Glenn B. Rogers, CTT3 USN/USNR, 1969-1975


Growing up in New Orleans, one of our family friends was a guy from Lafayette, 
Louisiana, named Kenny Marsiglia.  He was a couple years older than me.  He 
joined the Navy and, when he came home, I learned that he had been a CT on the 
USS BANNER, which was the intended target of North Korea when they seized 
PUEBLO.  Seems that Capt. Bucher had been anxious to get his crew out on 
station, and swapped with BANNER's scheduled mission.  So Kenny had come 
really close to being captured.

I had followed all the news stories about PUEBLO, so when Kenny told me this, 
I was all ears.  I knew I was going to join the Navy (long history on both 
sides of my family) when I graduated high school, so I peppered Kenny with 
questions.  Naturally, he didn't tell me any specifics of what CT's did, but 
he did tell me that "T" branch was the way to go (he'd been to Todendorf, then 
a Med cruise before BANNER).  He described Pensacola, what to expect (learning 
Morse Code, waiting for final clearance), "mentioned" 
Hotel San Carlos.

So, when I went to Boot and immediately applied for CT "A" school, it was 
pretty much smooth sailing from there.  My interview with the NSA/FBI/whatever 
guy in Orlando was a bit scary - he was all cloak-and-dagger serious - but the 
rest went just like Kenny said.

It wasn't until a few years after my service that I learned how my uncle, Gail 
Eldridge (my mom's oldest brother), had been a behind-the-scenes influence on 
my Navy and post-Navy security career.  Turned out he was one of J. Edgar 
Hoover's original SIS (Secret Intelligence Section) agents who served 
overseas.  This was before OSS had been created. Uncle Gail was posted to 
Buenos Aires as a diplomatic attaché, and I have a postmarked "airmail" 
envelope showing his official diplomatic title/status.  His wife, my Aunt 
Lucia, was fully briefed and posted with him, making her one of the first 
female agents in the FBI.  They had an actual "suitcase" radio which they 
operated from rooftops in Buenos Aires in order to transmit coded messages to 
Washington.  After the war, Uncle Gail was part of the security team who 
watched over Von Braun and the other German scientists at White Sands.

Anyway, that's my CT story.

Glenn B. Rogers, CTT3
RTC Orlando, Co. 183, 1969
Pensacola ("A" school), 69-70
Bremerhaven, 70-72
Pensacola ("C" school), 72
San Miguel/Fort Apache/DIRSUP, 72-73
NRSG New Orleans, 74-75