Michael Heffernan:
CLASS OF 1965
East Meadow High SchoolClass of 1965
East meadow, NY
George Washington UniversityClass of 1976
Ashburn, VA
Harvard UniversityClass of 1975
Cambridge, MA
Michael's Story
Life
Left East Meadow in April of 1966, and unlike many of you, I never looked back. My family was still there (Brother/Mother), but I struck out on my own to have a taste of the world, or at least the United States. I traveled to the orient and met little yellow people who tried to kill me (Vietnam)! but I also met pleasant people in Japan, Hong Kong, Formosa, the Philippines.
Then I got to travel throughout the Mediterranean Sea and it's surrounding countries. Cannes France during the French film festival, The Greek Isle of Rhodes during the islands wine festival. Venice, Gaeta, Naples in Italy. El Ferrol and Barcelona in Spain. Palma De Mallorca.
I married a California girl after my return from Vietnam. Had two boys, Lived happily for 20 years and then she asked me for a divorce out of the clear blue right after my statement regarding how happy we were? After 10 more years of on again and off again relationships between her other relationships, I called it quits for the second and last time. She died six years later in 2006 at the age of 54 from lung cancer.
At the same time that I finally called it quits with my first wife, Patricia Harrison (Van Wagenen) from the class of 66 lost her husband due to heart failure. About six months later we met and rekindled some feelings from High School. Two years later I asked her to marry me. She said yes. And we have been happy ever since. She moved from Port Jefferson New York to just outside Atlanta. Our House is situated overlooking the 5th tee box of the Golf Course.
College
I attended Havard University from 1972-1973. Most of you know I was an unmotiviated vocational wing student and wonder how I did this. The Navy had a program called "Program for Afloat College Education" (PACE) that allowed Navy people to have college professors come aboard the ships to teach college courses. Every area had a contract school. The one for the Newport RI and Boston MA area was Harvard University. So all our professors were contract Professors hired by Harvard from various New England Colleges (Tuffs, Havard, retired Professors, etc) But all the course completion certificates said Harvard!
After that I was transferred to The Tidewater Area in Virgina where I enrolled as a transfer student from "Harvard" at the tidewater campus of The George Washinton University (who's main campus was in Washinton D.C. in Georgetown).
Workplace
40 years military service, 13+ y...Expand for more
ears active duty (including 3 tours in Vietnam), 13+ years reserve (including a call-up for Operation Desert Storm). And then 14+ years in the Fleet Reserve (eligible for call up, but not part of the active drilling reserve). The Ship I was on "won" (a dubious phrase) the Combat Action Ribbon three times while I was aboard. That would be the equivalent to the Army's Combat Infantryman's Badge. It required Actually being in a firefight with the enemy. We also were awarded the Gallantry Cross for Combat Action achievment. We started our Vietnam Service in Hue at the start of the 1968 Tet Offensive doing gun fire support for the Marines trying to retake Hue (pronounced WAY). We were close enough to the beach that we were taking small arms fire. We spent a great deal of our time after Hue doing attacks on critical targets in North Vietnam with are long range rapid fire 5' 54 caliber guns.
After taking 101 incoming 3" rounds from the enemy who managed to get in a lucky shot and demast us, we were reassigned to gunfire support for the 1st Air Cavalry just below the DMZ to Support a D-DAY lnading operation along the coast while we awaited new radar antennas to be sent to Subic Bay to repair our battle damage from the North Vietnamese guns that got us. After our repairs, we resumed our "Seadragon Missions" against the North Vietnamese coast with a vengance that set a 14 day record for havoc and distruction (which resulted in the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross being awarded to every man on the ship.
From the active military I moved to the civilian world and worked for Digital Equipment Corporation starting as a Field Servide Engineer in California. While with Digital I moved up the ranks and worked as a Marketing Representative, District Business Manager, and Government Sales Executive.
With my retirement from the military and from Digital Equipment Corp., I started my own business as an Internet Service company doing web site design, web hosting, and other tasks involving web sites and search engines for commercial customers.
In July of 2009, in the midst of the greatest recession since the great depression, I closed my business and went into full retirement mode at the ripe old age of 62. Patricia and I bought a house in South West Florida as a winter home. It is on the 9th tee box of the golf course. So we now winter in Southern Florida and Summer just NW of Atlanta, GA. Ahhhhh...... It's a great life.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
