Why I joined and made the Navy my career.

Me in my Navy Blues, after Boot Camp

Observing Veterans Day stirs a bit of Patriotism. Technically I am a veteran however, to my knowledge, I was never in danger of some one looking to kill me but then that is not a part of the definition of Veteran. I joined the US Navy on 10 October 1957, retiring as an Electronics Technician Senior Chief (Submarine Qualified) 20 years 2 months and 5 days later on 15 December 1977. After boot camp and ET school my service started as shore duty at the Sub Base Groton, Connecticut and finished with a patrol on the USS Sam Houston SSBN 609 Gold Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine based in Hawaii. I served the Submarine fleet the whole time plus another 11 years as a defense contractor.

The thing that is bothering me today is that my joining the Navy was never a thing of “In defense of my country” or other patriotism which is the appearance of all the lauding of military personnel today. With just a high school diploma I did not see much of an alternative. It was a way to get a good trade. VA school benefits were vaguely a possibility but …nah! I was not sure I had what it takes. School required work. It required hard work and setting goals and that was not really my thing. I was in the go along to get along mode and did not have any plans for the future. In retrospect I now feel patriotic about my service.  Growing up if I needed money I went to my father and petitioned him to fund what ever I wanted or worked to earn my own way. Often the answer was “We cannot afford it.” That phrase gave me a false impression that College was not a possibility in my life. Besides, my grades were not very impressive. Mom and Dad arranged for a tutor because my math grades were weak and I was in danger of not passing for the year. I do not ever remember Mom or Dad assisting me with my home work except to inquire about it occasionally. There was kind of a blasé attitude about school and goals etc. I didn’t know that mother went to college and Dad never discussed his education efforts. It just was never mentioned.

Bleacher Crowd (GREASE)

I would begin the school year doing well but motivation tapered off after a few months and my association with the “Bleacher Crowd” was not real motivating. The bleacher crowd was those portrayed by John Travolta et al in the movie Grease. It was also the only place on campus where you could indulge in my habit of smoking at the time. Very few of the kids headed for college hung out there. I even wore a black motorcycle jacket. Realize that this is 20/20 hind sight and trying to be brutally honest. I also do not remember either Mom or Dad asking about my friends except after I joined the Navy and then they liked Dick McNeely whom I brought home often.

USS Nautilus Launch
at Electric Boat

Because of the “we cannot afford it” attitude and more significantly never a mention of college as a goal, I settled on joining the Navy. I was working as a salesman of women’s shoes at Reid & Hughes department store in downtown Norwich. Fitting women for a pair of shoes got me a view of some interesting legs but there was no future there. The main employment in the area was at Electric Boat 15 miles away in Groton. EB was the premier builder of submarines in the World. I could go there and get a job but I had no training other than my High School Diploma and I figured that didn’t really qualify me for anything exciting. They probably would train me in something but that was not even interesting to me. There also was Pratt & Whitney in Manchester, Connecticut where they build jet engines but that was 45 miles away and again I had no training.

Norwich Post Office

Norwich Free Academy

My military service intentions began with visiting the recruiting offices out of curiosity as a teenager. Their offices were at the opposite end of the hall from my father’s office in the basement of the Norwich, Connecticut post office. I would stop by to see Dad on the way home from Norwich Free Academy which was across town from our home.

I checked out the different services and determined that the Navy had the best training to offer me. Besides that, walking long distances, carrying a heavy pack and a rifle and then trying to shoot someone else did not appeal to me. I definitely was not a jock. That kind of war was a bit too personal for me and the chances of me getting shot did not impress me. That eliminated the Army and Marines. The Air Force training seemed to me to be too job specific in that what you became trained on became your job. IF you trained to be a B57 tire changer that basically was your career. The Navy training seemed to be much broader. A Navy ET had many more options from working on all kinds of communications equipment to working on the different ships radars making it much more interesting to me.

Bank Street, New London, CT

I really did not have a clue as to what day to day life as an enlisted man was like. I did not realize that the junior enlisted guy was the guy that washed dishes, swabbed the decks, and all that other unattractive grunt work like cleaning the toilets. Being brought up 12 miles from the Sub Base in Groton, Connecticut also had little to do with the decision. I never interfaced with the base or the sailors except to be aware of the seedy reputation of Bank Street, New London with its tattoo parlors and bars (They were cleaned up in the early 60s as urban renewal.)

