian Lewis (grandson), his mother Elizabeth Lewis (daughter) &  her husband Ira Lewis, and their other son Liam Lewis

In the first 5 of those 18 years, I worked as an engineer for a couple of big corporations. Of course, one of them was Westinghouse. Who else would a former Navy nuc work for?  After 5 years, I switched my number-crunching skills over to accounting and went to work for Coopers & Lybrand, one of the big eight accounting firms. I worked my way up to partner but found myself unhappy. About the time John Jr. was hit by the drunk, I figured out it wasn't the big organizations, it was me. I parted ways with C&L and started my own small firm, specializing in business valuation (bus val). Following a smaller-is-better theme, the only employee I hired for that business was our daughter, Ruth. After 2 years, I started up another small company publishing marketing newsletters. I used them in my bus val practice and sold them to other bus val practitioners around the country. Sticking with the smaller-is-better theme, my son, John Jr., was my only partner and ran that business. The newsletters had a business model relying on distribution of paper to a limited geographic area. When the internet swept over us all, neither John Jr. nor I were prepared to fight through the change, and we sold the business to a competing specialized business valuation publisher.

4 years, 1 submarine, 2 homeports, and 1 stint in the shipyard at Bremerton, Washington later, I decided the Navy wasn’t for me. Those who don’t think “service” is the right term for being in the military should try it. Never home, gone when my kids were born, and never ending port and starboard watches in a cramped submarine was too difficult a life for me.  Although I never saw combat, I had the conn of a sinking submarine going down due to a faulty valve. My hat is off to you guys who stayed in. Thank you for your service. Sylvia was disappointed that I’d left. She’d grown accustomed to running life with our 3 kids, having the check deposited in our joint account and not having to negotiate life’s little issues with a husband. 18 years later, she agreed it was a good decision.  Our oldest, John Jr., was standing by the side of a road in Charleston, South Carolina with his Citadel roommate, Mike, son of classmate, Ed Schwier.  A drunk driver slid off the road and hit them. They came out of it in pretty good shape, but it was touch and go for months. Ed was stationed in Bahrain and his wife had to take care of all the details by herself. Thanks to you guys who stayed in.

The owner of that publisher and I became friends and over dinner at a conference I agreed to write a book on a nitpicky area of business valuation that he would publish.  The book went into a second edition and still provides me some small royalties. The writing process suited me and when I retired from my bus val practice 2 years ago, I started working on a novel—when I’m not being a retirement play baby.  It’s set in the late 1960s and focused on the 1967 “Summer of Love,” when we went to summer training to learn to be warriors and hippies went to San Francisco to protest the war, smoke dope, etc.  The novel is based on the concept: militaristic Naval Academy midshipman falls in love with career-minded anti-war girl. It’s very loosely based on actual events, but with fictional characters not at all similar to any of us.

John and Sylvia Stockdale during June Week 1966 on the left and in September 2016 on the right. See the difference before and after 50 years!

In September 1964, at the beginning of my senior year of high school, I decided to apply to the Naval Academy. My father had served as a naval reservist in the Western Pacific during World War II, and I was living in a very pro-military home in western New York.  I considered Joe Bellino, class of 1961, and Roger Staubach, class of 1965—and all their football teammates—to be very special. There was music in our house as I was a member of our church’s youth choir. The Navy Hymn was played during the funeral service of President John F. Kennedy, and I felt it to be a beautiful and meaningful piece of music. In retrospect, I was primed to go Navy.   I received an appointment to the academy as a third alternate. On Memorial Day weekend of 1965, I was notified that my appointment had been upgraded to primary. I was thrilled and thankful. I quickly made a decision to decline an NROTC scholarship and to accept the Naval Academy appointment.    My high school graduation was on Sunday afternoon, June 27, 1965. Two days later, after saying farewell to my family and friends, I boarded an airplane enroute to Washington National Airport.  So much for summer vacation. I rode a bus from the airport to the Annapolis bus station. 

