Dan Rogers:
CLASS OF 1964
West High SchoolClass of 1964
Minneapolis, MN
Dan's Story
In October 1964 I enlisted in the US Navy, I had been to school up to my eyes (so I thought). Following boot camp in Great Lakes, IL, I was assigned to Fleet Sonar School in Key West, FL. High School was great compared to this, five days a week, eight hours a day, 52 weeks a year, for 16 months. Math, Physics, Electronics, no summer off, no two week breaks, study or you went to sea unrated (not a good thing). When I left Key West I asked for any ship, any port, west coast. I was sent to a Destroyer out of Norfolk, VA . Day after I reported aboard we went to the yards in Portsmouth, VA. Hmm, what to do with a junior enlisted, "send him to school", eight weeks at Sangamo Electric in Springfield, IL. Got back to the ship,not done with installation yet, what should we do with a well trained junior enlisted, you guessed it, "send him to school". Back down to Key West for another six weeks of physics and electronics. Finally, got back to my ship and got prepared for our first deployment. Headed for the Mediterranean Sea, six months deployed, many foreign ports including Turkey, Tunisia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Malta, Greece, Gibralter, and other ports too small to remember. This was an eye opener for a kid from the midwest even back then, I could not believe how well we had it in the US. Six months after arrival back in Norfolk, VA we deployed on our next Med Cruise. This cruise was a little more interesting. We stopped in Lisbon (Portugal), almost ran over the Santa Maria replica they had there. Our C.O. was good on the helm commands however, we missed it by about ten feet (not much on a war ship over 400 ft. in length). Continued on to the western Med. Stopped for a while in Naples where we had antennaes attached to every point on the ship they could attach them to. During this stop, I was contacted by a friend, Dennis Johnson (class of '64"). Denny had joined the Marine Corps and was on the USS Montrail, a "Gator Freighter", as we used to call them.
We went out in Naples and had a good time. The Montrail left for parts unknown and the Wood continued to Istanbul, Turkey. Marvelous place, went to the Blue Mosque, Top Coppi (sp), and other attractions that had only been seen (by me), in the movies. We then proceeded into the Black Sea where we had our very own group of three Russian Destroyers as our escorts (remember, the cold war wasn't as cold as we would like to believe). Following a week long cruise around the Black Sea (bottom mapping for oceanographic survey of course), we left (through the Dardenelles), and proceeded down the coast to Izmir Turkey. Beautiful, old Roman ruins and life style not yet spoiled by tourists. Some of my shipmates even went wild boar hunting there. Following this we returned to Naples (antennaes removed there). I was really starting to dislike Naples by this time, it truely was a sailors city (not in a good way), if you stayed on the waterfront..
I got adventerous and took the local water taxi's over to Capri. Great swimming (the Blue Grotto) and, people who did not consider American sailors as the dregs of the earth. Also went to Ishcia( via water taxi. Again, met some wonderful people, I did not speak Italian, they did not speak English (or American). Somehow we had some great times, many animated conversations (I learned how to speak with my hands there), and wonderful Italian food, prepared by Italians, for Italians, in Italy. Does it get any better.
We then proceeded across the straits to Messina Sicily. A one week stop. Totally different type of people. Still glad to see Americans (hold over from WWII). Again, great food, great wine and, interesting people (I was picking up a little Italian by that time, none repeatable in polite company). Following that we went back to Naples (Ugh!). I got word in Naples I was headed for (you guessed it), school again. This time a "B" school, located in where? Key West, Florida, 42 weeks in length (I did say I joined the Navy to get out of school, didn't I). Arrived home just before Christmas 1967 and had a great leave. Left for Key West in the winter and went from (a relativley mild), 28 degrees to 78 degrees in about two days, and reported aboard the base. By this time I had really started to like the city, I knew people and establishments(not as crazy as I understand it is now, haven't been back since 1968). I started school, no hurricanes this time (I had been through two, earlier in Key West).
