FIVE LADDERS TO THE BRIDGE

[Music] [Applause] holiday time at an officer's Club here are men from all walks of life from crowded cities and open Plains from Humble homes and great Estates from every race and every Faith here are the officers of the United States Navy this is the story of Five of these men men who who first enlisted then chose their own paths to achieve a commission men who have climbed their own ladders to the bridge why did these men become officers why did they enlist why did I enlist well I was walking down the street one day looking for something to do and there was this big Navy Recruiting poster so here I am honest and after boot Camp I as for guide at missile school and got it here was a big New Field combining my interests in electronics and troubleshooting it sounded like a snap well for 36 weeks I sweated 8 hours a day 5 days a week of math physics Electronics troubleshooting and testing it was rough but I came out of it with a terrific background the best tech training I could get anywhere and when I think how much it would have cost if I hadn't gone Navy meanwhile one other important thing happened I met rhs that course took only 26 weeks the next few months were heaven we were kept busy setting up house one day of course we got the word a six months Cruise aboard a guided missile Cruiser one of the Navy's newest ships some say being a Navy Wife isn't easy across the Atlantic to the shores of the Mediterranean on board we put into practice 36 weeks of preparation the terrier anti-aircraft missile we can fire one of these 3,000lb babies in seconds the terrier flies more than twice the speed of sound and doesn't [Music] miss just two weeks after leaving the states Europe a chance to be at the places I'd read about and always wanted to see you Spain and the bull [Applause] fight bull rings and [Music] Cathedrals horse carts and a train ride through the Pyrenees [Music] ancient castles and spectacular views I was snapping pictures like crazy then on to Portugal Lisbon with its flowing Gardens and quaint streets its horses dogs [Music] cats fish fishing and fishermen we saw all the sights and I kept snapping away Sands of the azors Mediterranean Sun then back to the ship for the 4th of July to become an ambassador of Goodwill being a diplomat can be pretty easy when you make all your own ice cream aboard I'll never forget that trip to Europe and I sent back long letters to Rose with a lot of the pictures I took homecoming here was the moment we'd both been waiting for I'll will never forget it some may say being a Navy Wife isn't easy but I guess they've never known what it would be like the honeymoon is never over by now I'd been in long enough to know I wanted to make the Navy my career and Rose was with me all the way we talked it over a long time the thing we both felt was that an officer's life with its pay and Prestige would be worth going after so I applied for OCS an enlisted man doesn't need a college degree if he can pass the exam and his chances are good openings held for the fleet are never completely [Music] filled yeah I made it and if I thought Mrs school was tough I was mistaken this was it up every morning at 5:30 or earlier to clean out the barracks work on different details wait in for a wash basin wait in line for Chop March to the grinder that's the drill field for personnel inspection 50 gigs and you're out and at precisely 0800 colors then back to the bearings now classes 5 or 6 hours a day navigation engineering guided [Music] missiles a free period around 1,600 that's for 4:00 the time is your own to use as you please to write letters or read a magazine or just relax and take it easy if everything else is done and it never is after evening Chow you're back in your room study periods required from 7: to 10: and believe me if you don't study you won't [Music] stay 10:00 and you close your books a few more details and TAPS at 10:30 from early morning till late at night and you wonder will I make it can it really be worth it Friday comes grades are posted fail and you've washed out again you made it now you're beginning to take it in stride and then the big day arrives and you know that all the effort was worthwhile you moved ahead in knowledge discipline and maturity you're more of a man and most of all the pride of being an officer in the United States Navy as far as I can make out the best way to become an officer is to enlist and go through OCS well I'm with waiting for orders now I hope it'll be a missile Cruiser I figure I'm staying in for 20 and then deciding on the next 10 but anyway I play it the future looks [Music] [Applause] good U shall [Music] we hey there's a guy who was at OCS when I was there guess he wasn't smart enough to go through RC huh you're always yaking about Roc they really sold you a bill of goods didn't they oh I wouldn't say that Jim and I are always kidding each other he's a good friend of mine however I've been doing some serious thinking about NRC recently it was on this last trip in I was about to relieve a navigation watch on the bridge of the forest all the bridge has long been the symbol for the responsibility of command at sea and here I was just 23 an officer in the Navy assistant to the Navigator sharing responsibility for the safe Voyage of a 60,000 ton carrier responsible for the lives of 3500 men I often wondered how many fellows my age had this kind of responsibility back home this is the moment when your training counts radar my first experience with radar navigation I joined the local naval Reserve unit also I had my heart set on college so after graduation from high school I tried for NC and made it and the Navy sent me to college in four years of nroc we went through every phase of navigation Celestial observation chart projection use of [Music] sexon Technical Training and drills are part of it too and all against a background of summer cruises one of the things that meant the most to me was the informality of it all I was a regular midshipman and the Navy paid the bills but I still got the chance to pick the school and the subjects I not only got a Bachelor's degree I got my commission too and now I've got the chance to work for command at [Music] se command at C [Music] at times like this when your watch is done you get to wondering what are the things you're really working for what are the things that count you want the chance to do work you enjoy the chance to grow to reach out to the limits of your ability you want to find lasting friendships friends you know you can always count on these are the things that matter to me and I found them all in the Navy as for NC I think it's the best way to become an officer and at the same time get four years of college with everything paid for by the Navy and only the Navy has this regular Reserve Officers Training Corps plan I don't get it why didn't you apply for Roc right from high school how come you enlisted first well I could have applied then but I figured I'd get more out of college if I a little older really worked