As many of you know I stayed in the Corps for twenty. I did two tours in Vietnam, first on the DMZ with 1/12 and later shipboard with 33rd MAU and 1/9. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho initialed the peace treaty during my second tour. When the skipper came over the 1-MC with the announcement, for a few seconds there was only silence. Then the entire fleet erupted in a huge cheer. January 23rd, 1973, was a great day — one I’ll never forget.
After Vietnam I served a tour as Ground Defense Force CommO for the Naval Base at Gitmo. GDF was funded by the Navy but administered by the Marine Barracks. Thus I served two masters: good men who more-or-less couldn’t abide each other, RAdm. Ralph Ghormley USN and Col. Edward “Bill” Lamontagne USMC. Ghormley was an inclusive technocrat who understood both intelligence and communications, and held the purse strings. He assigned me all sorts of additional Naval Base duties, notably co-chairing Jamaican Independence Day with his charming wife Sally. I acquired many Navy friends including the JAG and the Supply Officer, who was my sailing mate. Through my association with Ralph Ghormley and his staff I secured much material needed to upgrade GDF communications. But Lamontagne was the finest Marine officer I ever served under. His only weakness was a visceral intolerance for anyone in a blue suit, so it made for an interesting two years. Nonetheless, I stayed in touch with both of them for a long time.
Later I cross-decked to the 2600 (Signals Intelligence) community as a Captain and pretty much stayed there for my career. I started with 2d Radio Bn. at Lejeune. On my second tour with “Rag Bag” I was S-3, still the best job I ever had. At NSA I worked closely with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) where I made an enduring friendship with then-Congressman Norm Mineta from San Jose (later “Mr. Secretary”).
Later I was named an NSA Director’s Fellow, basically a license to steal inside “no such agency” for an academic year. In those days one couldn’t work in the “spook” field without both the acquaintance and approval of General (later Commandant) Al Gray. I was blessed and honored to have both.
General Gray still serves on NSA’s Scientific Advisory Board; I caught up with him a few years ago in that capacity. Most modern Marines will never know how much both the nation and the Corps owes to Al Gray in the application of signals intelligence to ground warfare, but it’s enough for me that I know.
As a result of my work as a Fellow with NSA Director, LtGen. Lincoln Faurer USAF, I was honored to lead a sensitive national-tactical intel coordination initiative for a valued Scandinavian ally involving both the Marines and NSA. Had the Cold War turned hot, I believe our work would have improved tactical intelligence in the far north and maybe saved a few lives. For his part Linc Faurer wrote me a fitrep that only the Air Force would believe, and I credit him for my silver leaf. He’s a fine gentleman, and still murder on the ski slopes.
Some of you may remember my first wife Pamm. She was my ticket out of the TBS BOQ. She and I split in 2003. We probably stayed married too long, but we had two great kids, Paul and Kerry. Both went to Dartmouth. Paul’s a “serial entrepreneur” in England, nurtured by Jeff Bezos and company at Amazon. He led Amazon’s European music and video just-in-time supply team, met both Sir Elton and Sir Paul, and married Becky – a lovely British lady. They have our only grandchildren. Ella was born in 2001, appropriately enough on D-Day; Lily, almost two years later. Lily’s the Yank of the two if you get my drift. My daughter Kerry was born in the old Camp Lejeune hospital (I believe 6th MEB HQ now). She’s now a writer and educator in Maryland.
Paul and Kerry are very close to Bob Hansen’s boys. All of them went to Bowie High School in Maryland together. Bob’s younger son Alan is named for Al DeCraene. Over the years Bob became my best friend from our TBS class. He was always trying to drag me to the bar in Henoko on those rare occasions when 1/9 came ashore and set up shop at Camp Schwab, but I almost always had something to study. I should have gone with him more often. He died too young, and I miss him.
I married Amy Miller in 2006 at the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, so far as I know the only church in the North flanked by Confederate cannon. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. We honeymooned in winter storm season at the Wickaninnish Inn on the Pacific Coast in Tofino, British Columbia. We took green water over our second floor deck during at least one storm. Go there if you haven’t been; it’s fabulous. Amy and I moved to Gettysburg in 2012.
My stepson, Michael “Mickey” Basta, is an unexpected gift from Amy. One couldn’t ask for a better son, especially when your own son is 4000 miles away. Mickey’s in a post-high school drift right now, but leaning toward learning a trade (HVAC likely). His cousin and my nephew, Sgt. Mark Lewis USMC, just re-upped and cross-decked from infantry to aviation. Mark’s stationed at Cherry Point. Mark keeps working on Mickey to join the Corps, but no luck (yet).
I retired from the Marine Corps determined not to become a “beltway bandit”. I went to Wharton on the Executive MBA (aka “weekend warrior”) program and became a Booz Allen strategy consultant in information security and energy. (While stationed at HQMC I had picked up a Georgetown MA in Russian Studies focused on the Soviet natural gas industry.) I worked mostly in Eastern Europe, including a full year in Kiev.
John endorsed me for the nascent Georgetown Doctor of Liberal Studies program in 2009. I was accepted, and am presently in the closing stages of my doctoral thesis. The program requires four core courses in western thought; the rest is up to the student. I studied 16th century European and 18th century North American history. My thesis is, “All the Nations to the Sun Setting:” George Croghan, Expanding the Limits of Empire in British North America. With luck I’ll have the cowl this December.
An unexpected pleasure of this program was getting to know fellow cohort-mate LtGen. Bob “Rooster” Schmidle USMC. Rooster, a Hornet driver, is an expert on philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Hands down, he’s the smartest man I’ve ever met in the Corps and a fine officer. He’s become a good friend. If Rooster Schmidle is any example, our Corps is in good hands.
As for me, I’m blessed with nonagenarian genes and a November birthday which keep both the big seven-zero and the grim reaper on the horizon. Several years ago another of my out-of-the-box Marine friends unintentionally summed up my life as we waited for a cab in a downpour in New York. Owen Stryker, former Marine Corporal and sniper — now an insurance products designer — remarked, “The thing I like best about you is you’ll go anywhere and do anything.” He meant it as a compliment, but in retrospect I’m not sure if it’s been a curse or a blessing. Time will tell; there’s a lot of runway left.