I did get a tattoo at age 16 but that is another story. “Join the Navy, See the world” did have appeal. I knew a guy who had enlisted and gone to Japan on a carrier and he regaled me with stories of his adventures ashore. That did have an influence. Being on my own to indulge in those storied liberties in foreign exotic ports was enticing. Being 18 and having raging hormones also had a part in the decision.

My re-enlistment ceremony

I realize now that I never involved my parents in the decision process to join the Navy. I wish I had. My dad embarrassed me at my last re-enlistment ceremony. I thought he and Mom would be impressed with a re-enlistment ceremony so I invited them to witness the ceremony. During conversation with my CO Dad told him that they had always hoped that I would go to college. Frankly I do not ever remember college being mentioned as I was growing up. I realize now that if I wanted my kids to go to college that I should have started when they were small and even then establishing savings accounts tagged for school. Start discussing college early in life. If it is expected it has a much greater chance of happening. I will pass this on to my children as they interact with their children. I did go to college but it took me 10 years to get a BS and my grades reflected that it was not my first priority in life. But it does indicate that I could set and attain a significant goal in life. No one has ever asked for my GPA (2.54 but that too is another story)

I do not regret the decision to enlist but it could have been much different if I had gone to college. My earnings would have been better, my life in the Navy much different. An enlisted man is a second class citizen, there to do the bidding of the officers. The officers do the planning, and make the decisions. The enlisted carry them out under the direction of the senior enlisted who are the supervisors of the military. By necessity senior NCOs do make on the spot decisions but are little involved in the long range planning and especially in the tactical military planning. That is a significant difference.

Navy Dolpins welcome
you at Sub Base

I took the Navy entrance exam three times, the first time was as a lark at age 14 and the second as a practice about 6 months prior to the real one just before enlisting. I passed it the first time but the third time I really scored high which qualified me for any basic school that I wanted. One big thing this did was to get me out of the basic enlisted grunt stuff of mess cooking (washing dishes/peeling potatoes) and other grunt work. I looked through the ratings book and decided that Electronics Technician the best kind of schooling that would be marketable when I got out in 4 years, so when I enlisted it was as Electronics Field Seaman Recruit which guaranteed me a school in that field. So right after boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training center I went right back there for ET school.

During Boot camp I got separated from my company and approached an officer to ask if he knew where they were. He chewed my butt for daring to speak to an officer. That formulated an opinion of officers that tainted my naval experience until after I joined the Church and got to know some officers. They were human and not a......s (the nice word is jerks). Because of that I did not take advantage of the enlisted to officer programs that were available. Oh Well. Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda. Spit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first.

Aerial View of Naval (Submarine) Base in Groton, CT

Barracks at Groton Sub Base

 My first duty was shore duty at the Sub Base and I lived in a barracks. I was in a room shared with 30 other guys and there was a community bathroom that all on the floor shared. The life style was ok as I got 3 square meals a day, a bunk, a blanket and a locker to lock up my personal stuff. But privacy was something for the Navy in the future. When I got transferred to the Fulton I slept in a compartment with racks 3 high with over 100 other guys. Again no privacy! The bathrooms there were much more cramped than the barracks but adequate. Because it was a ship that did get underway there were no provisions for housing for junior enlisted. Married guys did have a dependants allowance and could get Comrats (commuter rations, a stipend to cover meals not eaten on the ship). Some of the younger single sailors did get together and establish civilian apartments ashore. Four of us guys did establish an apartment downtown New London over a store that was a dive shop in the summer and a gun shop in the winter and that is another story.

The USS Fulton
a sub "Tender" boat I served on

I had planned on just staying for just four years and even had a short timer’s chain of beads that represented the days left until I got out. However, on 13 August 1961 the Berlin wall went up and the Navy told me that I was in for the duration of the Crisis plus six months. I was on the USS Fulton AS-11 a submarine tender fixing and calibrating nuclear test equipment. I was bored with that work and IF I stayed in the Navy I was due for a transfer. One day the division officer mentioned that they wanted two guys to go to Virginia for a school I jumped on it. I knew nothing more than the school was NDT62-5 and was for about seven months long. No other description however, it got me off the tender! But it required shipping over for at least four more years. But I got even with President Kennedy and shipped over in the STAR program for six years receiving a guarantee for a Class C school. That is a school of at least six months in duration and this school in Virginia qualified. This decision made me a lifer. I had crossed a bridge and could never go back. The Navy became a job, a career, a means to a retirement check.

