I have somehow been unfortunate enough to be chosen as some type of leader, much to my dismay, almost every time I turn around. I just can't stay under the RADAR! No matter how much I wish I could. In High School I was elected to be the treasurer of the Student Council. I didn't really want the job and I usually found a way to be elsewhere when they had meetings. But I was granted a great opportunity to attend the Student Leadership Council Program at Sienna College that helped me put some perspective on the whole thing. It was shortly after this experience that I signed up and joined the Navy Delayed Entry Program.

My first day in boot camp I was informed that they would separate all the Nukes, well wanna-be nukes, and make them the leaders of Company 229. Great, I still can't hide and be under the RADAR. So, I was promptly, with no real experience, not that anybody else had any either, made the Master At Arms for US Navy Training Center, Great Lakes Illinois, Boot Camp Company 229. This made me third, I think, in command of this diversified group of men, well, still boys really, from the big city to the most out of the way corner of the Midwest. Now I was responsible for what we called the pieces. The non-functioning rifles we carried to lunch, and everyplace else. But, believe me, if one turned up missing, they acted as though they were fully functional weapons of mass destruction. I had to do fun things like guard these phony replicas while the rest of the company ate. It did provide some alone time, since I had to jog to meals in advance, then jog back to the barracks, then back with the company so I could guard the pieces while the company ate. Alone time was not easy to find in boot camp, so it was all good.

As a rule, Nukes entered the Navy as E-3's, meaning we skipped E1 and E2, so we were ahead of the crowd to start. Additionally, since my time in the Delayed Entry Program added what is called 'Time In Service' I was usually the most senior person in my peer group. Great, still up in plain site of the RADAR. After I was switched into a different job, Crypto Tech, I went back into training, with E1's and E2's as a now E5. Again, even though I dragged my feet taking the advancement test, I did very well on the test and attained the rank of E5 in pretty quick time, so now, at the training center I was placed in charge of the other trainees as class leader, floor leader, etc. If nobody gets killed I did good. Well, the senior staffers weren't exactly in tuned with that method of leadership, but I wasn't really concerned with them. I sailed through this new school as it was relatively easy compared to Nuke School. I tested out and advanced through most of this training, finishing in advance of the class I started in.

Later I was in charge of shifts in field sites working on the High Frequency Direction Finding (HFDF) system in Newfoundland and it goes on and on...