I left Key West for my next ship, I had requested "any ship, any port, west coast. You guessed it, headed for a Guided Missile Destroyer, out of ,again, Norfolk, VA. The USS Claude V. Ricketts DDG-5, was a lot different then the WWII destroyer that I had been on previously. This ship had missiles, better guns, and it took the North Atlantic a lot better then my first ship (you may not know the saying "over one, under two"), This refers to the fact that on a Destroyer, in a storm, you go over one wave and bury your bow in the two following waves. Quite a bit of the time water comes over the Bridge (about forty feet above the waterline) The most interesting part of being on the Rickett's was that a very senior Caption, Ralph D'Corri (do you think he was Italian?), wished to ride the ship during our Med cruise. this turned out to be a combined seven month Med/North Atlantic run. We started out in the North Atlantic, with a couple of great stops, Portsmouth England (took a weekend in London), Londonderry Ireland (before the "troubles").. After a couple of months we then proceeded to the Med again. First stop?, you guessed wrong, this time it was Malta. A repair ship was there and we needed work on our boilers. The USS Claude V. Ricketts DDG-5, was originally a "mixed manning", ship. This was an experiment to see if NATO Countries could support each other. The "Big Nickel", as we called her, was one of those test ships. It turned out that multiple nationalities, with different levels of training cannot adequately maintain a Warship. I had to fix many problems with the SONAR System that would have been found by any US Navy "A" School graduate. It kept me busy. Valetta was interesting, at that time it did not seem to have changed much from the days of the crusades. It still had (and probably still does), have all of the old castles built around the Grand Harbour. Very interesting sight seeing. Everybody during the second world war seems to have dropped bombs on Malta as they passed overhead. When we left Malta we stopped in Finale Le Gourra (sp), Bari, Naples, the Port of Rome,and many other small ports, some that had not been visited by a US warship since the second world war, I did mention that Capt. D'Corri was Italian, didn't I. This was all together a good cruise, but this time I got tired of Malta. I had finally found some good areas to go to off the waterfront. Some good food and some good people. If you stayed near the waterfront you were in "The Gut". This was an area that most of us would not like to go. Primarily Merchant Marine and not the best people to get acquainted with. The Big Nickel had boiler trouble the entire cruise so it was go to a port, go to Malta, you get the picture. We returned from this cruise September of 1969. When we got back stateside, I had orders waiting for me. What to do with a well trained sailor with lots of school and several years of practical experience? You guessed it, send him to school (for instructor training), and make him an instructor. By this time I had grown to like the east coast (and Key West), so I asked to be an instructor at Fleet Sonar School, Key West (I hadn't figured out how the Navy worked yet). I got my orders, report to Fleet Anti Submarine Warfare Training Center Pacific(FLEASWTRACENPAC), in San Diego CA. (kind of far from Key West), for instructor training and instructor duty. I spent several weeks going through instructor training. I didn't have to learn what I would be teaching, the Navy figured I already knew it. Following instructor training I was assigned to the "Blue Building", This was a facility that was used for Fleet Level Training. There I taught Anti Submarine Warefare Weapons and Tactics (ASW) in multi-ship trainers. You have to remember that in 1969, the computer systems that filled a room, had about as much power as your I-Phone today. I got to use many of the skills I had picked up earlier and learned new skills. About three years into my instructor duty an opportunity came up for a newly upgraded warship with a brand new, fully computerized (digital, before that, all analog) Sonar system. This was the USS Berkeley DDG 15, in the yards in Bremerton Washinton. I requested early termination of shore duty (instructor), and asked for assignment to the Berkeley. Request was granted, first place I go to? Report to "school", factory training again, provided by Sperry, the designer and installer of the AN/SQQ-23 PAIR sonar system. Six months later I get out of school again (I did join the Navy to avoid school, remember?). Reported to the Berkely in Bremerton, WA. along with a shipmate that I had gone through training with (Steve Wedgeworth, another Sonar Tech). Drove from San Diego to Bremerton in a bright red 1966 MGB Roadster (knock off wire wheels and all), I had sold my 400 Firebird, gas was up to 50 cents a gallon(outrageous). We managed to get all of our gear in that little car and still had room to be comfortable for the drive north. Wedge and I arrived in Bremerton, WA, two days later. and reported aboard. It is no fun taking a ship through the yards, lot's of hard and dirty work, but worth it, in the end. Berkely ran like a Swiss watch, 39 knots (design speed was 35 knots), down the Hood canel (got passed by USS Pegasus PGH1 (Patrol Gunboat Hydrofoil 1), a hydrofoil warship, just smoked us. But we were still very proud of what the Berkeley could do. We left Bre...Expand for more
