STORY BEHIND THE PLAQUE
Service Reflections of OS2 Christopher Hawley, U.S. Navy (1981-1987)

I was always sure that I would serve in the military from a very young age. Military Service in my family was always a strong influence. At about fifteen years old, I was very sure that I would make a career in the military. I had joined the Civil Air Patrol at the time, and I loved it. I was also sure that I would be a United States Marine, just as two of my cousins, an uncle, and a Great-grandfather had all been.

My Great-grandfather had joined the Marines in 1910 at 16, lying with his parents’ help about his age, saying his birth year was 1892, not 1893. He served until 1914, participating in the incursion into Vera Cruz, Mexico, after the “Tampico Incident.” During much of his four years, he was detached from his command to the Marine Corps Rifle Range Detachment at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, VA, as part of the marksmanship team. After finishing Boot Camp at Paris Island, South Carolina, he was assigned to an old Battleship, the USS Louisiana (BB-19) and later the USS Texas (BB-35), as part of the Marine detachment. He was a participant in most of the National matches at Camp Perry during that time, earning the National Match, Distinguished Marksmanship Gold Metal.

In April 1917, when the U.S. joined the Great War, he re-enlisted and was promoted from corporal to Sergeant. Then he was assigned to the Marine Barracks, Quantico, VA. While there, he trained most of the new Marines in what else…Marksmanship. In 1918, he was sent to France and assigned to more marksmanship training with Company “A,” Training Battalion, 1st Training Regiment, in Meusnes, France. Finally, late in October 1918, he was assigned front-line duty, serving with the 5th Regiment as a Gunnery Sergeant. On 24 November 1918, the 2nd Division of the U.S. Army, including Company “L” of the “3rd Battalion” of the “Marine 5th Regiment,” marched over the Rhine into the German Rhineland. From 1918 until 1919, the Regiment participated in the occupation of the Rhineland. During WWII, he was a Fireman and had tried to rejoin the Marine Corps but was deemed too old at 48, so instead, he moved to Hawaii and served as a volunteer with the salvage crews at Pearl Harbor until the end of the war.

My Uncle Charlie served with the Marines in the 1920s. In 1927, he was sent on one of the “Banana Wars” to Nicaragua. He served in the Marine Reserve until the late 1930s. As a very successful business owner of a construction company, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Chief Petty-Officer, Carpenters-mate with the newly formed Navy CB’s (“Sea-Bees”) Construction Battalions, just after Pearl Harbor. He served to fight the Japanese in the Aleutian Island, AK.

Two of my cousins served with the Marines during World War II. William Kirchner, the oldest, was wounded in 1945 while fighting the Japanese in the battle of Okinawa. The youngest, John “Jacky” Kirchner, was 17 years old when he and his Grandparents convinced his parents to allow him to join the Corps. Immediately after finishing Boot Camp and infantry training, he was assigned to a “security guard detachment,” guarding a “special package” being delivered to the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). That package was then delivered, first to the island of Tinian, and then later sent “special Delivery” to Hiroshima, Japan via a U.S. Army Air Force B-29, known as the “Enola Gay”! Unfortunately for our family, Jacky was lost at sea when the USS Indianapolis was sunk in the Philippine Sea while en-route to the island of Leyte, in the Philippine Islands on 30 July 1945, by a Japanese submarine.

At 16 years old, I had finished high school and was anxiously anticipating my seventeenth birthday to join up. At that time, the Marines could or would not guarantee any MOS or job before finishing “Boot-Camp.” That’s when the next-door Navy recruiter -fast-talking-, got his hooks into me. I was especially interested in Naval aviation. He signed me up in the delayed entry program to guarantee I would become an “AW” (Aviation Warfare Specialist) and become an aircrewman. About a week later, he had me come to see him and told me that I would have to wait at least six months or longer for an opening. He knew I was desperate to join and get away from home.

So, he convinced me to sign up for the “OS” (Operations Specialist) rate, saying it was the “same job, but just on a ship”! Ironically, he told me that “OS” stood for “Occupational Specialist,” not “Operations Specialist” and, that I could always transfer to aviation later. Boy, was I sold a bill of goods! When I found out from a career Petty Officer in Boot Camp, what my rate was called, and that it was a “critically undermanned rating” with no chance of going aviation, I was devastated! I then attempted to -volunteer- for submarine duty as a Quartermaster. No dice, I was locked into the OS rate.

