Shipboard Tours

1978-1980 – NOAA Ship Surveyor (S-132) Navigator, Diving Officer, Officer-of-the-Deck.
I joined Surveyor on her commencement of OCSEAP – Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program. For 2 years, we conducted baseline research throughout the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea, penetrating the ice pack at every opportunity.

1977-1978 – NOAA Ship Oceanographer
(R-101)
– Officer-of-the-Deck & Diving Officer.
I transfer
red my commission from the Navy to NOAA, and joined the crew of Oceanographer conducting manganese nodule research along the Equator in the Central Pacific.

1975-1976 – USS Pigeon (ASR 21)Navigator, Operations Officer, Saturation Diving Officer & First Lieutenant.
I transferred from Ortolan to Pigeon in San Diego, and from there to the Test Operations Group (TOG) as Officer-in-Charge, conducting deep ocean surveillance as part of Operation Ivy Bells.

1974-1975 – USS Ortolan (ASR 22)Navigator, Operations Officer, Saturation Diving Officer
I joined the Ortolan commissioning crew in Philadelphia following a year of diver training leading up to my certification as a Saturation Diving Officer. Ortolan was a specially designed catamaran submarine rescue ship and mother ship for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles.

1970-1972 – USS Von Steuben (SSBN 632)(Blue Crew) Communications & Assistant Weapons Officer.
I joined Von Steuben out of Poseidon Weapons Officer School and Officer Submarine School following graduation from University of Washington with a BS in Marine & Atmospheric Physics. After 4 patrols, I departed in 1972 for the Defense Language Institute in El Paso, Texas, to study Vietnamese.

1963-1965 – USS John Marshall (SSBN 611)(Blue Crew) Sub Sonar Tech.
I joined John Marshall out of Enlisted Submarine School in 1963 as a newly minted Submarine Sonar Tech 3rd Class. After 5 patrols, I departed in 1965 for Sonar Class “B” School in Key West, followed by University of Washington under NESEP – the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program.