Shipmate Column
May-June 2024
CLASS OF 1963
Pres: CAPT W. Spencer Johnson IV, USN (Ret.)
Sec'y: Michael H. Shelley
27 Cambridge DR, Brevard, NC 28712
h: 828-506-2201 e: nstar@citcom.net
Web site: http://www.usna63.org.
For any classmate you can go to the Classmates Page and enter his name to read his current biography if available.
We have learned of the recent deaths of four of our classmates and a '63 wife, as noted below. Please take time to visit the Last Call section of our web site to read their obituaries and other information about their lives and careers. Click HERE to visit Last Call.
Emil Mark Schwing passed away on 25 January. Mark's widow, Eileen, may be contacted at 5 De Leon Lane, Ladera Ranch, CA 92694.
Joseph Michael Favor died on 4 February. We do not have contact information for his next of kin.
William Edward Bowen passed away on 8 March. He was predeceased by his wife, Jane, in 2022. We do not have contact information for his next of kin.
Don Richard Hidy died on 8 March. His widow, Katrina, may be contacted at 3500 Nancy Creek Road, Charlotte, NC 28270.
Frank Gregory's widow, "ML" Gregory, died on 13 February. Their daughter, Christie Peitz, may be contacted at 5650 S. Schooner Way, Boise, ID 83716
Phillip Marsden forwarded this remarkable story shared by Karl Kozak.
Gerry Henwood and I became instant friends when we met at Clark-Reliance in 1989 because we were both college eight-oared oarsmen. Gerry was always amazed that I rowed for Navy in the only three-way tie in history. Over 25 years we became like brothers. He recently decided to write the story and it will be published in ROWING NEWS this month, thanks to Andy Anderson who's in the National Rowing Hall of Fame.
Karl shared this text from Henwood's account, titled "Brothers from Different Boats."
I met Karl Kozak at a meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, where we shared the same role in sales management for a company specializing in liquid level measurement for boilers and other industrial vessels. Karl covered the Western United States I covered the Northeast. Karl was a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Class of 1963. I was a Syracuse University Class of 1980. Seventeen years separated us, but the time quickly melted away when we discovered we both were rowers.
| |
Gerry Henwood and Karl Kozak |
It was early in our friendship that Karl announced that he and two other crews won the same race, the Varsity Lightweight Men's Eight in 1962, on Lake Quinsigamond at the Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Massachusetts. Karl was in the "engine room" sitting in #6 seat. Needless to say, I was amazed that a three-way tie took place and impressed that Karl was in one of the boats. As the story goes, the officials were going to do the race over to determine a winner. The athletes challenged a do-over and the rest is history. Three winners were declared.
| |
The Three-Way Tie. From top to bottom the crews are Navy, Cornell, and MIT. Karl is the third oarsman from the left in the Navy boat. |
Upon graduation, Karl qualified for nuclear submarines aboard the USS Sam Rayburn, SSBN-635, patrolling the North Atlantic. He was the first in his class to qualify as Chief Engineer. He was assigned to a Fast Attack Submarine, the USS Sculpin, SSN-590, patrolling the Western Pacific. After finishing his seven-year commitment to the U.S. Navy, he settled in California with his wife, Marirose, to raise their family.
It's a rower thing, I suppose, but he and I call each other by our seat number. I was the bowman of the 1978 Syracuse IRA Champion Varsity Eight, so I became #1. He is #6. It's a rower thing. After 25 years it's more than friendship. We have bonded like brothers.
Our most geographically distant correspondent this month is John Peterson, who sent this email from Indonesia in early March.
I'm checking in from Bali with documentation of a serendipitous meeting with Bill and Jennifer Earner. They were joining the same cruise ship we were debarking. Jeannie and I had arrived from Sydney, and they were taking the next segment to Kobe. We had the same driver because I had given them his name a while back, but we didn't know we were going to be in Bali at the same time. We could have only a quick coffee and the obligatory picture, but it was a chance to catch up until the next time.
|
A chance encounter: Earners and Petersons in Bali |
Jeannie and I have been hosting small groups on select cruises for the past ten years. It's been an incredible gig peaking last year with a world cruise followed a couple months later by a circumnavigation of South America; 240 days onboard ship for the year but definitely not the WESTPAC deployments of yesteryear! When not at sea we still call Pebble Beach home and, with a forty year renovation project ongoing, we have had plenty of distractions from growing old.
Steve Coester spent his career working in positions supporting space flight, including the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. Still living near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, he sometimes conducts personal, unofficial tours there. Here's his report about a recent visit.
Four of our '63 classmates and three other USNA alumni accompanied me at the Kennedy Space Center on 15 February. They learned a lot about the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs and for me it was a great opportunity to reunite with classmates and share our experiences. The visiting 63ers were Dave Puckett, Bruce Webb, Ken Metviner, and Ralph Kimberlin. We were accompanied by Glenn Bacon '77, Chad Acey '89, and Sinthi Acey '90.
Sinthi's life is a remarkable story. She was evacuated from Vietnam in 1975 when she was only nine years old. She lived in near poverty in California but secured an appointment to USNA and had a full naval career. Very impressive!
On a subsequent tour in March as I was leaving the visitor center I suddenly heard "Stop!". I turned around and astronaut Wendy Lawrence in her blue flight suit had seen my USNA63 ball cap. She told me she was class of 1981 and we chatted a bit.
