The NR-1 and I began our naval careers about the same time. I grew up in California's central valley in the 1950s, an average kid who did well in school without much effort. During high school, I worked at the county airport pumping gas, mowing the grass strips between the runways, and staring out over the flat, dry landscape, looking for some change - any change. I received a state scholarship, but performed poorly and dropped out after a year and a half. With no real job prospects, I enlisted in the Navy and signed up for the submarine nuclear power program.

I began my submarine service as a plotter in the control room of the USS Sargo (SSN 583). During a deployment in 1964 to the western Pacific, it was my job to plot on paper the position of any ships or contacts sighted by periscope or detected by sonar. That was an enviable function. The plotting station was right next to the periscope stand, and even though I was one of the most junior people aboard, this position allowed me to be very much aware of what the ship was doing and how it accomplished its missions. Activity in the underwater world was heating up and the NR-1 and I were on a collision course with the Cold War.