Military Service

 

Torpedoman's Mate Second Class - TM2 (SS)

United States Naval Submarine Service - "The Silent Service"

                  

"Run Silent - Run Deep"

            Like many of my generation, the Vietnam Era defined who we would become as men and loyal citizens of these great United States of America.

            Like many of my peers, I dropped out of college in my Junior Year and joined the Navy, eventually volunteering for and being accepted into the Navy's Submarine School at Subbase - New London.

            After Sub School I was assigned to a nuclear-powered Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine (FBM) where I earned my "Dolphins" and completed five (5) Polaris Deterrent Patrols over the next two and a half years.

            Then I was transferred to an old-World War II vintage diesel-powered "fleet boat" where I completed the last year of my four-year enlistment.

 

In the Forward Torpedo Room as a 3^rd Class Petty Officer. (I had made 2^nd Class (E-5) but
because of my recent transfer and our operational status, the orders had not yet caught up with me.)

 

            Among my collateral duties, I served as the Small Arms Petty Officer aboard both submarines for which I received a Captain's Commendation.

Topside Watch - Holy Loch, Scottland

 

JOINING THE NRA

            Although I have very vivid memories of The American Rifleman magazine laying next to my father's chair at home, it was not until I reported aboard that old diesel boat that I actually joined the NRA. The Chief of the Boat, the senior enlisted man aboard, had been a member of the US Navy Pistol Team and was an avid NRA member. He "encouraged" all of us to join the NRA and the ship's gun club, my first all-NRA club.

            "A gun club on a submarine?" you ask? Yes, and we had a great time shooting skeet and trap in various ports of call such as Rota, Spain and Naples, Italy.

 

Remembering and Serving Those Who Have Served

            Years later when I was NRA's 59^th President, I was responsible for creating both the NRA's Military and Veteran's Affairs Committee to better serve the needs of both active duty and former members of the United States Military, and the NRA's Disabled Shooting Committee which was originally created specifically to serve our disabled veterans from all wars, but especially the wars then raging in the Middle East.

 

Veteran's Organizations

American Legion Fox Post #2

Chapter 850 Vietnam Veterans of America (Era Member)

Mid-Atlantic Base Submarine Veterans

United States Submarine Veterans

 

NOTE TO READERS

 

            If you are interested in learning what the "Silent Service" was doing during the Vietnam Era and the so-called "Cold War" in addition to serving as a nuclear deterrent force and supporting America's fledgling "Spec Ops Community", I recommend reading a book by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Drew called Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.