NAVDAC training in
Virginia Class C school

This school in Virginia was great. The prep school taught me the basic building blocks of computers, how it worked at the component level. I was having fun! Prep school prepared students for four different tracks of school and I started training on the NAVigation Data Assimilation Computer (NAVDAC). As I was taking the first exam the instructor held up the answer card. It had little punched holes in it so he could grade the answer card. I could see the first four answers were not what I thought the answers were so I went back over the questions. I had jumped on distractors that were close to the correct answer but not quite right. I changed my answers and because of that got an 85 on that first exam. The next closest student got a 65. I found that I was smart! I could learn this stuff! I started spending more time studying. I graduated first in class on that computer. But, I carried that grade over into the next computer class which graded a little less severely but we got a new guy in and he scored a little lower than I did but not having the lower average I had from the first computer class his composite was higher than mine and he came in first and I came in second. But I had proven to myself that I could handle advanced learning.

Me with Mike and Aaron in Hawaii

The Navy way of life was fun, for the first 14 years. But then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came into my life. I soon realized that the two ways of life were incompatible and that living the life of a “sailor” was not for me. I still had two years to go on that enlistment and then it was only four more years after that to earn the retirement so I stayed. The separations from my family really wore on my marriages and played a part in two divorces. Again with 20/20 hindsight if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, it would have been much different.

Looking back on my experience as a member of the crew of a Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine I realized that if we did fire missiles that two things had happened. First, home probably was no longer there as the base where I lived was a target for the bad guys. Second was that when we started shooting off missiles we instantly became the target and our survival was probably nil. Our real mission was to be the deterrent in the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) world policy at that time and if we did fire we had failed our mission.. The movie “On the Beach” would possibly be an ending.

Lessons learned: (Not in any special order)

1. Set goals that are high enough to require one to stretch oneself outside of your comfort zone. Do it while you are young as it gets much harder to accomplish later and you have a lot fewer distractions such as family and job.
2. Live your life in the today. Do not save that fancy shirt or suit for later or it will only adorn your corpse. Enjoy the good things of life. Fill it with Joy (which is much different than fun). Work your Bucket list!
3. Do good every day. There is a life after death and what we do today will enhance that life tomorrow. We will have to account for how we live our life.
4. Be a good parent/spouse. Your material accomplishments are only for this life. You need to prepare for Eternity. As I now say about my missionary service, “The pay is peanuts but the retirement plan is Heavenly.”
5. Listen to your parents. They have experiences that have shaped them with wisdom but are not infallible. Remember that they love and care about you. Use them as an input to your decision making process but make it your decision. Always involve your Heavenly Father in your decisions.
6. It ain’t over til it’s over. Repentance is a process not an instance. There is very little in your life that cannot be repented of or changed. However, that said, small sins require small repentance and large sins get much more involved. It really is much better to live a Christ like life as much as possible. BUT, He did pay the price for you and you CAN repent. Remember life always has consequences.
7. Choose your associates wisely. You learn from your associates, and you will marry some one that you date. Choosing good quality people to associate with or date can improve you. I was once told “Choose your mate carefully. Select some one that you to not have to pull up because if you have to pull someone up they just might pull you down.

family

I am getting old and cannot do what I used to do. In fact it takes all day to do what I used to do all day.
Back in April Marilyn and I visited Michael and family in Palm Coast, Fl. It was a great two weeks but I mainly sat around the house and read a book. The main exciting thing was to baptize Mike. We also got to shoot a couple of his guns and created a yen to own one for me. Oh Well it is too expensive.

Mike has done a turnaround on me. I had a sprinkler head break and flood out the basement and then the sprinklers were left on and it flooded again. Well the Adjuster was marveled at our immediate attempts to abate the damage and was generous in his adjustment. Mike came from Florida and has been installing tile in the basement and it looks great. Marilyn and the girls and I will finish up the job but the tiling is just beyond us. We have the basement about 2/3 completed and Mike extended his stay to assist. I will take some pictures and will post them in a couple of days. I had no idea what went into the job and am amazed at what quality work that he has done. Nathan, his son, came out Sunday morning and he is helping too.

So the real thing is family. These children of mine are serving me in my near dotage. I will be forever grateful to Michael and Nathan for their kindness in helping us.

We were in a family counseling situation and was told by the counselor that Michael really loves me. I am truly grateful for that love and assistance. I could not have done it my self and was told that the quality of work would have at least 50% less. We will paint and wainscot to finish it up and maybe the girls will assist in that but.

I am so grateful for the assistance.

I absolutely love my family, my wife, my children and my grandchildren. I am a very lucky man.