The weather was brutal, extremely hot sun and high humidity. I remember seeing the academy for the first time on the morning of June 30. It was beautiful. It did not sink in that this would be my home for the next 4 years. The staff was courteous and helpful; however, this all changed that afternoon.  We gathered in Tecumseh Court, raised our right hands, and began our new lives. There were no places to hide. My parents had given me a Bible for my 17th birthday. It got a lot of use. There are no atheists in foxholes. I played varsity soccer, was a member of the 32nd Company championship basketball team, and sang with the Glee Club and Chapel choir. Singing afforded me the opportunity to travel throughout the United States. Also, there is something special about the sound produced by an all-male, four-part harmony chorus. I remember singing on numerous occasions at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC. Singing the Navy Hymn at the memorial service for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was both poignant and fitting.  I also remember a cross country airplane trip to Hollywood, California where the Chapel choir sang at the 1969 Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl.    

In September 1975, using the Burke scholarship I was awarded at the Naval Academy, I entered University of California, Berkeley, and was awarded a Master of Engineering degree in August 1977.  I graduated from the Surface Warfare Officers School Command department head school in July 1978. In September 1978 I was assigned as Chief Engineer aboard USS William H. Standley (CG 32). In September 1981 I became Executive Officer of USS Hoel (DDG 13).  Thanks to a performance improvement program, Hoel received the 1982 Arleigh Burke Pacific Fleet Trophy for greatest improvement in battle efficiency. In an unrelated event, Hoel was recognized by President Ronald Reagan during his Saturday radio address of April 2, 1983 for the crew’s fire relief efforts near Melbourne, Australia.     In September, 1983 I began service in the Republic of the Philippines as Executive Officer, Naval Station Subic Bay, a vital strategic logistic hub. How’d I ever get this 3 year assignment? Just being curious while talking about future assignments with my detailer, I asked him if he had any Naval Station XO positions that would soon be available. He said, “Yes,” and I said, “Sold.” 

Life at the Naval Academy had piqued my interest in adventure, and I desired to see the world. Therefore, on service selection night, I selected Surface Navy aboard USS Henry W. Tucker (DD 875), homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. I joined the ship in September 1969 and had 3 deployments to Southeast Asia in support of the Vietnam War. While conducting naval gunfire support missions at the Demilitarized Zone, also known as the “DMZ,” Tucker was recognized for its professional firing competence by the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt. Given 3 ½ years of intense experience, I qualifies as a surface warfare officer, and was able to fleet up. I thank God that Tucker shifted homeports from Yokosuka to San Diego in August 1970, because I met my future wife at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot Officers Club. After a 2 ½ year courtship, Nancy became my bride in March 1973. Nancy was the daughter of a Navy chief warrant officer who survived Pearl Harbor, so she had a great understanding of the demands that the Navy would place on a family. She has remained by my side for 45 years.  After completing my sea tour, in March 1973 I began shore duty in March 1973 at the Naval Research Laboratory, focusing on ship engineering and maintenance.  

Beside responsibilities typically associated with a large naval station, Subic Bay had a unionized labor force, slot machines which required very tight internal collection controls, the package store, a brig, a Ney Award-winning Mess Hall, a riding stable with 25 horses, and a host government led by Ferdinand Marcos, who was subsequently forced to resign.  In April 1982 I began the first of two command-at-sea tours, and became Commanding Officer of USS Davidson (FF 1045). I believe my detailer demonstrated a touch of irony when he assigned “John Strauss” to command USS Joseph Strauss (DDG 16) in December 1988. When I selected Surface Navy as a midshipman, it was because I desired to see the world. In retrospect, I had the good fortune to make visits to 37 different ports of call in 19 countries. Many of these visits were unique and out of the ordinary. All were part of the adventure which made my life interesting. Nancy and I both desired to retire to a small Midwestern college town. Based upon my naval experience, I felt qualified for facility management positions. In 1993 I became Manager Engineering Services of Carle Foundation Hospital, a 300 bed facility in Champaign, Illinois.

In 1998 I was designated Team Leader, Facilities Services at Holy Cross Services Corporation responsible for properties and utility systems for the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Inc. on a 640 acre campus located at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. In 2001, I was appointed Assistant Superintendent, Facilities Management for South Bend Community School Corporation, which included 40 buildings for the 19,000 public school students, kindergarten through 12th grade, of South Bend, Indiana. I retired in 2012. I am an active member of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Still singing after all these years.

John Strauss

On Service Selection Night, I chose Naval Flight Officer since my vision was no longer 20/20.  After graduation in June 1969, flight training and the ensuing 20 years flying with airborne electronic reconnaissance squadrons were tremendous.  I flew both carrier-based fixed wing aircraft and land-based patrol aircraft, primarily the EA-3B Skywarrior and the EP-3E Orion.  The ability to travel and visit foreign countries while flying for the Navy is one of the premier opportunities a Naval Academy education affords. At times, I couldn’t believe I was being paid for what I was doing!  I truly loved my job.  I also served tours of duty in the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Electronic Systems Command (NAVELEX), Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), all working in electronic warfare and signals intelligence.  I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. 

