WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO.......
William L. "Bill" Decker RMC(SS) USN Retired
11/55 - 2/56 USNTC, Great Lakes, IL
2/56 - 7/56 RM "A" School, SSC, Norfolk, VA
7/56 - 1/58 USS Quapaw ATF110, Pearl Harbor, HI
1/58 - 11/61 Naval Communications Station, Yokosuka, Japan
12/61 - 11/63 Commander Naval Air Pacific Staff, San Diego, CA
1/64 - 8/65 USS Raton AGSS-270, San Diego, CA
8/65 - 3/66 RM "B" School, USNTC, San Diego, CA
4/66 - 3/68 USS Gato SSN615 Pre-Commisioning Crew, Quincy, MA
3/68 - 3/69 USS Jack SSN605, Groton, CT
3/69 - 5/69 Instructor/Leadership School, Great Lakes, IL
6/69 - 5/72 RM "A" School Instructor, USNTC, Bainbridge, MD
5/72 - 11/74 USS Theodore Roosevelt SSBN600G, Charleston, SC
11/74 - 1/76 USS Francis Scott Key SSBN657G, Charleston, SC
1/14/76 - RMC(SS) USN Ret with 20+ years of service, Charleston, SC
1/76 - 5/76 Arby's Restaurant, Assisstant Manager, Charleston, SC
5/76 - 9/76 Burger Cheff Restaurant, Assistant Manager, Charleston, SC
9/76 - 6/84 Data-Design Laboratories, Technical Services Engineer, Arlington, VA
6/84 - 4/85 Vitro Corporation, Senior Staff Specialist, Arlington, VA
4/85 - 11/86 Analysis & Technology, Project Manager, Arlington, VA
11/86 - 8/89 Kaiser Engineers, Principle Logistician, Arlington, VA
8/89 - 2/93 Daedalean Inc., ILS Manager, Arlington, VA
3/93 - 3/99 AmerInd, Inc., Principle Logistician, Arlington, VA
4/1/99 - Civilian and retired FOR GOOD, Woodbridge, VA
I was advanced to RMC(SS) at USNTC, SSC, in June 1969. I stayed in the Charlestonm SC area for a few months after I retired in January 1976 trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I soon accepted an offer from Data-Design Laboratories in Arlington, VA and moved to Woodbridge, VA in September 1976. I started out working on the development of the Index of Technical Publications for the SSN688 Class of submarines on a contract with Naval Sea Systems Command. For the next twenty plus years I was involved in the development of various Navy Training Plans, Integrated Logistic Support Plans, Index of Technical Publications, and ILS certification for the Trident Training Facility, Kings Bay, GA. Although I worked for various contractors over the years supporting NAVSEA and SPAWAR on submarine communications contracts I supported Mr. Carl Haines in SEA 92L and his staff for the last thirteen years. I feel extremely proud to have supported the submarine service on both active duty and as a civilian for more than thirty four years of my life. As the saying goes, once a submariner, always a submariner.
I retired for good on 1 April 1999. My wife Louise, and I, had a new home builit in the Shenandoah Valley, about five miles west of Woodstock, VA, and we moved in on 22 November 2000. What a way to go.
492 Fairview Circle, Woodstock, VA 22664 (540) 459-1928
bdecker@shentel.net
WE'LL LEAVE THE LIGHT ON FOR YOU!
