I have always liked Charleston. Ever since I went to Submarine Auxiliary Package Course at the Fleet Ballistic Missile Base in Charleston SC in 1973, the area has held a special place in my heart. 

There are some places that are just more impactful than others in your development. I joined the Navy when I was 17 and still in high school. I had many romantic notions about what the Navy was going to be like and of course, I was tired of being dictated to by my parents.

Boot camp and later schools at Great Lakes and New London helped me to understand that it was going to be a long time before I escaped someone else telling me what to do. But the first three schools were still pretty structured and didn’t give me much room to have much time on my own. That would come in Charleston.

Learning takes place inside and outside of the schoolhouse.

Unknown to me at the time, I was sent to Charleston because that was where my first submarine was finishing an availability in the shipyards. The plan must have been for me to report to the boat and then go to the advanced school for auxiliarymen. But the boat left on its way to new adventures in the Pacific and I found myself with very little adult supervision. There were transient barracks there but other thana reporting to school every day at the appointed time, I had no duty section and tons of free time on my hands.

My long-term relationship had already started to fray around the edges. And by that, I mean she had already started to date other guys who did not go off and join the Navy. I think I struggled with a bit of depression that goes along with being on your own. My entire younger life had been very structured, and I did not know what loneliness was all about. When you have three brothers that all sleep in the same room with you, you don’t know a lot of alone time. Toss in a sister and a family that always did things together and you understand what it feels like to belong.

Alone in a room full of people

Our family took vacations together and, in the summer, we had the houseboat every other weekend. Church was a family affair and the kids in my neighborhood were very close as well. The guys in Boot Camp, A school and submarine school replaced that nuclear family (sorry, no pun intended) so Charleston was a new experience for me.

The school was harder than I had imagined it would be. To be frank, I really struggled. It’s not that the curriculum was all that hard. I just wasn’t ready for so much knowledge to be poured on top of a brain struggling with being really on my own for the first time in my life. I must have written a hundred letters. Most were never answered. Phones were expensive and the only saving grace was that she was rarely home anymore, so they were mercifully short.

The saving grace was that one of my Chiefs at the school saw that I was struggling and took me under his wing. He brought me to his house where his wife cooked meals and welcomed me into their family. He took me to their church in Goose Creek where I got a chance to be around normal people. They were nice people. I even got to go with them on a retreat where I met some other nice people. I think that saved my career if not more.

 

By the time school was over, I had a passing grade, and I went home for one last visit before I went to Hawaii.

It would be the last time I spent with my soon to be ex-girlfriend. It was strained at best.

After a short time waiting for the boat to return, I was never lonely again. There wasn’t time.

I guess the lessons learned early on was that being alone wasn’t a death sentence. You just had to learn to find ways to get things done. Those lessons were part of growing up. When it comes to being on my own, I have proven to myself that I can be successful. But I also understand the importance of belonging.

I have also learned that sometimes you just don’t fit with some organizations at a given time and place. I’ve been lucky to be part of some veterans’ organizations over the years where I felt I belonged. Then certain elements change, and I didn’t. It might be because of a change in direction or individual egos involved. Maybe its just that I set a different standard for what I expect. It’s like being in the Navy really. Some experiences were outstanding and some really just sucked the life out of me.

Even the change of command where you go from a truly outstanding leader to one who should never have been given command of a paddle boat clearly demonstrates that one size does not fit all.

It can be discouraging.

At this point in life, I just want to be around people who I can be honest with, not overly intrusive and certainly not divisive. I hear that from a lot of guys. And ladies. Many are tired of the same old, “we’ve always done it that way” and “we don’t do it that way here”. That’s a sure-fire way to drive people out. I find that organizations that have the same old leadership in place for more than a few years and no succession plan are the ones that are most likely to die with the passage of time.

But hope springs eternal. I am an eternal optimist. I reengaged with a couple of groups that I had let idle for a few years. Now that I am retired once more, there is still work to be done. I believe in the veterans community and hope to still make a contribution if I am able.

My gift to myself was finding a USSVI Submarine Veterans base where I am welcomed.

That base takes me all the way home to Charleston. The Charleston base is one of the largest in USSVI, has an electronic suite of all the important social media outlets and is impressive in what they do. Ther are other bases that I loved like the Pacific Northwest group in Bremerton, but Charleston was my closest choice.

My favorite submarine was the USS San Francisco, and she is now the moored training ship in Charleston. I am in the final phases of organizing my fourth reunion in Charleston. That will coincide with the 124^th anniversary of the US Submarine Force Birthday. But what topped the cake for me was that when I reached out to the webmaster, he knew who I was, and he knew of my work to memorialize all things submarines here on the blog. That was pretty awesome.

I got a very nice email last night from J.E. “Nick” Nichols, MTCM(SS), USN Ret. USSVI- Charleston Base, Chaplain & Webmaster welcoming me to my new “home base”.  I find it kind of coincidental that I have received such a great reception from a base that has meaning for me and from someone who is a base Chaplain. I can almost see that Chief from so long ago saying, why don’t you come to my house for a meal.

I am grateful for the welcome. It’s good to be home. I hope all find home and welcome wherever they go.

I am reminded of one of my favorite set of Scriptures. Luke 4 14-30. It describes my homecoming to Pittsburgh.

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

²³ Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”

²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” He continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosy at the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

I should note that while I am a follower of Jesus, I am clearly nothing like him based on my life of trying to be better than who I am. The most interesting part of my post is that the church I was taken to visit in Charleston was in a place called Goose Creek. It was a Church of the Nazarene.

I’m looking forward to getting back to Charleston for a visit. It will be nice to be among friends.

Mister Mac

Life Member USSVI

Newest member of the USSVI Charleston

http://www.ussvicb.org