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Please visit my guest book (Bottom of this page) Also if you have IE3 or later, check out the WSL Coastal Station page for simulated call wheel sounds Welcome friends. Thanks for taking the time to view my homepage and a bit of my life I wish to share with you. This Home Page deals mostly with my career as a Radio Operator in the US Navy and as a Radio Officer in the Merchant Marine of the United States.
View from Radio Room S/T Gulf spray
Sunset in the Coral Sea Presently I am employed as an electronics technician and work on two way radio systems. Due to my job being relegated to obsolescence and just being tired, I decided in 1990 to retire from the U.S. Merchant Marine after 21 years of service with the American Radio Assoc. I began my career in the U.S. Navy. I joined the Navy in September of 1963 and attended boot camp at USNTC Great Lakes, IL. I graduated from boot camp on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. 22 November 1963. That date is doubly etched into my mind.
My first seagoing assignment was the USS Lake Champlain (CVS39) Callsign NTCR, based at Quonset Point, RI. I was assigned to the Communications Department (CR division) for a six month assignment before attending scheduled Radioman "A" school. The ship was the last remaining straight decked aircraft carriers in the Navy. During my tour in this ship we made trips to Bermuda and the Caribbean with some wintry training exercises in Narragansett Bay and off the Virginia Capes. In 1964 I left the Lake Champlain and began radioman "A" school at USNTC Bainbridge MD. Where I learned basic electronics and polished up on my 30 w.p.m. Morse code that I brought with me into the Navy. I departed this class ranking 2nd (after another Radio Amateur), and copying Morse code at 45 w.p.m. I requested and received shore duty in New England. In late 1964 I reported aboard US Naval Submarine Base NLON at Groton, CT. I was at times assigned as an operator at Naval Radio station NBL. Other times I did every other job in the department from swabbing decks to stapling messages, duplication, publication correction, teletype operator, Transmitter watch tech, and Non Commissioned Communications Watch Officer. During this tour at Subase NLON (Submarine Base at NewLondon, CT) I had 2 temporary assignments 1 as radioman on USS ARD-7 a floating dry-dock which was towed from Groton to Brooklyn for a refit. They needed a Radioman for the trip and I volunteered.
Next I jumped at a chance to get a temporary billet on a Submarine. I was assigned to USS Croaker AGSS246 for a period. I think this is one of the most exciting periods of my life. This was an old WWII diesel boat and it took some time getting used to the smells in a old submarine like that with all the diesel, food, tobacco, body, and battery smells mixed together.
Sometime in 1966 I was promoted to Radioman Second Class which was my Rate when I was honorably discharged from the Subase in November 1967. I spent 4 years 2 months and 3 days in the Navy and regret none of it. On that same day in November '67 I proceeded directly to USCG Marine Inspection Office in Boston, MA to get my treasured license as a Radio Officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine, for which I worked so hard gathering all the necessary paperwork pictures letters and FCC license and endorsements.
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