Although I did very well in my rating, being promoted to a 2nd class petty officer (E-5) in just 2 1/2 years… having been lied to by the recruiter and not getting into aviation was very disappointing. Several other “disappointing” experiences made me decide in the end: to not re-up or make a career in the military.

I was the Boot-Camp company “Honor-Recruit” and meritoriously promoted to E-2. My career as an Operations Specialist was in a “critically undermanned” rating and, subsequently, very fast-tracked. I got excellent evaluations and learned very fast. I was an “A-J-Squared-away Sailor”! I even ironed my dungarees with military creases! At just 18 1/2, as a 3rd Class Petty Officer, I was qualified as an Auxiliary Class ship-underway Watch Supervisor in the Combat Information Center (CIC).

But in the end, I had seen more than my share of too many examples of incompetence from the likes of too many rubber-stamped shake-and-bake 90-day wonders with college degrees in “Basket-weaving 101”, who blamed unfortunate enlisted men for their screw-ups all while “gun-decking” material readiness reports, as well as bad ship handling. I was also a witness of “potential” criminal behavior and arrogance by some very senior officers who all seemed to get “white-washed.” I started to question my career choice. But as a newly minted 2nd Class, At two years and six months, I began talking to my Career Petty Officer about re-upping and getting into the Limited Duty Officer program and potentially becoming a Commissioned Officer.

I know… we all have our sob stories, but in my case, I was asked to give sworn depositions to the Naval Investigations Service (NIS). I had also had numerous phone conversations with Senator William Proxmire, who was considering convening a Senate Armed Services Committee to investigate these “potential” criminal incidents. But, even after all of the multiple independent sworn witness statements given to the NIS (Higher Naval Command heavily influenced NIS: This was back in the day before the now independent and professional law enforcement agency NCIS was born), the incidents/behaviors again were just swept under the rug as if they didn’t happen. In this instance, I watched as a Senior Naval Officer was exonerated for incidents that had multiple witnesses, over a period of 12 months, who testified to being the victims of and witnessing his dangerous “Captain Queeg” ala the “Caine Mutiny” type behavior, as well as some very unfortunate behavior during an encounter with some rather large marine-mammals.

While serving on the USS San Jose (AFS-7) between 1981 and 1983, we rescued boat-loads of desperate Vietnamese people who were fleeing the oppression of the communist government on two separate occasions.

I also served aboard the USS Tattnall (DDG-19) from 1983 to February 1985. In October 1983, she was assigned to the Sixth Fleet and then off to the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, as part of the Multinational Peace Keeping Force. On 23 October 1983, 220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 Army soldiers were killed in a suicide truck-bombing attack. She then made a high-speed transit to Beirut just after the attack took place. She was assigned and served several times as the “guard-ship” for the Marines stationed at the airport who came under fire from hostiles. As a result, she conducted several Naval Gun Fire Support missions on those hostile targets, including a Surface to Air Missile Battery, because hostile actions (SAM Firings) were taken against US Navy aircraft.

Both of these events illustrated the absurdity of “man’s cruelty to his fellow man” and had a profound effect on this very young sailorman!

Did you encounter any situation during your military service when you believed there was a possibility you might not survive? If so, please describe what happened and what was the outcome.

A few situations made me wonder if I might not survive: Several times, my shipmates and I had to ride out typhoons at sea while serving aboard the USS San Jose (AFS-7). She had been assigned from Almeida, CA, to a new Home Port at Agana, Guam, in 1981.

It was a very humbling, as well as terrifying experience while in sea-state 8 to 9, to watch the bow of a 581′, 17,000-ton-displacement auxiliary class supply ship disappear into and through an on-rushing 60′-70′ high white-capped wave (trough to peak) for hours upon hours that seemed like they would never end!

During my time aboard the USS Tattnall (DDG-19), while on the gun line as “guard-ship,” we received an alert over the radio: “Vampire, Vampire, Vampire… Missile inbound”! Talk about thinking you might shit, go blind, or die…The USS Tattnall had her “Combat” (CIC) on the 03 levels behind the bridge, with nothing but an aluminum superstructure between a Missile and us… Thank God… it turned out not to be an inbound missile but a false alarm! Pucker factor =10++++!