The Walter Augustus Hale Chldren

The Walter Augustus Hale Children

From right to left and in order of age, is Amy Eliza Hale Golder born 8 March 1888. Amy is the daughter of Walter and Lillian Eliza Burnap. The story is told that Amy and Walter came down with Typhoid fever and Lillian nursed them through the sickness and then contracted it her self and consequently died. Another story is that Amy was in the congregation of Arthur Lee Golder and was well liked and known by his then wife Mary Grout Golder. Mary died and I believe that before she died she kind of pointed out Amy to Arthur or something like that. She married Arthur in 1929.

The next from the right is Walter Stanley Hale born 1 June 1912 to Walter and Eula Florence Jones Hale. He was known in his adult life as W. Stanley Hale to somewhat differentiate him from his father. Stan was born in the Fitchburg Hospital in Fitchburg Mass. This being the first pregnancy of Eula it appears that Walter wanted to be extra careful to ensure that the delivery as successful as the rest of the kids were born at Bolder Crest their home in Rindge, New Hampshire. He married Doris Isobelle Smith the big sister of his best friend Leon Smith. The story is told that Leon wanted to go on a date with his girlfriend who live 40 miles away and needed transportation. Doris had a Plymouth so Leon “fixed” Stan and Doris up and the rest is history.

Wilma was born 30 June 1913 and outlived the rest of the family living to be 95. She married David Jewell who was a true New England trader. He always had to get “To Boot” on any deal he made. She was a successful school teacher and even earned her masters degree later in life. They raised 6 kids and their names all started with D.

Next is Rachel Eula Hale born 16 January 1916. She married Albert Ritchie and he was quite a character. As I remember he claimed to be a professional wrestling promoter. He was bald and used an electric razor to keep himself that way. I remember that Aunt Rachel crocheted him a doily like cover for his head and he bragged about the sunburned pattern on his head. They were the first couple to be married in the Stone Chapel at the Cathedral of the Pines on 3 Dec 1948.

Howard Augustus Hale was born 26 Feb 1918 and married Mary Dale in 1941. In 1962 I went to a family reunion in I believe Hampton, New Hampshire and drove up in my snazzy 1962 Ford convertible. Uncle Howard had a Pontiac and challenged me to a drag race. I knew that my ride was a wimp so chickened out of it. I always remember him as a young in spirit person.

Francis Towne Hale is the youngest born 10 November 1919. He married Joan Wade in 1947 and I remember going to the wedding and attending the reception at her folks home in Massachusetts. I also remember Francis and Arthur French stopping by our home in North Franklin while they were on the way to overseas duty in WW II. We had meat potatoes and peas and he urged me to eat all my peas because they were Germans!

These are some of my memories. What are yours and if you’d like a copy of the picture let me know.

From Marcia:

Allan Hale’s Blog

Dad: (W. Stanley Hale)

Fun times:

• Sitting at the dinner table and he taking out his teeth and smiling.
• Him grabbling me with his toes.
• Him calling me skillybootch and asking what I wanted to do with the money I was asking for.
• Him filling the side yard with water so we could ice skate.
• Him saying he and mom had christened each room in their house in Maine.
• Him sitting in the den doing crosswords.
• Him asking for a piece of cheese and a cracker with his ice cream.
• Him making a place for my baby chick which I bought for Easter one year even though he was against it.

Aunt Rachel

• Visiting her in Boston.

Aunt Wilma

• I mostly remember the kids. I was very close to Debbie. I visited there one summer and did chores in the garden and hiked up Mt. Monadnock.

Uncle Howard

• I mostly remember him just being in the background. Not a talker.

Uncle Francis

• He always had a sense of humor. He and Aunt Joan always took time to be nice and talk with us. He was a lot like dad.

Aunt Amy

• I do not remember much about her.

One of my fondest and most spiritual memories is participating in the Christmas pageant as a youth while attending the United Congregational Church in Norwich, Connecticut. I played a shepherd and dressed up in a bathrobe with a towel on my head with a rope tied around it. I was one of three shepherds. There were three wise men, angels, Mary and Joseph. There was a manger with a doll in it for Christ, The choir and congregation sang lots of Christmas Carols and even parts of Handel’s Messiah. There really was a beautiful spirit there. This was in the mid 1950’s when the real spirit of Christmas was emphasized vs the commercialization of Santa Claus today. The Pilgrim Fellowship, the teen youth group, went caroling and it also was a spiritual event.

When we were living in Salem, Connecticut I tired to bring that kind of spirit into our home. It was about 1984 or 85 when we put together a living Christmas pageant. The kids dressed up as shepherds and Joseph and Mary and we took pictures. Not all the pictures survived but I do have some of them.

