I entered the Navy in November 1969 and was offered a choice of Great Lakes or San Diego for basic training (not too difficult to guess which choice I took). After basic training I attended Electronics A & C schools in San Francisco on Treasure Island. From there I ended up on an old tin can (USS Stickel DD-888) out of Norfolk. It was decommissioned and I got my orders for the FDR in January 1972. Reported aboard just before our 10 month Med. Cruise. I was in OE Division and maintained the SPS-37 Long Range Search Radar (whose antenna was the huge black array that hung over the starboard side of the ship. I was discharged in Novemeber 1975 after ataining the rate of ETR2.
After the Navy I returned to my hometown of Findlay, OH for a brief time and then took a job at an Audio/Visual repair shop which relocated me to Toledo, OH. After that, I took a job repairing time clocks and parking access and control equipment (parking gates and ticket dispensers). Eventually, I ended up part owner of a different time clock company until 911 forced us to close our doors.
My last 10 working years were for Buckeye Cablesystem at their internet help desk; which is where I learned my computer skills. I retired from there in 2012 and moved to Clearwater, FL.
Treasurer/Webmaster-Steve Dukes
