STORY BEHIND THE PLAQUE
Service Reflections of ETCS Dale Hower, U.S. Navy (1968-1988)

My father James D. Hower, Sr, had a short Navy career of 9 months. He enlisted near the end of WWII and was stationed at Camp Peary, Virginia. He and my mother lived a small apartment in what is now Colonial Williamsburg. When the war ended he was offered an early out when the armed services were down sizing. Throughout my youth, he often mentioned that he wished he would have stayed in.

Although his time in the Navy was limited he encouraged me and my brother to pursue a career in the military. My older brother, James D. Hower, Jr. had a 15-year career in the Navy. He went to boot camp at Great Lakes, obtained an appointment to the Naval Academy from our congressman, went to Naval Academy Preparatory School in Bainbridge MD and then on to Annapolis, graduating in 1971. He separated from the Navy as a Lieutenant.

Through his and my father’s urging, I eventually joined the Navy while still a senior in high school under the delayed entry program. Like my father and brother, we were employed in the textile industry and worked at the same mill. Unlike my father, we had the opportunity to leave the small town Pennsylvania mill worker life and see the world.

I never had any plans to stay longer than my 6-year commitment. I enlisted with a 6-year obligation to get the maximum training available for an Electronics Technician. After 14 months of electronics training, I went to my first ship and experienced my first WestPac.

After the Westpac, I was transferred to Crypto Repair Facility, US Naval Ship Repair Facility, Subic Bay, RP. My two-year extension went into effect while I was stationed in the Philippines.

Shortly thereafter I was transferred to Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, IL to serve as an Assistant Company Commander. It was a pilot program designed to give Company Commanders a bit of help during the first few weeks of boot camp. I spent a year there and assisted with 14 companies. Although rewarding in many ways I was ready to be a civilian again and decided I was done with the Navy life.

I got out and drew unemployment in my home state of Pennsylvania while seeking employment as an electronics technician in my small hometown. I lived with my parents but realized that wasn’t going to work out. During my stay, I reacquainted myself with Thayes, my high school sweetheart who was home on a holiday break from her teaching position in Illinois. We dated the entire time she was home visiting her parents. Living with my parents wasn’t going to work so I relocated to the Chicago area and moved in with a buddy from ET-A school and his wife in south Chicago. It affords me more job opportunities and more importantly got me closer to Thayes.

It wasn’t too long before a secured an Electronics Technician position at Sony Superscope. I was a maintenance technician at their service facility near O’Hare Airport.

Working an eight hour day with one ten minute break in the morning, an unpaid 30-minute lunch break and another ten-minute break in the afternoon just didn’t sit well with me. I had it much better in the Navy as a Second Class Petty Officer. I started on a Wednesday, worked through Friday then drove out to western Illinois to spend the weekend with Thayes. On Monday I called Sony and quit. By Wednesday I was back in the Navy and awaiting orders. Since I had fallen hard for Thayes, I wasn’t quite ready to head back to Navy life so I immediately took 30 days to leave awaiting orders. During that time Thayes and I got married.

After a short stay in Norfolk, VA to get my service record rebooted, I received orders to the USS Conserver ARS-39 out of Pearl Harbor, HI. I went there unaccompanied and got settled in as the ship’s leading ET. It was me and an ETN3. I got permission to bring my wife to Hawaii and we eventually moved into our first home in Navy housing in Pearl City, HI.

My career after USS Conserver led me to American Forces Radio and Television Service, Los Angeles, USS Lewis B. Puller FFG-23, Fleet Training Group, San Diego, and lastly Combat Systems Assessment Team, COMNAVSURVPAC, San Diego, CA.

In my twenty year career, I never felt any military operation I was in any way life-threatening. Once while trying to catch up to a ship off of Vietnam for a technical assist I had to fly into DaNang out of the Philippines. No sooner had I got off the plane, the air raid siren went off. I was directed to an air raid shelter. In a few minutes, the all-clear sounded and I was taken to the transient barracks.

That’s as close to any combat action I ever saw.

Was there a particular incident during your service when you believed you were in a situation you might not survive? Please describe what happened and what was the outcome.

Other than my extremely short visit in and out of Danang, I never felt my life was in peril. During that Danang trip, I was trying to get to a ship of Vietnam on a technical assistance visit from my duty station at Crypto Repair Facility in Subic Bay. I came very close to the joy of a high line transfer from one ship to my target ship, in rough seas at the darkened ship. The IMC directly me to the high line station. I opened the hatch, stepped out on the deck and watched ten-foot swells between the two ships nip at the hi-line. In short order, sanity prevailed and the ship’s decided it wasn’t worth risking and secured the hi-line detail. Much to my relief.