This photo shows our group at KSC. Left to right are me, Bruce, Glenn, Ralph, Ken, Sinthi, Chad, and David.
| |
Touring the Kennedy Space Center |
With the publication of his latest book, "Every Memory a Story," Mike Blackledge has added to the growing number of books by '63 authors. He advocates for each of us to document our family history, and the varied accounts in the book include war stories, family stories, and stories of passion and pursuits. Several of our '63 classmates have contributed one or more chapters to the book, ranging from Plebe Year to business success and life-long enthusiasms. The full table of contents and an order form can be viewed at http://www.BlackledgeBook.org. Members of The Class of 1963 will receive a $10.00 discount.
In a previous column, I reported the publication of Jim De Francia's book, "Saigon Stories," which relates tales from the early 1960's in Vietnam. In March it was announced that the book was ranked by the Independent Press Award as one of the top three military nonfiction books of 2023 and designated a Distinguished Favorite. Congratulations, Jim!
As junior officers, many of us were assigned responsibility for the transport of cryptographic materials. These were routine tasks which had to be accomplished perfectly. Given the sensitivity of the materials we often carried a sidearm. Here are two accounts of quite unusual events from early in our careers, one involving crypto and one being courier service. The first is from Keith Reynolds, who had a startling experience before he even went ashore.
In September 1963, I reported onboard the USS Jenkins (DD-447) in Yokosuka, Japan. Days later we were underway transiting the Sea of Japan enroute to Sasebo, Japan after a brief stop in Hakodate. Once we were tied up in Sasebo, I was responsible to make the Top Secret/Crypto document run to deliver outdated documents and receive new documents. For that task I had a shopping bag sized heavy canvas bag with lock and a 45-caliber sidearm, the Colt M1911.
As I stood by the floor safe, wondering whether it made sense to carry the weapon since I would always be on base, the ship's "Bull Ensign" came up to me. He took my Colt and proceeded to take the two of us into an adjacent officer's stateroom where he sat down at the desk while I stood just to the left of him. He was going to give me a lesson in the weapon's safety features. I was well trained in this but was willing to revisit this important bit of information. After going through the three safety features, he instructed me on how to load a round by pulling back and then releasing the receiver.
This is where things happened so fast that it took several seconds to realize just what happened. When he released the receiver, the gun chambered a live 45-caliber round. He must have assumed the gun wasn't loaded but I knew that it was loaded. Before I could tell him that he had chambered a round he pulled the trigger. In less than a second the bullet went through the webbing of his left hand, through the stateroom's aluminum bulkhead, ricocheted off a steel watertight door 90 degrees to the left, ricocheted off the steel floor safe another 90 degrees to the left, penetrated the same stateroom's bulkhead, hit me square in the solar plexus, and fell to the deck between my feet. It had traveled less than 15 feet. The Bull Ensign's hand was bleeding, the stateroom was filled with the sound and acrid smoke of the discharge. And, most importantly, the weapon was still loaded. While assimilating all that happened, I secured the pistol. By then, several members of the crew who were on the other side of the now dented watertight door arrived and helped out.
What an experience and a lesson that I would see several times over in my career -- that life on board ship is inherently and unforgivingly dangerous. Later, when I asked the Executive Officer if I could have the mangled bullet he said "NO!" making it clear to me that I was one very lucky individual. I agree.
Steve Coester added a story of his experience of being unexpectedly drafted into service as a courier.
Immediately after graduation I headed to McGuire AFB to get a hop to Europe where I was to marry Yvonne in Sweden. I got there and in the lobby were a bunch of midshipmen with orders who had preference over this new Ensign, so I was bumped. The next morning, I was told I could get on a plane as a diplomatic courier to Frankfurt. At the hanger they gave me a .45 pistol and I thought I'd get a handcuffed briefcase, but no, they pointed to a large pile of boxes and bags and said that was my load. I was alone on the plane with my trusty weapon until we landed, not in Frankfurt but in London where they started unloading bunches of stuff. I panicked, saying it was supposed to go to Frankfurt. They told me to get back on the aircraft. Eventually we made it to Frankfurt, and they signed off my papers and took away my gun, so it all worked out. With a few more adventures I made it by train and plane to Stockholm and made it to the church on time.
Brev Moore dipped into his personal records of past years and sent this note about his participation in the world's most famous marathon.
| |
Brev Moore runs in the Boston Marathon |
In doing some clean-up around the house I came across this photo from the Boston Marathon in 1992. I had forgotten that I wore my USNA '63 shirt and cap that day. I qualified for Boston in the Twin Cities Marathon the previous year. I trained hard to qualify, realizing that age was slowly but surely affecting my marathon times and, as you may know, there are qualifying times to enter the Boston race. I figured it was then or never. For the Twin Cities Marathon, I peaked at 75 miles in my final week of training and eased off just before the race. I can hardly believe I ran that much. Over the years of my running career, I ran 20 marathons and numerous other races.
We close this month's column with a photo Phillip Marsden supplied from a recent lunch with some San Diego area '63 classmates. Pictured are Steve Hoy, Lee Cargill, Jerry Harken, Grant Telfer, Phillip, Jim Lasswell, Jay Roberts, and Vern Von Sydow.
That's all for this month. Please check in with me soon. We love seeing your news and photos!
