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UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY

SIXTIETH GRADUATION ANNIVERSARY OF THE CLASS OF 1940

This is a transcript of "The Long Voyage of the Class of Forty-U. S. Naval Academy" taken from the book The Class of Forty After Fifty Years © W. M. Carpenter 1990. Original text by C. H. Hall and W. D. Lanier.

Our Marines, as usual, stayed two steps ahead of the rest of us, with advancement to colonel coming in 1957. Promotions for captain occurred in the spring and summer of 1959. Of the 185 commanders in the unrestricted line eligible for selection, only 135 were promoted, the deepest cut for a Naval Academy class in many years. Selections by branch were 64 of 96, surface; 21 of 27, submarines; 50 of 62, aviation.

Most of those who didn't make captain retired in 1960, although one, Lonnie Roark, continued on active duty until 1966. Bob Boettcher retired in November, 1959, achieving the required twenty years of active duty by means of service before attending the Naval Academy, and became the only member of our class to get a tombstone promotion to captain. The powers-that-be abolished tombstone promotions, one-rank promotions on retirement for those having any combat decoration, just after Bob retired--and before any of the rest of us could receive this sop given to those senior to us, just another case of '40 being left out. The anchor captain in our class, last to be picked up, was Pappy Dupzyk, always good at living dangerously.

Of those retiring in 1960, Ned Bent joined Monsanto and Roman Brooks went with Brush Beryllium. Phil Eckert joined Documentation Inc., and Gene Lamiman started a 25-year stint with IBM. John Edgar and Sam Forter were selected by MIT to work on guidance systems for a succession of missiles, Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident. Oscar Gray joined Raytheon. Ted Hechler worked on missile development at GE. Dave Marks went with Grumman, and Norm Kanaga with Space Technology Labs. Dick McElligott was assigned to the Titan missile project at Martin. Earl McLaughlin went from Republic to Fairchild, to work on spacecraft and satellites. Jim McRoberts joined Martin-Denver, Ed Sledge went with Burroughs and Jack Rait went first with General Dynamics, then with Hughes Missiles, where he retired in 1980. Miles Libbey moved from Lockheed to MIT Research to Indiana University.

Karl Stefan, after flying night fighters and helicopters, became an expert on hot air balloons, and founded the "Balloon Works," to manufacture sport balloons. Mac MacMurray began his 17 year stint as editor of his family's two newspapers in Brookville, Pennsylvania. Blaine Libbey graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and became a Presbyterian minister in Connecticut and New York. Carl Adams went to the University of Hawaii, to teach meteorology. Paul Treitel went into hotel management, and Hank Vaughan became a head-hunter for an executive placement firm. Dick Long commenced a 28-year career in the management of food service enterprises.

Pat Gray, the only member of our class to achieve national prominence, became Assistant Attorney General of the U. S., and then served as Director of the FBI until he was caught up in the whirlwind of Watergate.

As captains on active duty we served in many capacities. Many of us were assigned to command NROTC units during a move by BuPers under RADM Smedberg to bring younger captains into these billets, with the idea of invigorating the NROTC program. So serving were Frank Hertel at Colorado, Jeff Jeffery at South Carolina, Dick Parker at Dartmouth, Dick Shafer at Oregon State, Ted Rodgers at Harvard, Bill Lamb at RPI, Ed Hearn at Miami of Ohio, Pappy Dupzyk at UCLA and Ed Hayes at Holy Cross. Most of us, perhaps discouraged by the BuPers ossified bureaucracy, along with other reasons, retired shortly alter these tours.

At sea, some of us commanded destroyer divisions, but the usual first sea assignment for all of us, surface and aviator, was a "deep draft" command, command of an oiler, an attack transport or attack cargo ship, or a destroyer or submarine tender. After the deep draft command the next step was a "major command" of a carrier, a cruiser, or a squadron of smaller warships, or one of a relatively few major shore commands.

Some of those who commanded destroyer divisions were Ace Barton, Bob White, Bill Caspari, John Greenbacker, John Chase, Bill Dobie, Neil Fisher, Ed Hearn, Skip Appleton, Jeff Jeffery, Scott Goodfellow, Swede Goranson (killed in a civilian plane crash while so serving), Art Esch, Bill Keating, and Willie Walker--homeported in Yokosuka.

Bob White commanded the destroyer tender YOSEMITE, Ray Hundevadt attack cargo ship MULLIPHEN, and Snuffy Lockett tender RIGEL. Harv Seim, Cary Hall and Tom Nicholson relieved each other as successive COs of oiler NEOSHO.