My fondest “memories,” like everyone else’s, were of my first… ship, that is- the USS San Jose (AFS-7). She had been re-assigned Home Port from Alameda, CA, to Agana, Guam, the Mariana Islands in 1981.

Guam is a beautiful tropical island with fantastic, friendly people once you get away from the main city and sailor-bar clip-joints. It also has some of the best diving and water sports ever!

Also, San Jose was a Fast Store (supply ship). We regularly made many exotic port calls. During my two years aboard, I visited Subic Bay, Philippine Islands (at least a dozen times); Sasebo and Yokosuka, Japan; Pusan, South Korea; Hong Kong (two times); the city-state, Singapore; Pattaya-Beach, Thailand; Columbo, Sira-Lanka; The Maldives Islands, in the Indian Ocean; Diego Garcia, BIOT; Mogadishu, Somalia; Muskat, Oman; Perth, Australia (heavenly); Peleliu, Palau Islands; Yap, Caroline Islands and; Ulithi Atoll. Those last three places were then U.S. Trust Territories. Visiting those islands was like living out: The James Mitchner, book/musical play and movie; “Tales of The South Pacific”! Right down to the native gals in grass skirts!

My least favorite assignment was at OS”A” school in Dam Neck, Va. Without a doubt, the whole “Navy area” of bases in northeast Virginia was the least friendly place I have ever been. Way too many sailors and way too many civilians who just “hated” sailors.

There are so many. I know it is very “corny,” but in my case, it really was – “Join the Navy and See the World”!

I learned to SCUBA dive while in the Navy and probably got to dive some of the most pristine and unspoiled reefs in the world, from the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean. I met people from all over our country and worldwide at 17, 18, and 19 years old! Boy, did I take it all for granted back then! I wish I could live it all over again!

The thing about serving in the Navy that I’ll never forget and something I had never before experienced in my life, and still to this day, never have again, was the unprecedented fact that; regardless of your age; if you could qualify and sufficiently demonstrate your abilities; you would be placed in charge of people and millions of dollars worth of equipment, machines, and weapons. All because you had demonstrated you “could handle the load.” In other words: your abilities and competence had earned the confidence of your shipmates and superiors. Even as a career police officer later on in my life, nowhere else ever did I experience this again! I don’t know if that culture still exists in the Navy or military today, but I think it must.

I have heard it said since then and now at nearly 60 years old, know it to be true … “that nothing you will ever do again in your life; will ever be as important, meaningful, exciting, terrifying, and life-altering as your time in the military.”

After service of nearly 30 years in Law Enforcement, since my Navy service. I can say: “without a doubt in my military mind,” that no truer statement has ever been made! In my experience, It is the gospel truth!

What professional achievements are you most proud of from your military career?

Becoming an ‘Underway Watch Supervisor’ in the ship’s Combat Information Center (CIC) by age 19 and qualifying for my Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) Device, all while serving aboard a Guided Missile Destroyer as a new E-5. Earning that device was not a “given” in the early 1980s, especially as a second-class petty officer. Those are my two proudest achievements.

My “Sea Service” ribbons. All three of them. Boy, did we really work our young asses off earning them: Long deployments; 3-4 hours sleep per day; 7 days a week; for the whole deployment, four hours on and 2 or 4 hours off watch-standing and collateral duties that never ended.

Plus, on the USS San Jose, there were always those 18-hour-long days of underway replenishment of the Carrier Battlegroups we maintained in the Indian Ocean. Many, many days a week during deployments.

Commander Charles Tuck. He was the second Captain I had while stationed on the USS Tattnall (DDG-19), my last command. He relieved Captain P.T. Deutermann, who is now a famous novelist. To many, Commander Tuck was a fine man, a true officer and a gentleman, and a father figure. It is now over 36 years ago this past February that I left USS Tattnall. She is now long gone…

Why did I list him? When he discovered during my exit interview that I was not re-enlisting for a second tour, all because my division officer had denied me a coveted school (Air Intercept Controller) as a condition of my re-enlistment. Commander Tuck became very upset and openly berated the officer in his stateroom while I was there! The Div-O explained that he did not want to give me the school because he knew that I would have to be re-assigned to one of the newly commissioned Ticonderoga class Cruisers upon completing the school. After all, Tattnall already had her two billets for AIC-rated OSs. The Commander was furious with this officer’s faulty judgment. The Division Officer continued that he was so sure that I was destined to be a “lifer” that it never occurred to him that I’d seriously consider leaving the service if I did not get the school that I had wanted.

