Mark Mitchell:
CLASS OF 1968
Lynbrook High SchoolClass of 1968
Lynbrook, NY
Mark's Story
Mark "Mitch" Mitchell - the abridged version
- MIT 1968-1972
Key events: March on Washington, Nov 15-16 1969
Dormitory (Baker House) President 1971-1972
Managed to graduate with a BS in Management by the narrowest of margins;
my graduating project paper was completed 30 minutes before deadline, and despite working (for pay) 40 hours a week at the end, I paid last bill with $1.54 left over
Satisfaction of graduating was short lived - it left me as a 1-A candidate with a draft number of 37. Due to some atypical foresight (and a good memory) I was able to sign up for Navy Officer Candidate School rather than being drafted; I was only able to pass the physical because I memorized the eye chart while in line... I worked at the school bookstore after graduation.
- the NAVY years - 1973-1996
Called to active duty at Newport RI Jan 1973. Graduated and commissioned May 1973. Went to schools in Athens GA, then to Sub School in New London CT. Finally reported to a ship, the nuclear submarine USS ASPRO (SSN-648) in Feb 1974.
- My tours of duty in the Navy, and key personal events:
Pearl Harbor, HI - USS ASPRO (Feb '74-Oct '76). Spent roughly 365 days submerged on various operations, but did get to see Japan, Guam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong along with a lot of water.
Met a Hawaiian girl, Konia Thompson. (She was a classmate of the Hawaiian guy who married Sari Miller,
LHS class of 1969). Konia and I married in Honolulu at Kawaiahao Church, SEPT 1976
Naval Air Station, Cubi PT, Philippines (Nov '76-Oct '78)
Terrible place to start a marriage - furniture and eating out was cheap, and we had a Filipino maid, yard boy, and a seamstress. Somehow we survived, and my bride thought this was the standard for Navy life. HA!
I did get to travel to Taiwan, Okinawa, and to Diego Garcia (in the Indian Ocean); we both went to Hong
Kong for a fantastic shopping trip.
Aviation Supply Office, Philadelphia (Nov '78-Jan '81)
We moved into a small apartment in North Philly, and reality started to kick in. Our son Joseph was born in April 1980 - I was there for this one.
The job had me traveling extensively across the US, and to the Philippines, Guam, and Hawaii again.
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA (Feb'81 - Apr '83)
We bought our first house in a little town ("Marina - next 2 exits - Gas Food Lodging") north of Monterey. I earned an MS in Operations Research with assorted honors, and started doing
some serious computer software work.
USS Enterprise (nuclear aircraft carrier) CVN-65, homeported in Alameda CA (across the bay from San Francisco). May '83-June '85
We lived in a small apartment on the Alameda Air Station. I spent about a year total at sea on the "E", including a six and half month deployment with a 93 day stay in the Indian Ocean. I did get to make stops in Hawaii, and for the last time in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
In true Navy fashion, my daughter Elizabeth was born in Oakland CA, in June 1984 - two weeks after we started that seven month deployment. Needless to say, I was not there.
Konia & the kids stayed with my mother-in-law in Hawaii for two months while my wife recuperated. The ship came home in late December (just in time to buy the last Christmas tree on the lot) so I missed lots of "changes" in my daughter those first six months (I've made up for them later). Poignantly, my then 4 1/2 year old son greeted me when I came home and asked that I never go away for that long again. He had been a stalwart - bounced to a neighbor when my wife had the baby, and taking care of the newborn when my wife was not well enough to do it on her own. That was my last sea tour.
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA (July '85 - Sept '88)
This time, I was on the academic staff, first as an Instructor, later as an Assistant Professor, in the Operations Research department. BEST tour of duty in the whole career - a lot of flexibility to spend time with the family, and we renovated the house in Marina.
Because of a snafu with the Navy orders (funding issues due to games played with the Defense budget), we wound up selling the house, buying another in northern Virginia, and moving the family there in May 1988 - and I then had to return to Monterey until the end of September to teach. We had a beautiful house and lot in Virginia, but my wife was stressed having to deal w...Expand for more
ith issues alone: copperheads in the adjacent forest, impending highway widening (up to
our property line), and a proposed Arby's on the other side. She worked through it, the kids survived the summer and we all caught up in September.
Navy Supply Headquarters, Arlington VA. (Oct '88-Aug '91)
The commute and the stress of a highly visible job took its toll here. Leaving routinely at 0515, getting home at 1930, working many Saturdays and some Sundays. I spent whatever time I could with the family, but it never seemed enough - and after 7 years on the West Coast, my mom and family in New York expected us to spend a lot of time with them - so when I did have a weekend free from work, we often did the I-95 trek to New York and back.
There were some wonderful times when the kids learned to appreciate the many attractions in Washington DC, but by the end, "burn out" was apparent. I had developed some real medical issues & the marriage survived. 'Nuff said.
Naval Supply Center, Puget Sound WA (Sept '91-Sept '93)
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (Sept '93 - Aug '96)
[If you check on a map, these are west of Seattle in Bremerton WA]
Having survived the dreaded headquarters tour, we had a wonderful trip across country for 9 days in late August. Best family trip ever - museums, the Indianapolis Raceway, gold mining in the Black Hills, and capped off with Yellowstone. The work in Bremerton wasn't bad, we bought our third (and current) house, and developed roots in the community.
Swim team, soccer, scuba diving, debate, trips to Hawaii for my wife's family, and more soccer kept my wife (and kids) busy. Our house was new construction, so we spent a lot of effort doing all the landscaping and planting to make it our own...
I finally left active duty in Sept '96; 23 years of service, lots of memories, more than a few scars. Lots of moves, lost both parents, missed my sister's wedding, and was absent for many birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. My daughter spent her first five years of education in four different schools; the kids and wife had made and left good friends in lots of places.
After a small ceremony, when the family got home, they gathered around me and conveyed their love - they knew I now had to look for a REAL job, and that I had offers back east (some beltway bandits really wanted me). They gave me a single thought "Dad, you can take any job you want and go
anywhere, but we're not moving." We're still here (although the kids have moved on.)
The rest of the story isn't quite as exciting: I worked for a software company in Seattle for five years till it closed its doors at the end of 2001; I consulted for a year, then latched on with Washington Mutual (also in Seattle) managing high tech logistics (the bank had over 120,000 computers at one time).
The kids grew up, went to college - Joe to Wazzu (Washington State)
and Missy (Elizabeth) to Western Washington.
A friend called me four years ago about a job opening doing software design only 15 minutes from home, and after nearly ten years of working in Seattle (with an almost two hour commute each way) I jumped at the chance. So I now am a Computer Scientist at the Naval Underwater Warfare Center, Keyport WA, developing the next generation of the Navy's training management system.
Konia & I are still married (34th anniversary on Kauai pictured) and when she's not off being a grandmother or working with her hula group, we spend time together mostly at home, where our backyard has grown up into a park-like setting. I maintain the garden and am now learning woodworking, both of which are great stress relievers that don't require a keyboard.
Joe went to Denver CO after college, came back in 2005, and consults with other companies on their cost of doing IT business. Watching him become a good father has been extremely satisfying. Married, he has two sons now, bought his first home, and lives about one and a half hours from us - close enough to see any weekend, but too far to change diapers. Grandparenting is good!
Missy got her BS degree and teaching certificate in math and physical education from WWU, and is teaching at WWU.. With the current economy, her timing appears to be like mine when I left college - right place, wrong time.
It's been a great trip so far, but Lynbrook seems so long ago and far away. Hope all are well. Mitch
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