Though my orders were to Adak, I was required to visit the Naval Security Group Command (NAVSECGRUCOM) 40 Department on Nebraska Avenue in Washington, DC, prior to departing for Adak. I had to go twice.
I spent nearly two hours in the morning and again in the afternoon traveling between FT Meade and NAVSECGRUCOM. I dreaded the thought of an assignment here and facing the daily drive.
While visiting, I learned a lieutenant in the 40 Department met the requirements to go to Adak, but his department head prevented it. So, the detailer went down the list to me… short-touring me. The typical tour at NSA was three years for enlisted and for officers. I was completing two years there as an officer, so being given orders now met the definition of a short tour.
The 40 Department Staff briefed me that I would fly to Adak, relieve the Electronic Material Officer (EMO), and then report to Naval Security Group Activity, Skaggs Island, California, to attend an (EMO) conference. I had to report in early October to meet this requirement.
I flew to Elmendorf, Alaska, where I changed to a Reeve Aleutian Airlines plane. Reeve served many locations in Alaska and was known for their bush pilots. The flight landed in Adak in the early afternoon. The lieutenant I was relieving met me, and we spent the rest of the day touring the base, meeting the Commanding Officer, and discussing other job-related things.
The next flight from Adak took me to Elmendorf, where I transferred to a flight to San Francisco, California. There, I rented a car at the airport and drove to the Skaggs Island site to attend the EMO conference.
Before I left home for Adak, Lori and I planned for her to join me in California. While I met with my counterparts at the conference, she toured Napa Valley wineries with some of her cousins and did other things I don’t remember. One day near the end of the conference, Lori and I visited San Francisco, saw the sights, and rode the cable cars. The conference finished, and Lori headed home while I returned to Adak.
Back on the island, I began learning about my department. A Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO) ran the office, assisted by Petty Officer (PO) Third Class from the Administrative Department. The department had three divisions, two led by Chief Petty Officers (CPO) and one by a PO First Class. I had fifty-five men and women out of sixty-three billets. Later in the tour, I found that eighty-seven percent of manning caused a problem later in the tour.
When I took over the department, there were qualified technicians working days and staffed the watch sections. Things remained stable until eight of the female Petty Officers became pregnant. Medical gave them limited duty “chits.” There were limits on what they could lift, how long they could stand, and what hours they could work. This disrupted watch section personnel assignments and made allowing leave or days off a problem. It required some innovative personnel assignments, but we met the women’s and operation’s needs.
Being on an unaccompanied tour, they assigned me a room in the Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ). I settled into my room, unpacking and setting up my Amiga computer, which I used to play games and write programs with the C and FORTRAN language compilers I brought. What programs I wrote are a mystery (time dulls the memory), but it kept me from complete boredom.
Anyone who read the previous sections knows I have never been away from the family for long. The longest was on transfers. I went first to Iceland, Pensacola, and Panama. In each case, Lori came after I had housing for the family.
Though intended to be eighteen consecutive months apart, it turned out there was a project that had me return to Washington, DC, several times, and I could combine them with leave. The first meeting was in December 1987, and I took leave injunction and was home for Christmas. Over the eighteen months, I got three free trips home, making life easier for the family and me.
The major military construction project moved operations from the Zeto Point building to a mountain slope site. The meetings I mentioned were to coordinate between the site and NAVSECGRUCOM. An operations officer and I, representing the site, gave the status of our preparations for the move, and our hosts told us about their preparations.
The preparations made on and off the island resulted in a smooth transition to the new location. The weather cooperated with low-velocity winds when we moved the antennas and their large antenna domes. Their move was one thing we were most concerned about. The rest of the equipment de-installation and subsequent reinstallation went smoothly. The operations and management staff received letters of commendation for completing the move and returning to operations thirty days earlier than planned. Unfortunately, we found out later that we missed an important item.
A heavy rain kept me in my room until I got a frantic call from the Classic Wizard division officer. She called to tell me that my technicians were powering down the equipment and shutting off power to the building. There were inches of water under the raised flooring the equipment sat on, and a danger of reaching the underfloor power distribution boxes.
We had installed the antennas on the mountainside above the building and the cable antenna team placed the cables from the antennas into trenches and ducting. Our public works dug the trenches directly to the building, creating a sluice for the rainwater to reach and enter the building. Our public works department took several days to create a breakwater and dig trenches to redirect water away from the building. While they worked, we pumped out the flood water. It took several days to get back in operation.
My first interaction with my Commanding Officer (CO), a Navy captain, came a few days after I returned from the EMO conference. He visited each department for a weekly brief. I was touring the building when my administrative assistant found me and told me the CO was waiting in my office. I was late for an appointment with the CO.
So I returned to my office and apologized for not being there when he arrived. I settled and asked how I could help him. The Captain reminded me I should read the Plan of the Week, and I would know when he would visit. I remained outwardly calm, but I suspect my face was red. Inside, my stomach was roiling, full of all manner of insects.
