Rick Roberson:  

I got myself in a little trouble and didn’t get to graduate with my diploma until a couple of weeks after you all did. Nobody to blame but myself. Just a little bit of wildness that took years to escape… I started at Weyerhaeuser the day after the diploma was in hand. The start of a 42 year career with an auspicious beginning digging wood chips out of a rail car with a pitch work. Freezing cold one night one night and I finally realized that this might not have been my best career choice. The next day I told my folks I was going to become a Marine. Well, with Nam a happening, my mom teared up a bit and talked me into joining the Navy to work towards being an Electrician. So off I went. In boot camp a few of us were approached about volunteering for Submarines. They mentioned my pay would double and my hand went right up and i volunteered. So I served the next 4 years on a Diesel Submarine, the Darter SS576. Went onboard. In Charleston and in the course of those four years rode her through the Panama Canal to the West Coast and eventually to the Far East. Really strange that I was able to stand topside while we came up the Columbia River by Kelso on our way too the Portland Rose Festival in 1972. Lots of sea stories… I wrote them in my book Diesel Days and Liberty Tales… It’...Expand for more