The Naval Academy is really great at instilling those qualities. I also discovered that eating at the dining hall as a plebe was arduous to say the least.  At the time I was playing Battalion Squash when the varsity Gymnastics coach watched me during gym-validation tests. He asked if I had ever competed in Gymnastics, which I hadn’t, but he suggested I check with the plebe coach since he needed more gymnasts.  I discovered that I had a pretty good knack for tumbling and floor exercise (“Free-X”), and was able to letter in Gymnastics all four years at the Academy thanks to great coaching and super-helpful teammates.  The clincher was that as a plebe on a varsity sport, I could eat at Training Tables where the typical plebe dining rules are suspended.   I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences at the Academy except for getting Class-A’d over Army-Navy weekend my first class year. Not only did I get “60 and 6,” but my engagement suffered a tremendous upset, too.  Fortunately, the Emir of Kuwait visited USNA the week after the Army-Navy game and granted amnesty to all offenders with 60 demerits or less. To this day I say the Emir was born a week late.

Terry and Vicky Wanner enjoying steamed crabs  with Vicky’s brother, Gary. (l to r): Gary, Terry, and Vicky

I’ve heard it said that “the Academy looked so good in my rear-view mirror that I always wanted to remember it like that,” or “I wouldn’t turn back to Saturday noon meal.” Obviously, those were spontaneous outbursts, somewhat like Tourette Syndrome exclamations. In actuality, USNA was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

After I retired from the Navy, I got into the habit of eating blue crabs. However, cracking and picking crabs is so slow and tedious, that it’s the only food I know of which you could starve you while you eat them.  My second career (still in electronic surveillance) was as technical support contractor to the program offices that supported the aircraft I flew in. My first wife Cherrie, and my daughter Kris, live in the Washington, DC area and are doing well.  I’m now fully retired and living in southern Maryland with my second wife Vicky, hoping the state won’t turn so blue that I’d be forced to move to Texas. Kris has given us two grandchildren (JW and Chloe) and Vicky brings five grandchildren (Triston, Mya, Travis, Evan, and Linsey), and one great-granddaughter (RayLynn) to the fold.  Triston enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 2019 and will be graduating at the end of April. Oohrah! Vicky and I spend our time vacationing on cruise ships (the only way to go!), gardening, caring for our Shih Tzu and enjoying life in general.  I am active in a local gun club and enjoy shooting rifles and handguns, coin collecting and woodworking.

Terry and Vicky Wanner

Terry Wanner’s primary aircraft (l to r): the EP-3E Orion and the EA-3B Skywarrior.  Terry’s altimeter is set to 69

This diverse group shares one thing in common: they are individuals who I never would have encountered in my earlier life. These interactions--whether 30 seconds, 5 minutes, or 2 hours--invariably leave both parties feeling better in some way: happier, more at peace, more confident, less frustrated, or whatever.  My objective was to be a good natured human being who has a positive and constructive impact on others, and I'm joyful in believing that I have succeeded in this. And, I hope that you are as content at the end of your life as I am blessed to be.

My most recent assignment was with an oil company. When falling energy prices sent them into layoff mode, I survived until the second round, which turned out to be the push I needed to retire and start really living!  While not overtly spiritual, I had been thinking for a decade or so what my real purpose in life was, beyond the traditional call of husband, father, and businessman.  Although I was never outgoing or extroverted, I came to the conclusion that individual human beings were the most important creations in our part of the universe, and that I could make a difference to those with whom I came in contact. The challenge then became making contact with more of them!  Starting gradually, I now volunteer with 4 local theater companies, a major hospital, and a highly respected local charitable organization.  I have never been as fulfilled in all my life!  In these organizations, I am able to interact, not in any authoritative or counseling capacity, but as one regular person simply conversing with another. This has come to include a wide variety of people, including fellow workers, theatergoers, nervous actors, those seeking relief, hospital patients, hospital visitors, etc.

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Baker Smith and two of his four children at ComMineDiv 123 change of command in 1988. (l to r): daughter Elizabeth, Baker, and son Ellis.

USCGC_Hamilton_(WHEC-715)