first in the submarine service on one of the last of the diesel fleet boats, Nuclear Power school and then a land-based nuclear submarine prototype then to the sixth nuclear powered attack class and finally on board a Polaris missile submarine. At each command it required a huge investment of personal time and energy learning the boat and prototype like the back of your hand-system by system. Then a final 'walkthrough' with the "qualifying officer" where any question was fair game. Only with his blessing were you pronounced:"Qualified" and allowed to wear the silver twin dolphins breast insignia.

Then in 1968, while on recruiting duty in Wash.,D.C. where I first worked with Arena Stage in "The Great White Hope,"I moved the proverbial mountain and was allowed to covert to Journalist and sent to an aircraft carrier in Viet Nam. Journalists were the second group in the Navy with higher mental requirements than the Naval Academy that I was privileged to serve with.

This was followed by a tour in the Middle East as the force Public Affair Officer and I earned a Secretary of the Navy Commendation. While there, I freelanced as artist and writer with the English paper in Manama.Thanks to Admiral M.G. Bayne, his endorsement got me selected for the Associates Degree Completion Program (ADCOP) at Pensacola Junior College where I was the first sailor to major in fine art and did 6 plays (2 at the University of West Florida) in 18 months. One, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" was chosen 'best non-professional production' in the state in 1971. It was the first time a Junior College had received this honor by the Florida Theater Council.

The next tour of duty was with the Navy Office of Information at the Pentagon where I wound up as a film-writer/editor at the Navy Photographic Center at Anacostia, Naval Station. I edited incoming newsfilm, wrote and produced film featurettes. Several of the projects won DOD awards. It was while there that I toured the Soviet Union in Arena Stage's productions of "Inherit the Wind" and "Our Town." For my 'rocking chair cruise,' it was spent at NAS Bermuda handling Public Affairs and my major responsibility: The Skyliner, a weekly 8-page rag that served a multitude of 'publics' on the base on an island that had only the Royal Gazette as an option and TV news that showed on a 24-hour delay basis at the time from the States and edited on top of that. In 1978, I returned to Washington, DC and retired and began my second career as an actor while working two jobs: bartender and illustrator.