As major commands were achieved, Bill Caspari commissioned the new guided missile frigate ENGLAND. Bob Quinn was skipper of Sixth Fleet flagship NEWPORT NEWS and Bob White of command ship WRIGHT. Other cruiser captains were John Chase, BOSTON; Harry Fischer, ST. PAUL; Gene Hemley, NORTHAMPTON; Bob Kalen, BOSTON; Scotty Goodfellow, GALVESTON; Tad Lothrop, HALSEY.

Many of us served as "commodores" for our major command. Skip Appleton, Tad Lothrop, Ace Barton, Art Esch, Vince Healey, Harv Seim, Dave King, Ward Witter, John Greenbacker, and Jess Worley commanded destroyer squadrons. Bill McKinney, Dick Cochrane (who relieved Bill) and Art Berndtson commanded amphibious squadrons. Chuck Beers, Fred Pennoyer and Willie Walker commanded service squadrons. Ozzie Osborne, Bill Benbow and Speedy Simmons commanded mine squadrons. Phil Glennon, Al Bergner and Bob Kaufman commanded submarine squadrons.

Carrier commands, highly prized, went to Deacon Fickenscher, WASP; John Hardy, HORNET; Jim Hedrick, PHILIPPINE SEA; Ted Hill, GUADALCANAL; Bill Meyer, ESSEX; John Refo, RANDOLPH; Swede Carlson, LUNGA POINT; Bob Miller, TICONDEROGA; and Will Morton, RANDOLPH. Herman Trum also had a carrier command. Mike Hanley had two carrier commands, THETIS BAY and FORRESTAL, as did John Lacouture, SARATOGA and INDEPENDENCE. Mike Michaelis' carrier command was our first nuclear carrier, ENTERPRISE.

John Lacouture, Bob Miller and Will Morton served as Chiefs of Staff for CarDivs and Mac McFarland for a CruDiv. Also Chiefs of Staff were Scott Goodfellow, ComCruDesFlotThree; Jim Vellis, ComCruDesFlotOne; Deacon Fickenscher, ASWForLant; Tom Nicholson, ComCruDiv Five and ComServGru Three; Sandy MacGregor, ComPhibTraLant; Bruce Lloyd, ComNavAirTestCtr.

These chief of staff billets were not routine. For example, Bruce Lloyd, while serving as chief of staff of the Naval Air Test Center, piloted the Sikorski HSS2 helicopter to four international speed records.

John Greenbacker was operations officer for CincLantFlt and Jim Elkins served as Director of Information for Naval Air Systems Command. Pete Peters was operations officer and Ray Hundevadt was war plans officer for Second Fleet. Roy Joslin commanded the destroyer school. Herman Klare served on the staff of NATO. Bill Carpenter was military advisor to Ambassador Averell Harriman at the Geneva Convention on Laos. In the Philippines, classmate Abe Campo, as captain, served as Chief of Naval Staff, then commanded the Philippine Patrol Force.

Ashore, Harry Fischer commanded the Naval Training Center, San Diego, Erwin Wann was on the staff of the National Security Council and Gordon West the staff of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Bill Bryan, Bill Bush, and Bud Newhall commanded naval air stations while Abe Lincoln, Jess Worley, Bill Clark and Bill Meyer commanded overseas naval stations, in Kodiak, San Juan, Guam and Keflavik, Iceland. George Herring was commander of Quantico Air Station. Gene Hemley, Wes Westhoff and Bob White commanded naval communication stations. Rosy Caldwell commanded the pre-flight school at Pensacola. Ward Witter and Norm Lee followed each other as CO of the Underwater Weapons Research and Engineering Center in Newport. Mark Hanna was relieved by Len Bassett as CO of NAD, Oahu. Bill Benbow commanded the Naval Guided Missile School. George Block was Deputy Commander of the Defense Atomic Support Agency Command. Tad Lothrop was founding father of the National Military Command System. Dave King commanded the Officer Candidate School at Newport.

Our EDOs also served as commanding officers. Ned Garrett was CO ofthe Overhaul Facility at Pensacola. Stormy Karl had an interesting assignment as Supervisor of Ships, U.S. Navy, UK, in Bath, England. Terry McGillicuddy was Commanding Officer, Naval Applied Sciences Laboratory. Jim Coyle was head of the Aircraft Branch, BuWeps. Carl Gurley was Senior Machinery Inspector, BuShips. Bob Harris acted as Supervisor of Shipbuilding, 13th Naval District. Sid Sherwin served with the newly created Electronic Systems Command. Rosy Roseborough, as head of the submarine branch, BuShips, played a key role in the creation and expansion of our nuclear submarine forces. In addition to his design responsibilities, Rosy participated in the sea trials of our first 25 nuclear submarines. He was our last classmate to qualify in submarines, long after the 50 who preceded him.