Later in my career, I did get to experience being hi-lined. It too was another technical assistance call for crypto equipment.

My time on the USS Conserver ARS-39 was probably the best. I was newly married, fresh off an Assistant Company Commander tour at Great Lakes, IL and I was the leading ET in a two-man shop. My previous experience and training in electronics was on radar, IFF and crypto equipment. I was unprepared for all the maintenance associated with the communications suite on Conserver. My fellow ET was a newly promoted third class who had worked his way up from a deck Seaman. His technical expertise was limited. I reported aboard the day the ship returned from Westpac and briefly met the ET I was relieving. He handed me the keys to the shop and went on leave. When he returned, he checked out. The ship was in stand down so I had plenty of time to get acquainted with my new responsibilities.

Shortly after the stand down ended, the former deck Seaman transferred and ETN3 John Peterson checked on board fresh out of ET-A school. We both had some maintenance nightmares during our time on board but in the end, it was the most rewarding and career advancing tour I ever had. I learned a lot about communications equipment maintenance.

I also enjoyed a tour of duty at American Forces Radio and Television Service in Los Angeles, CA. I worked on civilian television studio recording equipment with Army and Air Force technicians. We stood duty one weekend every month or so. Our duty consisted of setting up recordings of the weekend sporting events that would later be edited and sent overseas and to Navy ships on 1″ reel to reel video tapes and the newest video format of the time, Sony Betamax. We wore civilian clothes and haircut regulations were lax.

My least favorite tour was at RTC Great Lakes as an Assistant Company Commander. I did learn a lot about military discipline, marching, leadership, etc, but I had a captured audience who had no idea what the Navy was all about and they were all ears. I hope I inspired them. I still fold my t-shirts skinny fat skinny!

While I was attending ET-A School in Great Lakes, my brother visited me. He was a Midshipman at the time. As he and I walked around the base in uniform, he was saluted. I got to return the salutes with him. A first for me.

The first time I got to practice marching an 80 man company of recruits around in a drill hall at Great Lakes, my timing was a bit off. I marched six columns of recruits right into a wall. They were near graduation and had much more marching under their belts than me. The likely thought it was hilarious.

During my tour in the Philippines, I got to attend a christening in the south of Luzon. After the ceremony, we went to a banquet in a large nipa hut surrounded by jungle. No running water, no electricity and just a short walk from a beautiful black sand beach. While there I also met and had a long talk with a gentleman who lived in a huge house, once again, no water, no electricity, and woven palm frond window coverings. He related stories of the WWII Japanese occupation that he experienced as a young man.

What achievement(s) are you most proud of from your military career?

I received a Navy Commendation Medal and a Navy Achievement during my career but the award I ‘m most proud of is a Letter of Commendation for duties as the Leading Electronics Technician on the USSConserver ARS-39. I spent many hours learning and maintaining a communications suite for which I had no formal training. Lots of late nights pouring through technical manuals, scratching my head and trying to diagnose and repair equipment that was down. ETN2(DV) John Peterson deserves half of the credit for that letter. We were a good team, worked together well and kept the ship communicating and safely navigating.

I’m not very big on displaying badges, letters, and awards. I don’t have a man cave or even a wall dedicated to my Navy career.

Although challenge coins didn’t exist during my career, I did get the opportunity to help design one for the USS Conserver ARS-39. We had some made up for our third ship’s reunion. We continue to sell them and I have made plagues and pen holders for our reunion silent auctions.

There are many who influenced my career. I think one of the standouts was AE1 Mel Everhart. During my tour at RTC Great Lakes, Assistant Company Commanders were assigned to Company Commanders and reported to them early in the company’s training schedule. We generally stayed with that company for only two to three weeks and then were reassigned to another company. After having worked with several different Company Commanders we all got to be experts in the early aspects of training, marching, close order drill, stenciling, and folding clothing, etc. We were given the opportunity to stay with one company all the way to graduation. ABE1 Everhart was the company that I had the privilege of assisting all the way through training. He taught me the fine points of getting raw recruits to perform even the most mundane tasks and take pride in their work. How to counsel the sick, lame and lazy. He had a leadership technique that got results. He had ultimate responsibility for that company’s performance. Throughout the nine-week training cycle, he often entrusted me with the company.

