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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.

In 1936 775 of us had started out with stars in our eyes, or at least in the back of our minds. 22 of us, after many years, reached that sparkling goal.

Our Marine classmates started pinning on their stars in 1962. John Antonelli, Louis King, and Fred Karch became brigadier generals. In the Army, Ed Donley and Fritz Freund pinned on two stars as major generals.

Selections for rear admiral began in 1966, and of 131 captains in the unrestricted line eligible for promotion, exactly 13 were chosen. This was an extremely low percentage, compared to previous classes, so that, once again,'40 was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Selections by specialty were; surface sailors, six out of 62; submariners, three out of 20; aviators, four out of 49.

Those line officers who scaled this final peak were: surface, John Chase, Bill Dobie, Art Esch, Scott Goodfellow, Vince Healey and Bill McKinney; of the submariners, Roy Anderson, Al Bergner and Julian Burke; aviators, Willy House, Jack Longino, Mike Michaelis and Herman Trum. Bob Wooding, CEC, made rear admiral. EDOs Frank Frankenberger and AEDOs Ray Schneider and Pat Clancy also made the grade. Ted Rodgers was promoted to rear admiral, USMS, after he became superintendent of the Maine Maritime Academy.

Our rear admiral classmates served tours mostly in Washington such as Chief of Naval Development for Scotty Goodfellow, Commandant, Washington Naval District, for Art Esch, Director of Undersea and Strategic Warfare for Vince Healey, head of Education and Training, NavPers for Al Bergner, and similar jobs, with tours at sea, commanding destroyer flotillas and task forces for John Chase, Art Esch, Vince Healey and Julian Burke. Frank Frankenberger commanded the Mare Island Shipyard. Scotty Goodfellow's last tour was superintendent of the PG School at Monterey. Mike Michaelis became our only four-star member of the 4.0 class with his promotion from vice admiral to admiral, and ended his career as Chief of Naval Material.

John Antonelli completed his Marine career as Commanding General, Quantico, with Fred Karch also serving his last tour in Quantico as Director of the Command and Staff College. Ed Donley was Commanding General of the U.S. Army Missile Command and retired a major general.

Throughout the sixties early retirements reduced our ranks, as most of us decided not to serve out the full thirty allotted to captains, so that only a fraction of the 135 promoted to captain stayed for normal retirement at 30 years commissioned service. Many found that Navy pay in the early part of the decade of the sixties had so lagged that civilian income plus retirement pay frequently amounted to total pay substantially higher than any officer serving in the Armed Forces, including those with flight pay. Many also found the attraction of a settled home or a fascinating line of work appealing. There were some who wearied of combatting the bureaucratic inefficiencies of our government. Many of them, alas, found the same bureaucracies in the industries to which they fled.

Ed Sledge, Pat Gray and Jim McRoberts retired in 1960, a year after making captain, and Warren Smalzel, Joe Snyder, Larry Fox (COL, USMC) and Jonse Hughes (for physical reasons) in 1961. The number increased year by year until 27 of us are listed as retiring in 1965. Of the last captains on duty, the Register shows 25 retiring in 1970, with Sandy MacGregor the last captain to retire in July, 1971. Our last non-flag classmate to retire was Ed Dietrich, a non-graduate reserve, who retired in April of 1973. Bill Dobie was the first flag officer to retire, in 1971, and John Chase was the last to go, in September of 1978, 42 years after that momentous swearing in ceremony in Memorial Hall, the last member of our class serving in the Navy.

During the course of our active service, the class amassed nearly a thousand decorations, as well as many, many service and campaign ribbons. Many of them were routine awards for "being there" but many of them were for accomplishments for which we can all be proud. In this list, some notable performers stand out. Special mention goes to three--Art Maltby with two Navy Crosses, Roy Anderson with six Legions of Merit, and Jack Longino with three DFCs and two Presidential Unit Citations. These fellows were not only brave, but extremely busy.