Let us tell the story as found in Luke Chapter 2 with a little literary license.

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Joseph took Mary to the donkey yard to pick out their rides.

4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

Because there was no room in the inn the inn keeper directed to go around the inn to the little barn in the back yard where they could find room in the straw

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Joseph watched over Mary and the babe in the manger

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

There were three angels who came that night to visit the shepherds.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Mathew Ch 1

1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

2Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him

And the three wise persons came bearing gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and gold

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14aGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

The wise ones were amazed at the beauty of Mary and the aura that surrounded the Christ child

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Boys and Snow!!

It is amazing what the inventive mind of two 6 and 9 year old boys can come up with when you have a foot of packable snow! That is a 3 1/2 foot high pile of snow! That is James the 6 year old on top "defending" his "Secret" fort!




That is Andrew immersed into his snow fort.
James, his cousin, yelled at me because it is "Secret"! No pictures!
But do you think I could get them to shovel the truck out?




What and engineering feat! Who can stand in the way of a boy and his building project.


Now Grandma is upset because they are soaked! Women! They just do not get it!

It is very late and in order to pass time profitably I turned to the videos on MeridianMagazine.com and a specific one about forgiveness hit me strongly. I just went through a minor incident with Marilyn falling, breaking her nose and dislocating her right shoulder. I was never in danger of losing her but I was greatly affected by a lack of ability to do anything for her. I called 911 and the paramedics employed by the city of Orem were there within 5 minutes and they got her up and onto a stretcher and into the ambulance. They put me into the front seat of the ambulance, out of the way so they could do their job. Two friends both High Priests came by ready to assist but because of circumstances could not.
When we got to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Emergency Room she was quickly moved into a room and the staff there took over. My son-in-law Dan Heyworth came dressed in a suit jacket and tie and ready to assist me in giving Marilyn a blessing. I had been silently praying that she would be alright so as soon as a lull came we pushed the door nearly closed and he anointed and I sealed and blessed her. In the blessing I was moved to tell her that the pain would abate in a while and then blessed the medical staff that they would be able to properly diagnose and prescribe correctly.
It took about 2 1/2 hours for that blessing to come to fact but after xrays it was determined that she did have a dislocated shoulder. The appropriate staff was assembled and she was given medication to put her out for 5 minutes and the doctor watched her relax and the arm become limp. He then moved to relocate her shoulder and then test it. He then turned to me and said "That was an easy one" indicating to me that the blessing had been granted.
Now the video on MeridianMagazine.com which has a link to mormon.org is about forgiveness. But it is also about a man who lost his wife and two kids to a drunk driver and his process of how he has forgiven the young man and affected many because of it.
The surrounding story is what affected me in how we are in a fragile existence and it can change in the blink of an eye. We need to understand just who we are, children of a Living God. We are here to be tried and tested. We are not the center but He is the center and IF we realize that then our life here will be filled and fulfilled.
Check out the video. http://www.meridianmagazine.com/42/videodirectlink
It may change your life. It has made me think.

OK It has been a very long time since I posted and a lot has happened.

Callings: We were released from the Nursery especially since it would wear me out. I would come home and take a two hour nap. So I became one of the 11 year old boy teachers. Great calling but a month into it I got released as they wanted the 11 year old scout leader to take this class too. Later yet I got called as the Ward Employment Specialist. The current one is a BYU professor who is going on a year sabbatical to do a dig in a middle eastern country. Wow.

So as the Employment Specialist I needed some training so I went to the Career workshop that runs two days. The workshop is to train you on how to do an interview with a “Me in 30 seconds” statement that describe your self and several power statements that answer the interviewer’s questions with information on how you would solve or have solved those problems in the past. Because I was not prepping for an interview I made up a statement about genealogy. The guy seated next to me asked me where I was from (and me with my Yankee accent). I replied born in New Hampshire and raised in Connecticut. Where’s your family from? NE Mass and SE NH. He then told me that he had some CDs to show me.

When I came back from lunch there was an 8 pack box of the digitized versions of the “Vital Records of ___________ Massachusetts to 1849” and the “Genealogy of the Mayflower descendants” ! WOW! WOW! He said that he previously had published these and sold the Mayflower disk for $160 and the 8 pack for $150. They are great! All this because I was called as the Ward Employment Specialist. Marilyn is using them extensively and has added several hundred names. Now tell me that there are not people helping from the other side of the veil! Rightttt!

Well Rachel is helping me fix the blog so I will do more later.