ETCS Nelson Arroyo – CRF Subic — still in touch.
ETC Rodman (Ty) Chamberlain – FTG San Diego – still in touch.
BMCM(DV) Keith (Doc) Hansen – USS Conserver ARS-39 – still in touch.
ET1 Robert Boatright – USS Lewis B. Puller FFG-23 – still in touch.
EN2 Romondo Davis- USS Conserver ARS-39 – still in touch.
LCDR Bruce Acton – CSAT CNSP – still in touch.
RMC Bill Parkman – CSAT CNSP – still in touch.
ETC George Heaukulani – CSAT CNSP – still in touch.
LT Dave Blake – USS Conserver ARS-39 – still in touch.
RM2 Gerald Philips – USS Conserver – still in touch.

ETN2(DV) John F. Peterson – USS Conserver ARS-39 – would like to contact.
ICI Jimmie Holloway – USS Conserver ARS-39 – would like to contact.
LT Mike Lavine – USS Lewis B. Puller FFG-23 – would like to contact.
ETN2 Bill Hayes – CRF Subic – would like to contact.
DSCM Chris Knabe – FTG San Diego – would like to contact.
ETCM Keith Woodward – FTG San Diego – would like to contact.

I was sitting a bar in Olongapo chatting with a young “social entertainer’, enjoying a cold San Miguel beer and minding my own business. We were joined by an obviously very drunk Filipino. He tried his best to have a conversation but just wasn’t sober enough to pull it off. Next thing I know, he pulled a chrome plated, pearl handled, Colt 45 service pistol out from behind his back and calmly set it on the table, exclaiming “I’ve got a gun”. I not so calmly said “I gotta go”, pushed my chair back and headed for the other end of the bar amid the shrieks of numerous girls and clattering of chairs. The uniformed door guard ran across the bar with his sawed-off shotgun. No shots were fired and the guy was hauled out of the bar. I must have guzzled 4 or 5 beers watching from my now safe table far from the action.

In another adventure in the Philippines, four of us piled into a VW Beetle on a Friday afternoon and headed to Manila for a bar-hopping weekend. On a Sunday night, we returned the driver and co-pilot were passing a bottle of rum back and forth. The driver ran out of cigarettes and decided to drive on to Clark Air Force Base in search of a pack. We ended up driving down the middle of a football field and an airstrip around 2 AM. We also got lost and found ourselves on a one-lane asphalt road running through a cane field. We rounded a blind corner and encountered a very large water buffalo in the middle of the road. He had stalks of sugar can entangle in his horns and was not happy.

We got back at about 5 AM, had a few breakfast beers and headed for work.

After twenty plus years in electronics, I decided it was time for a change. I have been an off and on woodworker since I was a kid. My father had a complete wood shop and taught me a lot. The Navy curtailed my hobby a few times while I was single but after I got married and settled in Navy housing in San Pedro, CA, I had access to a full woodworking shop at Long Beach Naval Station. I built some wall units and numerous small projects.

After I got transferred to San Diego we rented a house with a garage. Slowly it turned into a moderately equipped wood shop. I eventually bought a home and the wood shop continued to grow. After I retired I took a part-time sales associate position at a San Diego hardware store (Rockler Woodworking and Hardware, formerly The Woodworker’s Store). The store specializes in woodworking tools and accessories. Although the store didn’t offer any woodworking services, I often did small jobs for customers in my garage shop. I worked there part-time for over 23 years and still run a small woodworking business. I still get referrals from there and occasionally teach woodworking classes or do demonstrations there.

I’m a member of the Fleet Reserve Association however I’ve never been to a meeting. I use my membership to keep abreast of issues that affect my retirement and keep moderately current on what’s happening in the Navy through their magazine and website.

I have been on the reunion committee for the USS Conserver ARS-39 for the past four years. We are having our fifth reunion in San Diego in April 2017. Thus far we’ve had reunions in Corpus Christi, TX, Las Vegas, NV, Charleston SC, San Antonio, TX.

I don’t know whether the Navy instilled this in me or not, but I’m a stickler for details. I also like to find the most efficient ways to accomplish tasks. Both are assets in my woodworking business.

Always strive to be just more than the average Sailor. Be the best at whatever you do. It will be noticed and you will benefit.

When I first signed up on this website I broke out my service record and spent hours searching for the dates of all my assignments. I wanted them to be accurate and become a computer-based reference.

Throughout that process and during the course of my membership this website has jogged my memory numerous times helping me recall names, adventures, and relationships.

Now I can easily find the names of former shipmates that I have forgotten, they’re in black and white readily accessible.