| John was born in Portland Oregon on 11-Nov-1949. His
father was a postal worker and his mother a housewife. He
grew up in a lower-middle class home attending grade
school in Gresham, Oregon. His high school years were
spent in Chino, California. There he attended Chaffee Jr.
College majoring in Electronics Technology, and dabbling
in Drama for fun while holding a part time job as the
stage manager of the college theater. Moving back to the
Portland, Oregon area he attended two years at Mt. Hood
Community College graduated with an associates degree in
electronics in 1970. With the Viet Nam war in full swing, John joined the Navy in the Advanced Electronics Program. He finished boot camp at San Diego in 11 weeks, an accelerated pace in order to get the troops home for Christmas. He attended Polaris Electronics "A" school at Dam Neck, Virginia graduating 1st in his class in 1971, and was advanced to the rate of ETN3. While at Dam Neck he volunteered for submarine duty, and attended "C" school for NEC3333, CNC Central Navigational Computer for Poseidon Class FBM Submarines. In March of 1972 John spent six weeks attending Submarine School in Groton Connecticut. Not a day went by without seeing the 100 ft tower of water that haunted every sub school student. During the last week of sub training John made 2 ascents up the tower from the 50 ft level. After finding out how easy, and enjoyable the ascent was, one grows to resent the school for putting it off until the last week, causing so much terror and fear for more than five weeks. John graduated second in his class of 90. Following Sub School John followed the traditional curriculum of Fire Fighting and Damage Control school in Newport Rhode Island. In June of 1972 John reported to Holy Loch Scotland for temporary duty on board the USS Canopus AS-34. He worked in the Navigation Repair Shop performing his full duties of NEC3333 while waiting for an open billet on board an FBM Submarine. While on the Canopus, John volunteered for a 30 day temporary assignment on the USS Natick YTB760. He enjoyed the short term Tug Boat duty, and quickly qualified both below-decks Engineman duty and above-decks Boatswains Mate duty. Returning to the Canopus, John finished a little over a year of duty in the Navigation Repair Shop. In July of 1973 John was assigned to the USS Nathanael Greene SSBN636 Blue crew. He was one of the distinctive few who Qualified in Submarines in less than one patrol. During his second patrol, John was advanced to the rate of ETN2(SS). During his third patrol, John received the Good Conduct Medal, and re-enlisted for two more years under the agreement of the Variable Re-inlistment Program. During his sixth deterrent patrol on the Greene, John was advanced to the rate of ET1(SS). John qualified as NCC operator, Planesman, ESM operator, Nav Center Technician, Radar operator, and Nav Center Supervisor. In September of 1976, John's enlistment in the US Navy was up, and he returned to civilian duty with an Honorable Discharge. In January of 1977, he began work at Tektronix in Beaverton Oregon as an Electronics Technician, soon advancing to Systems Technician, building and installing large scale Semiconductor Test Systems. While there, he met the former Kathleen Carmichael. John and Kathy were married in June of 1978, and have been very happy ever since. |