Unprepared to brief my department’s status, I asked for a moment. I used that moment to bring my Department Senior Chief into the office and directed him to brief the CO. I learned the status of my department as he informed the Captain.
Before the CO left, he complimented me for not trying to bluff my way through. His last comment was to tell me this was my department, and I was to run it as I saw fit. The only proviso was operations must be our primary focus.
The Captain never came to my office for another briefing. Apparently, he was happy with how I ran the department and never felt a need to.
My first staff meeting was fun for me. I brought in the department SCPO, and the CPOs in charge of three divisions. Each of them briefed the happenings in their division related to personnel and equipment status. After they finished, I watched them as I told them how I intended to run the department.
I am not a micromanager. I told the division CPOs that they ran their divisions. They would ensure their people did their best to keep equipment running and operations happy. Then, I floored them when I said they had the authority to grant time off to their personnel, even to grant three-day passes. I saw the confusion on several faces before the department SCPO questioned his hearing.
It seemed only my predecessor could grant time off. I told them to manage their personnel, their schedules, and their personnel’s time off. Don’t abuse it, and they will continue to have this authority.
Some things that happened tested my confidence, making me wonder if I should have retired instead of taking the commission.
Lord knows I am basically a people person. I avoided real personnel issues during my enlisted time for over nineteen years. The officers above me dealt with them except when I was department head in Panama, I had no personnel issues there. Now, I was the officer who had to deal with personnel issues.
I was on Adak for less than two weeks when someone knocked, waking me. The visitor was a security person asking me to come to the quarterdeck. There, I learned from the duty officer that one of my female Third Class Petty Officers (PO) attempted suicide.
She had walked into the lagoon, intending to drown. The medical staff took her to the hospital for evaluation before sending her to Elmendorf. I never met the woman and never got a replacement to fill the vacancy she caused.
The Classic Wizard CPO came one day with a personnel issue he couldn’t solve. Much like when I was a CPO, he wanted the officer, me, to handle it. The problem was a Second Class Petty Officer with orders to Japan who refused to be tested for HIV. In 1988, the Navy required the test for one to serve in Japan. The PO claimed a religious exemption, but only for this test. He accepted other vaccinations and blood tests without complaint.
I directed the CPO to order the PO to have the test, and if he refused to “write him up” for refusing a direct order. So, the stubborn PO faced Captain’s Mast for refusing the order. As his Department Head, I counseled him to ensure he understood the ramifications of refusing the test. After that interview, I provided the Captain with my recommendation for punishment fitting for the offense. Thankfully, the PO changed his mind and took the HIV test, and he avoided Captain’s Mast.
Another time, the officer in charge of the command security department notified me base security had arrested one of my POs on a driving under the influence (DUI) charge. Well, my CO had no tolerance for anyone DUI. Those caught faced a Captain’s Mast and punishments, including a reduction in rank and a hefty fine.
I faced a dilemma. The PO was going to Captain’s Mast, and I had to provide a recommendation for punishment. What should I recommend?
The man was a third-class PO who had taken the promotion exam and was waiting for the results. He would receive orders to a base in Puerto Rico near his home if he passed the test and was selected for promotion.
The investigator’s report said he drove himself and some friends to the club on the main base. One of his friends was the designated driver who would drive his car back to the barracks. However, the designated driver and other friends found another ride back, leaving the PO several miles from the barracks with a car he shouldn’t drive. Prudence said don’t drive, but he did, and Military Police pulled him over. He received a ticket for driving under the influence of alcohol. The report also reported that the PO attended college classes twice weekly and drove to class.
I asked the man’s division officer for his thoughts. He spoke highly of the PO, calling him one of his best technicians. I checked, and the man’s evaluations reflected his professionalism and technical ability.
So, I debated what to recommend in my input to the Captain’s Mast. If the man suffered a reduction in rank, it would cost him the orders home. Restriction to barracks would prevent him from attending classes, while the loss of pay would hurt.
Finally, after much soul-searching, I sent my recommendation to the Captain and worried about what the Captain would think of it.
At the Captain’s Mast, the PO received a lecture outlining the Captain’s feelings about DUI and the punishments he gave to others. Then, the Captain told the man my firm support for the defendant as the reason the man received the punishments he did now.
He didn’t reduce his rate but took one-half month’s pay for two months. The CO also restricted him to barracks for thirty days, but allowed the man to drive to college classes. I felt pride when I realized the captain had accepted my recommendations. This saga ended when the man was promoted and received orders to Puerto Rico.
Adak is an island in the Aleutians. Besides a military base, half the island was, and still is, an animal refuge.
The Navy stationed a squadron of P-3 Orion aircraft on the island, which conducted anti-submarine patrols in nearby and further waters. The immediate area around the only airport on the island contained housing for dependents, barracks for the unaccompanied, the officer and enlisted clubs, the Navy Exchange, a personnel office, and other facilities making up a Naval Air Facility.