merton and headed back south to San Diego (our home port). Did some refresher training and then left for the Western Pacific. I was hoping to see Hawaii at this time, but it was not to be. We were part of a three ship task force, USS Constellation CV 64 (aircraft carrier), the USS Berkeley DDG 15(guided missile destroyer), and the USS Hepburn DE (destroyer escort), 1055. Our mission was to see how far across the Pacific we could get without alerting the Russions (remember the cold war?). We made it almost to Guam before we got our first Bear overflight. We had bypassed Hawaii entirely. Our first stop was in Subic Bay, Republic of the Phillapinnes. At that time a request was made for a Senior Petty Officer (me) to remain in Subic as part of the Armed Forces Police contingiant. My Commanding Officer was CMDR. Lance D' St Croix, an older brother of one of our classmates (Chris D' St Croix).. Lance was a back seater (tactical weapons operator) on an F-4 Phantom in the Viet Nam conflict. I ended up staying there for over a year ( in the P.I.).. I was originally only supposed to be there for about four months. I was told, "there is no qualified replacement available". A year and a bit after I arrived, I ended up escorting prisioners back to the US aboard another "Gator Freighter". Arrived back in San Diego in April of 1975. By this time I was tired of bouncing around on the surface of the ocean, so I volunteered for Submarine duty. You guessed it, another school, 6 months in length. Then assigned to the USS Narwhal SSN (Submarine Nuclear)-671, a beautiful fast attack boat out of Groton CT. She was a one of a kind sub, too expensive to build more of, and the quitest sub ever built (at that time). A couple of runs were made up North, looking around for whomever may be looking around. While aboard I also went through Navy Diving school. A great weight loss program. Went in weighing 175 lbs., after six weeks, came out weighing 155 lbs. and could run a marathon with the other members of the class. The class was made up of submarine sailors and force recon marines. The instructors paired us up as one sailor and one marine per team. Your team member was your "swim buddy", and you did not abondon him no matter what happened. We each gained a lot of respect for the others job's and made some great friends. Diving in the Thames River in Groton, CT. in October was not a lot of fun. Cold, couldn't see more than a foot in front of your face, and a good current. No one flunked out. We had a graduation dive in Long Island Sound, picked up some lobster, clams, and crab, and had a party. The weather was too cold and the seas too rough to do our deep dive quals in Long Island Sound, so we went to the pressure cookers at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. to complete our 220 ft. diving quals. The pressure cookers were exactly that, large (could hold 12 people), vessels that could be pressurized to the equivalent of 220 ft. They were partially filled with water and we wore full dive gear for the test. The entire team passed so we went out and celebrated in Georgetown. A dangerous combination, sailors and marines, good friends, passing a difficult test, turned loose on the civilian population. We behaved ourselves, other then a few headaches in the morning, it was an uneventful night. Following Dive school, I returned to the USS Narwhal SSN-671, flew across the Atlantic to join up with her in Holy Loch Scotland (my middle name is MacPherson, so I had no problem being in Scotland). We then proceeded back across the Atlantic Ocean (underwater of course), to our home port of Groten, CT. OOP's, not quit so fast, an F-14 Tomcat had gone over the side of one of our Aircraft Carriers and the Navy needed to recover the Pheonix weapon system on board. The NR-1 (smallest nuke boat ever built, deep diving), recovered the weapon system, but surprise, a storm in the North Atlantic caused her to break her tow from an ocean going tug. We were sent out to "baby sit", by staying submerged between the surface and the depth the NR-1 was at. All I can say is that we were at 300 ft. and still taking 30 degree rolls. This was not a lot of fun. A special op's boat then was able to get underway from Norfolk, VA and was able to piggy back the NR-1 back home. Situations like this are why most SSN (Fast Attack Submarine), crew members are single. There are no scheduled deployments like the Boomers (Trident Submarines) have. You go when needed. After returning from this run I found out my father was dying from cancer. I asked for humanitarian leave but that was denied. I didn't have any other choice, I requested a discharge from active duty. Some of you may remember my sister (Marilyn Rogers), was a graduate from West High School (home bound student). She graduated with honors, I made it