Sagas, Epiphanies, and Anecdotes: Sea Stories of the Class of 1957, U.S. Naval Academy Compiled by Bill Hamel ‘57 Introduction Our Class has published, in the summer of 2007, a wonderful book of memories called The First 50 , edited by Fred Howe. We included in this book a 20-page section entitled “Class History”. Not a real history, it was intended instead to be a collection of stories gathered from our classmates and presented in our historical context. In early 2004 we put out our first call to all hands, to write up and submit stories about their experiences. As we said in our rather unspecific “Guidelines for Class History Inputs”: “So should you or any other classmate wish to submit a personal input to the class history section, presenting interesting anecdotes, adventures, comedies, epiphanies, struggles, achievements, or reactions to the one-list, such inputs are welcome and are solicited. “Basically we are asking for Interesting Stories which we can integrate into a history section which will be informative and enjoyable reading for our classmates and their families.” Your response was gratifying. You sent in many stories, varying widely in tone, nature, size, and age – some 200-odd pages of them. If you have seen The First 50 you know that the Class History section is not very extensive – our bios take up most of the book, as they must and should. Thus we had to leave a lot of stories out, and had to condense/edit many that were used. As a result we were left with a collection of priceless stories, unpublished in our book, which might go nowhere and never see the light of day. This CD is our attempt to preserve and make available all the wonderful stories you have sent in for this project, uncut and unedited. Reader Guide All the stories have been reformatted into this single PDF (Acrobat Reader) document. They are arranged in alphabetical order of the contributors’ surnames. 1 The contributors’ names, large bold-face font, precede the story or stories they contributed. The contributors’ company in the Brigade of 1957 follows his name. To find any word in this document quickly, be it a person’s name, a company, a ship, or whatever – use the Acrobat Reader “Find” function: A “Find” window appears at the top of the window. Enter the word/name/number or whatever you seek. When you have entered the target word/number/name, left-click on the menu pull down arrow next to the window in which you typed your query. Select the menu item “Find Next in Current PDF”. Voilá! You will be there. If the target word appears in the document more than once, just repeat the “Find Next in Current PDF” until you find the one you’re looking for. Alternatively, you can just browse by scrolling through the document. This CD is a read-only, so you will not be able to make any changes to this document. Of course, you can cut and paste any of it into your own document, and you can print any or this entire document on your computer’s printer. Please be aware, however, that this document and these stories are published to you, members of the Class of 1957, USNA, and your families and friends solely for your or their personal use and enjoyment. None of this should be reproduced elsewhere or for any other purpose without the written permission of the Association of the Class of 1957 of the U.S. Naval Academy, or of the individual authors. 2 And Now the Stories Gary Alkire – 9 th Company I considered myself fortunate and honored to enter the Naval Academy. Attendance there had been a goal through high school – the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Poly provided strong foundations in the sciences, engineering, and the humanities. And, maybe more important, the school instilled study habits and discipline for daily living. Over the years there had been a special relationship between Poly and the Academy; in our time several dozen members of the Brigade were from Poly. Growing up I read everything I could find about the Navy – especially during World War II. When graduation from the Academy came near my preference was to enter the Navy Civil Engineering Corps; the Navy’s preference was Navy Line. I was pulled to engineering because of my experience at Poly combined with summer work with an engineering firm. The Air Force had a need for civil engineers because of many construction requirements generated by the Cold War… So the pull to an engineering profession overtook a call to the Navy. My professional career was greatly influenced by and seemed to involve some of the Cold War … and the sometimes not so Cold War. My first assignment after the Academy in 1957 was at Warren AFB, Wyoming. We rebuilt a historic base, dating back to the Indian Wars of the late 1800’s, to support the first operational intercontinental missile wing in the Air Force. It was great work for a lieutenant learning his way. In France, now 1963, at Toul Rosieres AB, we built the unique facilities for a new reconnaissance airplane, the RF4C, on the way to Europe. The base was one of many NATO had just finished building for Canadian, British, French, and US Air Forces in response to the Iron Curtin. The assignment to Vietnam, in 1970, was different; continuing the work begun by others to build a system of highways for the Vietnamese commerce and military movements. Moving on to England AFB, Louisiana, in 1971; the base changed aircraft twice in the two years that we were there, reflecting the turmoil of the end of the Vietnam War. A wing of new close air support aircraft replaced training of Vietnamese pilots and crew. At the Air Force headquarters in Europe in the mid 1970’s, I oversaw Air Force engineering operations in NATO countries, from Norway in the north to Turkey in the south. It was during this time that the great buildup of readiness 3 construction began, primarily facilities designed to resist bomb damage – aircraft shelters and maintenance facilities. In the early 1980’s, from a base in Ohio, we managed construction funded by foreign nations – Saudi Arabia and Egypt at the time. We built the bases in Saudi Arabia ultimately used by the Allies during the war in Iraq in the early 1990’s. Mixing these assignments with three tours in the Pentagon and several tours at major commands rounded out a busy engineering career. My final Air Force job starting in 1984 and lasting until 1989, was to lead the Air Force Commissary Service, a major grocery chain … completely different and a lot of fun … supporting military personnel and their families with US food products wherever assigned. We operated 150 stores from Korea, through the United States to Turkey. It was a very rewarding experience for both my wife and I. Most of the military programs and bases are gone now that the Cold War has been won; many of the bases closed. Through these assignments it was always clear that it was the people that make the difference. Those relationships provide lasting memories for both Ellen and I. One day our grandchildren, who we surely hope enjoy a more peaceful life, may ask about this career … what did we do … what memories linger? Ellen and I will think for a moment and tell the story of our 1989 visit to Berlin. We will tell our grandchildren of the great world war and the division of nations by the victors who could not agree on how to win the peace because of the differences of how people should be governed. And so Germany was divided between the west that believed in freedom and the east where people were wards of the state. And a wall, the Berlin Wall, was built between the people separating friends and family and ideologies. Our visit occurred by chance the week after the Berlin Wall opened in November 1989 and on that visit we clearly felt the true meaning of freedom … a concept we in this country have tended to take for granted because it is such a basic concept imbedded in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. On that trip in 1989 we heard and understood the sound of freedom in many ways. We left Frankfurt Germany one evening on the American troop train; a train that had traveled from Frankfurt, Germany to West Berlin each evening since the Wall was built. The purpose of the train … and it was one of three; the other being a British and French … was to maintain US right of entry into West Berlin. 4 But the weekend before our visit, the wall had opened and people behind the Iron Curtain were free to visit the West. For many, it was the first time in their life ... a trip for some of only a few feet, for the wall had kept families and friends separate for so many years. Our train took most of the night to travel the 100 miles or so, because we kept being placed on a side track to clear the way for trains filled with East Germans, Polish, and others traveling to the West. I don’t thing we got any sleep that night because we were busy returning the waves and cheers from those on those freedom trains to the west; each window open and full of people celebrating freedom. In West Berlin, we visited the graves of the many that had tried to swim to freedom, or hide under a truck, or dig a tunnel.