EN3(SS) Russell Ogle, 1960-1962
I served aboard Raton from July 1960 to April 1962. I came aboard while the boat was at 32nd Street Naval Base, San Diego, undergoing upkeep. I came aboard as a seaman apprentice straight out of Reserve Submarine Division 11-43. Being a non-designated striker I quickly was assigned as a mess cook for 3 months and then advanced to the seaman gang chipping paint and standing lookout, diving planes and helmsman watchs. I eventually decided to strike for engineman and joined the guys in the after engineroom. In April 1962 as a Engineman 3rd Class I shipped over for 6 years and left the Raton for Engineman C School in Great Lakes. After Great Lakes in August 1962, I joined the Medregal (SS480) in Pearl as Engineman 2nd Class and throttleman in the forward engineroom. In February 1963 I left the Medregal for Nuclear Power School in Vallejo, California and Windsor Locks, Conneticut. Just as I completed Nuc school I was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program (NESEP) and sent to the University of Oklahoma to study Aerospace Engineering in September 1964. While attending college I advanced to Engineman 1st Class. After completion of college and Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Newport, Rhode Island, it was off to Pensacola for flight training and I eventually added navy wings of gold on 6 February 1970 to my silver dolphins. I spent the remainder of my naval career (11 years) in various fighter, training, and experimental squadronms before retiring in 1981 as a LCDR.
I am now completely retired in Woodinville, WA. I'm still married to the girl I met at the University of Oklahoma; we have one daughter and two lovely granddaughters. Although I had many adventures in the Navy after leaving the Raton I was always proud to wear my dolphins along with my wings of gold and I still cannot smell diesel exhaust without immediately being transported back to the boat and to the, all too brief, life I experienced aboard Raton.
P.S. If you are curious about my E-mail address, Lizard was my nick name in the after engine room aboard Raton and Spectre was my call-sign as a fighter pilot.
Spectrelizard@aol.com
Earl Fleck's Biography
Earl W. Fleck EM2(SS) in the Navy and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army.
During my last months of high school (1963) in National City, CA, I enlisted in the USNR. After basic I joined the USNR Submarine Division 11-34 at NTC in San Diego. After reserve sub school, EM A School at NTC, hard study as a reservist to qualify and two weeks aboard the USS Salmon (SSR-573), the Salmon’s XO qualified me in submarines in 1965. In January of 1966 President Johnson called up about 45,000 reservist for the Vietnam conflict—I was one of those lucky ones who was activated. After serving two years on Raton and advancing to EM2, I returned to reserve status in late January 1968 and stayed in the reserves until my seven years of USNR enlistment ended.
Prior to my call-up in 1966 I had completed three and a half years of college. After my release from active duty I finished my bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology in 1969 then went to the University of California, Santa Barbara, for further study. Completing my master’s and Ph.D. degrees in the late 1974 I started work as a professor in Oregon, for one year, then at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, for 25 years. In 1981, while on leave from my teaching duties at Whitman College and doing biochemical research at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on stuff I still cannot discuss, the US Army made me an offer I could not refuse—direct commission as a captain. After a further 17 years of duty in the USA Reserve, including very interesting lengthy active duty periods in Alaska and Korea, teaching at the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, activation for the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein as the commander of a medical battalion, I retired as a reserve lieutenant colonel in 1995.
After my time as a college professor, in 1999 I moved first to Louisiana then to a college in Virginia to be a dean and provost (roughly equivalent to an XO on a ship) at private liberal arts colleges. In 2008 I retired from academe and my wife, Hazel (a retired army nurse), and I returned to the Pacific Northwest where we live in Vancouver, WA. We have had a great retirement traveling the world and volunteering. Of particular interest to my Raton shipmates may be the fact that for the past ten years I have led tours on the USS Blueback(SS581 and the last diesel boat built by the US Navy) sited at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Oregon. Of the approximately 25 tour guide volunteers working the Blueback, I am one of only 4 guides with diesel boat experience. As you can image, talking to children and adults about diesel boats and life aboard boats is a very rewarding experience. If anyone passes through the Portland area, let me know and I will try to set up a personal tour of the Blueback for you.
You can be sure that seeing an Army lieutenant colonel wearing silver dolphins attracted considerable attention—I was proud to wear my dolphins on my Army green. I actually ran across another submarine qualified Army officer at a conference in Korea once.
Earl W. Fleck
3008 SE Baypoint Drive
Vancouver, WA 98683 USA
360-448-7012
434-603-1625