through (barely).. She was quadruplegic from polio (Sister Kenny was one of her nurses), We had an Iron Lung in the house on 26th and Irving. (and previously at 3300 3rd Avenue South). that I knew how to service.. They also had an Iron Lung at HCMC that they (the Hospital) had no idea how it worked.. You guessed it, how does this Iron Lung thing work? Would you please show us? I did training for Baby Doctors and Nurses that had never seen an Iron Lung. They are to me, very simple machines.. Within a month of leaving active service I had a job with Univac Corp. in Eagan MN. When I hired on with Univac I accepted a position as a technician, maintaining equipment used to manufacture computer memory. Not a bad job, but boring. About a year later I was asked if I would be interested in field engineering (repairing the customer computers and peripherals on site), I said "sure". You guessed it, back to school, this time taught by Univac Customer Trainers in Eagan. While in school I met a wonderful young lady (admin for the training department), and asked her out. The other guy's in the class wished me luck, thinking she probably had several guy's pursueing her. She said yes, and I cheated, took her to the Orion Room at the top of the IDS Tower for our first date. She was eleven years younger than I, and had never been to a place like that. We continued seeing each other even after I was transferred to Newport, Rhode Island to support the Trident Integration Lab. I flew her out to Newport in September of 1978 and asked her to marry me. She said yes, we got married in June of 1979 and passed 40 years now. In February of 1979 I found out that the HR departments actually review resume's from time to time. The Shah of Iran was our friend and wanted to buy four Destroyers. They (HR), knew I had taught Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW), weapons and tactics in San Diego and asked if I would like to be a Customer Trainer, I said, "sure". I developed ASW scenario's for several months until the overthrow in Iran. Lost some Iranian nationals who had become good friends by that time. In some cases, they just disappeared. since that program ended, I started teaching hardware and system level maintenance to Navy and DoD customers. A lot of travel involved since there are not too many Navy bases in Minnesota. It put's' a lot of stress on a relationship when you are gone for up to ten weeks at a time (no weekends home). Nice sites however, Bremerton, San Francisco, San Diego, Long Beach, Virginia Beach, Charleston, Newport, Groton, Jacksonville, Pensacola, and of course, Washington, D.C. During this period of time, I found out I couldn't hold a job. Same desk, same phone number, seven different employers. Univac, Sperry Univac, Sperry, Unisys, Paramax, Unisys (again), Loral, and Lockheed Martin. Many interesting programs for a lot of customers, you have to remember however, the purpose of the training was to be able to maintain the equipment that gets a weapon from "point A", to "point B". I had a great career as a customer trainer, then I guess I made someone mad. In January 2001, I was informed that the Training and Technical Documentation Departments in Eagan (we had become Lockheed Martin by that time), were being combined and, I was going to manage them. Other than during the service, this was the first time I had to manage "people", not equipment. I was lucky, the individuals I managed were friends and co-workers. This is difficult at times, because you know everyone and sometimes have to make some rough desicions. Bye the way, because of my skill set I still had to travel and teach. Also had to meet with customers at their site's to discuss product. This lasted until 2007 when a peer (fellow manager and friend), asked if I would consider working for him as an Logistic's Engineer. Took me thirty second's to make up my mind, YES! Great way to wind down a career, I was working with the customer again, some I had known for thirty years, gained new skills, and had fun. I decided to retire from lockheed Martin in December of 2008. I figured I would leave when people may ask "where's Dan when you need him", instead of "when is Rogers going to retire"? My wife, Susan, has also retired. We don't travel much (together) because we have an 19 year old rescue Himalayan girl cat. She does not do well with strangers. I now do volunteer work at the VA Medical Center at Ft. Snelling. This happens a couple of times a week. It is a lot of fun interacting with the other VETS in our community. I am also a Past President for the Lakeville PAN-O-RAMA of Progress, as is my wife. I pick up all the permits for Cruise Night and the snacks for all the children's events. Susan is also still heavily involved. My fun time here south of Lakeville in Eureka Township(at least during the summer), is mowing lots of grass, taking care of fruit trees, feeding the deer, turkeys, all the birds in the world, and whatever critters show up. I hope you are all having as good a time in retirement, as I am.. Your classmate from 1964, Dan Rogers
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