I lived in the Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) “downtown,” which referred to the Air Facilities area. My transportation on the island was a red Cherokee that I shipped from home. The four-wheel capability proved helpful after each snowfall. I remember getting stuck only once at the operations building. I pulled through a pile of snow covering my parking place. When I went to leave, I learned I couldn’t. Unfortunately, the Jeep was on a patch of ice, and the snowbank slightly lifted the Jeep, taking away the traction needed to pull itself off the snowbank. Thankfully, it was watch change, and several enlisted sailors helped push me out.
Coming from the BOQ, I had to go up a steep hill to get to work. It wasn’t usually a problem, but occasionally, it became snow and ice-covered. Then, there was an agreed-upon process the commuters used. We would line up a safe distance from the bottom of the hill and let one vehicle attempt climbing the hill. Four-wheel and all-wheel vehicles often made it by going slowly in low gear. My jeep always made the hill, LOL, but many other cars ended up parked out of the way at the bottom of the hill, and their driver caught a ride to work.
The time came to transfer, and I had to arrange the shipment of my car and personal effects. I neared an intersection after a recent storm and found the Jeep skidded on the ice when I braked. Complicating things, there was a car coming on the crossroad. I feared not stopping in time and that we would collide. I had nothing to lose, so I stopped trying to brake. To my surprise, the Jeep gained traction, and I steered behind the car as it crossed in front of me. I had avoided the accident and later scheduled the shipments.
Bowling and working on my computer were my primary entertainment. I joined a league for a night out. Usually, when not making unscheduled evening or night visits to my work centers, I worked on developing a program to keep bowling stats.
My department had a cabin for social events. The division officers could reserve it for parties or cookouts. Whenever one scheduled such, I felt obligated to stop in for “morale” purposes. I routinely stayed only long enough to have my favorite drink, Coca-Cola. Leaving kept me from seeing things that were better not seen by a department head.
An interesting fact about Adak is the number of eagles there. There was rarely a time when there weren’t several around the dumpsters behind the barracks and mess hall. Too often, they found something to scavenge from bags left outside the dumpsters.
I haven’t mentioned the fishing. The Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) department had an ocean-going boat and scheduled deep-water fishing trips. Several of my sailors went on fishing trips and returned with their catch, usually cod fish. The catch was such that we had a department fish fry at the cabin. I have to admit that I stuffed myself with beer-battered fish every chance I got.
There was more fishing during the salmon run each year. People, even those who didn’t fish, would go to the river to watch the salmon struggling upriver. We heard, “Did you see that?” when an eagle snatched a salmon from the river and flew off with it. I am not a salmon lover and never attended a department salmon party.
Previously, I mentioned the EMO conference in California, but I failed to relate how attending the conference led to my next assignment.
One instructor working for me when I was a course manager in Pensacola, Florida, was at the conference. She was also a Chief Warrant Officer and had orders to Naval Security Group Activity, Potomac.
I had just learned from the detailer who was also there that my next assignment was to the 40 Department at NAVSECGRUCOM. I wasn’t happy about these orders because of the travel time to and from my home.
The Chief Warrant approached me one day and asked if I would be interested in exchanging orders. She wanted to serve with her husband at NAVSECGRUCOM. I saw the benefit to them and had no reason for refusing, and the detailer changed our orders as we requested.
NAVSECGRUACT, Potomac, was on the Naval Research Laboratory campus. The drive to it was easier and quicker than the one to headquarters, so I made out. I will relate other benefits gained by exchanging orders.
March 1989 came, and I boarded the “Freedom Flight,” so called because I was leaving the island for the last time. The flight included a stop on Shemya Island before continuing to Elmendorf. Shemya Island is farther from mainland Alaska and closer to Russia than Adak.
I sat in the first row, directly across from the stewardess, on takeoff and landing. Nearing Shemya, the stewardess took her seat as we prepared to land. Then, the co-pilot leaned out and told her the weather on Shemya was low ceiling with crosswinds and the runway was icy. He finished by telling her we would still land.
I am not a great fan of flying and hearing this didn’t increase my appreciation for it. Well, my writing this shows I, we, survived the landing. I will say the pilots showed great skill as they turned the plane into the crosswind as we touched down and slowed while keeping us on the icy landing strip. Most impressive was we stopped next to the terminal. Landing in these conditions was likely one reason Reeve hired bush pilots.
I would prefer to tell that the rest of the trip home was without incident, but can’t. We arrived in Elmendorf, and I went to make my connection only to learn they had canceled the flight because no planes had arrived from the States. The weather had closed several airports in Washington State and Illinois. My “freedom flight” flew, but I was still stuck in Alaska for a day or so.
My plane finally arrived, and I left Alaska, never to return. So, the next segment of my life experience was at the Naval Security Group Activity, Potomac, Washington, District of Columbia.