William B.B. Moody, CAPT USN Retired, 1962-1993 In 1962, I was three years out of college with BA in history from Wesleyan University, a year of teaching English in France under a French Government Teaching Assistantship/Fulbright Grant, most of an Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Brown University, and a full time appointment as a teacher of French, U.S. government, and U.S. history at Rogers High School, Newport, RI under my belt. Then I received a letter from my local Draft Board: unless I voluntarily joint an Armed Service, I would find myself an Army draftee within six months. As a native Newporter, I had a natural preference for the Navy. My application for Navy Officer Candidate School went into the mail the next day. I was accepted, sworn in, successfully completed OCS, and was commissioned an ensign, USNR in May 1963. During the BUPERS briefing on initial assignments, we OCs were advised to request sea duty. If we requested shore duty, we might get the booby prize: assignment to Adak, Alaska, the worst place in all creation to be assigned. Innocent me, I asked for an assignment to any place in the world where I could use my French. The orders came in: SECGRUDEPT, NAVCOMMSTA, CLAM LAGOON, ADAK, ALASKA. Nobody there spoke French, needless to say. It took a while for my clearance to come through. I had worked for a foreign government (the French) and that was bad. While waiting, I served as Special Services Officer, responsible for morale and welfare activities. At COMMSTA Adak the bowling alley, movie offerings, fishing and skiing gear, and refurbished recreational Quonset huts were important for morale. The CO, CAPT Everett "Pete" Gladding, impressed that fact on me. When my clearance came through after four months, I became involved in fascinating P&R work in SECGRU Operations. CAPT Gladding, a fellow Wesleyan graduate, told me that I should make the Navy - and particularly NAVSECGRU - a career, and I did. A three year commitment stretched into a thirty year "interruption" of my teaching career: Adak, Vietnam, Russian language school, submarine duty, Edzell, duty in destroyers TAD, carrier staff duty, San Vito, BUPERS, PG School, NSG HQ, Munich, NSA, and the OPNAV Staff. I kept up with my French and went back to teaching for 11 years after retirement from the Navy. I will always cherish that thirty year detour. William B.B. "Bill" Moody CAPT USN (ret.)