John Keeton:
CLASS OF 1976
Western High SchoolClass of 1976
Louisville, KY
John's Story
After graduating in 76' I worked at various jobs here in Louisville trying to figure out what I wanted to do before deciding on joining the military. I initially went in the Kentucky Air National Guard in 78' before getting a conditional release to join the Navy in 81' where I served until 9/1/03. I went to boot camp in Great Lakes, IL in the winter of of 81/82 (it was so cold that year; it was the record low at the time.) I went from there to Millington, TN for electronics training then to Lemoore, CA for advanced training prior to joining my first squadron in Jacksonville, FL. I met up with them just in time to deploy on the USS Independence and go on my first cruise which wound up starting in a little place called Grenada. From there we rushed to the Mediterranean and the coast of Lebanon after the Marine barracks had been bombed in Beirut. We got to visit various ports including Haifa, Israel during Christmas. We also went to Spain, Italy and England for short periods. Through the years I spent time in various regions of the world visiting nearly 50 countries on every continent except Australia, hated missing that one, and Antarctica, but not that one. Israel was my favorite in that part of the world with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all tied for last for any part of the world. Asia was great but with so many places visited it would be hard to pick the best but Yechon, Korea was the worst; the other places in Korea were fine. England topped the list for Europe, Panama the most unique in Central America and Ecuador the most interesting in South America. Halifax, Nova Scotia in the fall with fish and chips along with plenty of Guinness was hard to beat. Key West during spring break, yes the Navy sent us there for spring break on the carrier USS George Washington, was the warm weather spot along with Mauritius off the African coast being right up there as well. Along the way I got married in 86', earned my degree in Electronic Engineering Technology and was accepted into officer and flight training. My first of three sons was born in Pensacola, FL during flight training and the other two in Honolulu, HI, one when we first got there and the other two weeks before we left. We lived all over the US along the way including NC where I taught NROTC at UNC Chapel Hill . I got a masters degree in Military History while there, mandatory for duty at a university, before going to live in VA Beach while serving as a catapult and arresting gear officer aboard the carrier USS George Washington. I ended up back in Jacksonville, FL for my department head tour with another squadron, VP16, before getting my final set of orders back to...Expand for more
Millington, TN at the Navy Personnel Command where I flew a desk until retiring in 2003. I came home to Louisville and taught Navy JROTC at Central HS until retiring again 1 July 2016. Using my Post 9/11 GI bill, I went back and got two more master degrees at U of L, tough for a die-hard UK fan. One was a masters in Education (Instructional Technology) and the other was an MBA. As much time as I spent in either John D Brown, Mr Gilliam, Mr Tibbs (I spent more time there than any of the others) or Mr Taylor's offices, I'm sure that those still living, along with most teachers, would have a heart attack knowing a college let me in their doors and that I taught high school for 13 years; I can't quite fathom that one myself at times. I've seen and done a lot of things over the years, some of them I couldn't talk to my wife about, which drove her crazy. I wouldn't be where she thought I was, or where I was supposed to be, and I would just tell her to watch the news and that she would probably be able to figure it out. All along the way though Louisville remained home with most of my family still residing in the area. Although much has changed, I still have great memories of my times at Western with the parties, football games and good friends (I've only been able to keep in touch with a few over the years.) My wife and I still enjoy traveling, many friends around the country are from our time in the Navy, and we seem to pick up right where we left off with sea stories and cold beverages. I miss those people and the times we had but not all of the moving and family separation we had to endure. Sports, hunting, fishing and reading, outside of travel, are my favorite pastimes but time with friends and family are the best. My oldest son is a civil engineer who graduated from UK while the younger two seem to be on again, off again with schooling as they try and figure out what it is they want to do with the one dabbling with a degree in business and the other messing around with criminal justice but talking about joining the Navy; I'm not sure how dad feels about that. It was ok for me to go knocking around the world as an adrenaline junkie but I don't know about my son but then again it isn't my life and my wife and parents probably weren't real happy with where I was and what I was doing at times either. I work at the Human Resources Command at FT Knox now but I look forward to retiring for good in the near future in order to spend more time doing the things I enjoy the most. Hopefully, somewhere along the way there is a Western reunion in the cards. I'd love to see some old faces and catch up a bit on what has been going on over the past forty years or so.
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