Life Afer Spinax: Jerry Cartwright

When I left the Spinax, I went to Naval Communications Station San Diego, where I did a 3-year tour. From there, I got orders to Defense Communications Agency (DCA), Southeast Asia (SEA), located at Clark Air Base near Angeles City, Republic of the Philippines. Shortly after my arrival there in March 1972, the Director of DCA announced that our name would be changing, since we were pulling most of our communications backbone out of Viet Nam and other southeast Asian areas. I had become good friends with an Air Force Master Sergeant, who was stationed in Thailand. He said "Jerry, since your command is responsible for Joint communications in Taiwan, Australian, British Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia), why don't they call you Defense Communications Agency, Southern Hemisphere Including Taiwan. I didn't think the Director would go for that, so I didn't even bother to suggest it. We were eventually renamed DCA Southwest Pacific (SWP).

Shortly after I arrived in the Philippines, martial law was declared, which was real frightening at first, but after a year or so, you get used to it. My wife and daughters finally arrived in June, and we had a great 3-year tour there. Oh, by the way, I made E8 while I was there.

When I rotated back, to CONUS, I got orders to the Naval Amphibious School in Coronado California. I was in charge of 5 communication schools which trained radiomen and non-communications personnel in Communications Security during Amphibious Landings. Our target audience included Navy SEALS, which in itself was quite an adventure. This turned out to be another great tour, with another promotion to E9.

I knew I would be going back to sea, and didn't want to return to the boats as an E9 radioman, so I submitted a request for a COB NEC, and accepted orders to the USS Gurnard (SSN-662) in March 1978. I had more than 20 years in at that time, and intended to stay in until I had 30. Life as a COB was challenging, demanding, and rewarding. Gurnard was a good boat, had great crew, and mostly outstanding wardroom. My skipper Henry (Hank) G. Chiles went on to become a Rear Admiral and served as one of the SubGru commanders in San Diego before heading back east to Washington DC. The Executive Officer and I were at loggerheads over "equal" punishment, and could never agree with each other on punishment of "nukes" and the front end sailors. I could see that things were changing and I didn't want to be in continuous conflict over personnel issues, so I put in my papers and retired on February 29, 1980, with more than 22 years.

Since then, I've worked for the San Diego Community College District (5-years) and spent the remaining 15 years in the commercial world. I don't have any plans right now for retirement, but I'm sure that will come up in the next couple of years

Jerry Cartwright