He tried to explain to the “old man” that the division would suffer from losing me and that he wanted to ensure I would stay with the command on “his team.”

The Commander told him, “So, in your faulty judgment, you’ve just lost him for the whole Navy instead!” I had never seen him speak to anyone in that manner before. He then tried to pull some strings, making phone calls to get me into the school. It was to no avail! I did believe him when he told me I would get the school ASAP if I would re-up. My mind was already made up; I decided to leave the Navy because of a history of failed promises again. And the arrogance of too many junior officers (OCS grads) and a few senior ones. My guess is that because President Reagan wanted his 500-ship Navy and needed the officers and men to man and operate them, the quality of personnel suffered.

Despite his disappointment that he could not get me into the class right away or convince me to re-up, he understood my decision and respected it.

He also gave me some sound advice about taking advantage of all the opportunities that life would present me.

Over 30 years later, after a long and rewarding career in Law Enforcement that I retired from, I started three very successful businesses.

Today, I am now fully retired.

Looking back now over 40 years since heading to Boot Camp, the memories are mostly found ones. I don’t regret my service or my decision to leave the service when I did… well, maybe just a little.

I wouldn’t have missed any of it for the world!

Even now, I dream at night of standing on the bridge wing, cruising along at 30 knots, the wind in my face, with no moon and the sky lighted by a billion stars all around.

OS1 “Billy” Craig: OS2 “Jonsey” Jones; OS2 “Randy” Johnson; OS2 “Rick” Richardson; OS2 “Spazz” Asbury; EW2 “Bob” Barker; OS3 “Kojack” Kovak, OSCS “Slurpy” Sands, OSC “Norm” Nellums, Captain (later Vice Admiral, ret.) Lyle F. “The Bull” Bull; Lieutenant “Pete” Williams; OS2 (later, Lieutenant Commander, ret.) James Macey, and many, many more whose names escape me now.

Yeah, I was standing too at colors on the 04 level, behind the signal bridge of the San Jose in Subic Bay one fine Navy morning. While the national anthem played, I was very hung-over when I thought I would fart and gross the guys out!

Well, the joke was on me! Without warning, I took a massive uncontrolled dump, filling my boon-dockers! I stepped over to a hatch and snuck down the Captain’s Command passageway to the head in our compartment on the main deck and stripped. After a quick non-Navy shower, I opened the main-deck Hatchway and threw my dungaree pants, socks, and boon-dockers over the side! (I had more of each) Later, even though I knew everyone heard (smelled) it, no one said anything to me about the “incident.” Not even the Senior Chief!

Hilarious now, Horrible then!

I spent almost 30 years as a Law Enforcement Officer. After retirement, I became a successful entrepreneur. I retired fully in 2018.

The American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, the Tin Can Sailors Association, the Adams Class Veterans Association, and the Non-Commission Officers Association.

The benefits I derive from belonging to these organizations are Fellowship, Fraternity, and Support on Veteran’s Issues.

I grew up… real fast and I became a self-motivated, self-sufficient, and self-reliant man! This self-confidence wound up being the overriding factor in my being hired as a Law Enforcement Officer. (“You are very mature and have so much self-confidence for your age”) and my later in life success as an entrepreneur.

What I miss most of all -besides the side-splitting, unadulterated, cut-throat mercenary humor and uncensored biting banter and brotherhood of my comrades is standing a Midnight Watch, steaming (yes steaming) in the flat-calm Gulf of Aden on the bridge-wing. Looking at the billions of stars all around and not telling where the sky ends and the sea begins.

I don’t know… Keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open… The world we live in today is a humorless, politically correct one compared to my Navy.

Keep your hands, and especially your thoughts, to yourself.

Do not make the mistake of relying too heavily on technology. Learn the sea and the stars, and practice your basic seamanship!

It has brought back a flood of fond memories and great dreams!