When I graduated from MOHI in '65 the very first thing I did was to enlist in the US Navy. That was just the thing for someone like myself. I was not ready to go on to more school I was ready to get away.
The Navy certainly provided me the opportunity. I was sent to the Aerographer's Mate 'A' and 'C' schools for Weather and Oceanography following boot camp.
Following the schools my duty station was NWSED NAS Moffett Field California. At that time the base hosted a P3-Orion Submarine Hunter Squadron and it also hosted the NASA Ames Research Center. NASA is still there to this day while the Navy has left. The last time I went by Moffett Field there was one lonely jet on the ramp and on the tail of the jet was the word GOOGLE. Turns out Moffett Field is right in the middle of Silicon-Valley.
After Moffett Field I did a tour of duty with NSA Danang RVN. While I was there I was attached to Staff Weather. We were responsible for the Surf and Swell forecasts for the supply boats and ships that traveled between Danang and the various bays and rivers in the I-Corps region of Vietnam.
When I finished my tour in Vietnam I had less than 90 days left of my service so I was mustered out when I returned to the US.
I spent the remainder of 1969, and part of 1970 traveling, and working for my Dad at his wholesale grocery store. I also met my wife, Evelyn, and we were married on August 1st 1970, 45 years ago this year.
Subsequently Evelyn and I raised three wonderful children who have now all moved away. Our oldest two (both girls) are now married and live in California and Georgia. Our youngest, our son lives in Boone NC. We found ourselves rolling around like two peas in a tin can in the house we have lived in for the past 30 odd years and decided to 'downsize' last March and moved to our new house (a town-house) in north Raleigh.
Evelyn and I were married on a Saturday and Monday morning I went to work for the National Weather Service, Office of Hydrology, Special Studies Branch, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We spent a year in Silver Springs Maryland then moved back to North Carolina.
After coming back to NC I attended university at UNCW and earned a degree in Math with concentrations in Physics and Computer Science as well as a secondary level teaching certificate. I taught school for two years in Duplin County (Charity Jr Hi and Wallace Rose Hill High School, an old rival of MOHI).
After our first daughter was born in 1976 we stayed for one more year in Rose Hill NC and then moved to married student housing at UNC-Chapel hill. I earned my MS in Mathematics while teaching there and then took a position as a math and computer instructor at Louisburg College. We lived in Louisburg long enough to have two more children before I left teaching and joined "The Industry"
I just retired from "The Industry" in 2012 and now get to do all the projects that I've saved up over the years and new ones that suggest themselves.
I now enjoy Swimming, Cycling, Reading, and messing around with Computers, Math, Physics, and AI. And most importantly enjoy watching our kids grow up to be really cool adults.
I look forward to the reunion in September.
p.s. The 50th Reunion of the Last Graduating Class of MOHI was a week ago last Saturday (the 19th of September 2015). I told Evelyn when I got back that I wondered where all my classmates went. I said that some of their parents showed up and were wearing name tags of their kids, but I could not find the kids in those photos. When I got back to Raleigh and took a long look in the mirror the only thing I could see was my father looking back at me. The 18 year old kid whose picture was on my name tag was nowhere in sight. I still had a super time hanging out with all those 'Old-Folks' and am happy to be counted to be one of them. There is no way I could have anticipated the events of the last 50 years. One thing is for sure, the old High School building has NEVER looked so good. It now belongs to Mount Olive University and houses the music department and is a dorm. The classrooms have been converted into apartments and the auditorium is fancier than it ever was in my times there.
