Prior to reporting
to FTC San Diego, I attended Navy Instructor Training at NTC
San Diego.
After graduation from instructor training, I was assigned to the Navigation, Ship Control Division of Feet Training Center as navigation instructor, where I taught Celestial Refresher, Senior QM, Navigator Refresher and GPS courses.
After graduation from instructor training, I was assigned to the Navigation, Ship Control Division of Feet Training Center as navigation instructor, where I taught Celestial Refresher, Senior QM, Navigator Refresher and GPS courses.
| As a married sailor, I received
BAQ (Basic
Allowance
of Quarters)
and was expected to live off base so I moved aboard a
sailboat and lived at Marina
Cortes on Harbor Island. I named the boat "Le Rana" which is sort of Latin for "The Frog." (In Latin, frog is a feminine noun, but I used the masculine pronoun because, well, I'm a guy.) This was during America's Cup '95. One of my neighbors in the marina was a sail maker for America 3. I was also a member of TSPYC which sponsored the Tag Hauer challenge so I got America's Cup fever and sailed out and attended as many races as I could. |
 |
| SV Le
Rana, a Ranger 33 |
About the same time I was asked to evaluate the PLGR GPS receivers. The best way to do that was to perform comparative fixes. And that is just what I did - on my own boat - while following the America's Cup fleet.
Navigation doctrines on the East Coast (SurfLant) and West Coast (SurfPac) differed greatly and the courses taught by FTC San Diego and FTC Norfolk were like night and day. A new joint navigation instruction was being written for the whole Navy was and it was primarily written by SurfPac (Surface Forces Pacific) and was based on the old SurfPac instruction. Because we were already teaching to the old SurfPac Instruction, FTC San Diego was designated as the C2M2 and we re-wrote the curriculum for all of the navigation courses in the Navy. I was charged with re-writing the GPS course and was part of the re-write of the general navigation and celestial courses.
I was also fortunate to be involved with the NAVSSI (Navigation Ship Sensor Integration) project which sent me on several trips to NRAD (Naval Research and Development) in Warminster, PA and to SPAWAR (Space Warfare) in Arlington, VA to provide navigation input from the surface navigation training community.
In May 1995 our Senior Chief retired and I became the Lead Instructor and Division Officer of Navigation Ship Control Division.
For various reasons, I chose not to have a retirement ceremony and in July 1966 my last official order in the Navy was to declare special liberty for my division so they could attend my retirement pool party at Marina Cortes.
I was honorably discharged from the Navy and was transferred to the Fleet Reserve in July 1966.
In Apr 1999 I was officially retired from the Navy and was transferred to the Retired List.