out well if you played your cards right you still could have gotten into ocf [Music] oh hey you did all right where did you get all the energy since I have been coaching baseball I guess I haven't been getting the exercise I used to I remember when I was back in high school they used to call me home run Gardener when I graduated I suddenly realized the importance of choosing the right career when I'd wait all the opportunities carefully I'd pick the Navy as in baseball I'd found that I'd be expected to do my very best I waited for just the right pitch through boot training classification and testing through 16 weeks of Fire Control school and my career was launched see Duty in the Atlantic Fire Control technician abort a destroyer first leg of the journey from Seaman to petty officer whenever we hit Port I got on the fleet team then back to school Advanced Fire Control control one whole year and nothing but electronic 6 hours a day then two things happen at once I was notified that I'd made Fire Control technician second class and I got orders for a cruiser in the Pacific first Hawaii and then on to Japan and bisu buo that's Japanese for baseball you know boy that's for me by now though I was a hot shot at Electronics and enjoying every minute of it in fact at the end of my tour at se I put in for electronic school and made it I moved ahead from Ft student to electronics instructor and back to being called home run I was hitting my stride Fire Control technician first [Music] class and on the last leg I latched onto a destroyer I really had made a go of Electronics I knew the work and liked every minute of it and I wanted to hold on to what I knew the same time I hop to move ahead into the commissioned ranks so I put in for ldo limited duty officer everyone wished me luck any enlisted man with a solid Navy background who can pass the exam and otherwise qualifies can make ldo can become commission yet continue in the field he likes well I put in my bid I made the round trip I'd moved around the bases but the game isn't over new innings are coming up for me the future is just beginning the way I see it the ldo path is the only way to get to the plate you can reach the top doing the work you like to do come on honey let's dance [Music] how strange the Seas we travel here now the end and beginning of aund voyages the intersection of aund lives could I ever have predicted this unlikely destination a brief six years ago 6 years ago [Music] I'd recently won a national science Talent search for my nuclear reactor design and the Navy sent a letter of congratulations and an invitation to enlist I was against it I wanted to enter college that fall and work towards a science degree there was only one problem money we figured that even with scholarships the cost of tuition and living was well beyond what we could afford I decided I might as well fulfill my service obligation I enlisted in the Navy and shipped out to San Diego for boot training just after boot camp another invitation arrived my record had been checked and the Navy wanted me to personally consider entering NP I was offered the chance to get a science degree at a leading College of my own choice the Navy would pay all cost plus my regular salary and I would advance in rate while going through school it wasn't too difficult to decide I was to take every kind of classification test and screening exam and I made it I'd been accepted by NP the Navy enlisted scientific education program is open only to enlisted men after 9 weeks of Navy prep school I didn't mind wearing civvies again through NP you can get a college degree in one of two Fields systems engineering which includes Electronics or science engineering which included my choice Nuclear [Music] Physics it had always been my interest and the Practical experience I could pick up in the Navy would be invaluable after all the Navy is the world's leader in the Practical use of nuclear power what is the cost of the finest Science Education you can get a about $25,000 per man but for all of its value to me and hundreds of others NP is no giveaway after a man graduates and receives his commission the Navy expects him to put his new knowledge to work for his country as soon as I could I put in for sub school to prepare for the work I most wanted to do handling propulsion a nuclear sub first I lived in breathed subs for a year and a half at school and at se each man on board has to master each part of it the margin for error is zero and then a full year of advanced nuclear School the latest power units on the Navy's newest subs and finally that one day arrives you've been preparing so long for your first voyage as an engineering officer aboard a nuclear sou among your duties rig for diving a world of power locked within an invisible nucleus a world of power unleashed controlled utilized by man through NP and the Navy an education in science and engineering unique experiences now the beginning of a 100 voyages the search for a thousand destinations net how strange the Seas we travel [Music] hi Honey hi let me see it was um norol right no hey it was San Diego yeah how have you been so all I see you made it through the academy sure did now tell me what was it really like well if uh you really want to know I'll tell you how did it begin I had only been aboard that Destroyer for a couple of months when I was sent to the naval prep school at Bainbridge Maryland I competed for a Secretary of Navy appointment to Anapolis and was just lucky enough to get one I was sworn in as a midshipman and then the pressures really began the pressures of time and no ifs letters you don't have time to open and read but you learn then the upper classman come back and you try and get lost in your own kind of world and you say to yourself if those guys can make it and then one sweet day you come out of it you feel you're in a swing again Christmas you get to go home you see the girl you saw in June and your mother never look so good but back to exams each exam a River to Cross 60 rivers to graduation dig and then comes spring and a young man's fancy turns to books again [Music] June is Cruise time a chance to see what you could do a cruise to Copenhagen what did I do but I had a 30-day leave to look forward to at the end of the cruise second year academic you sort of exist you don't bother anybody and nobody bothers you and then you start dragging dating we got $5 a month pocket money and I can't ever remember spending it [Music] all you're dragging in Earnest it's a major operation and suddenly you find you enjoy playing guide that's Summer Country Club summer 2 weeks playing Marine at Little Creek Virginia and then Pensacola for a bit of flying things sure look different up there we learned fast second class year and your first look at leadership the things you'll have to accomplish on your own you think of what you'll do as a commander of a brigade you finish languages stresses and strains Thermo Dynamics and fluid mechanics ordinance and Gunner Celestial navigation and lacro fall winter and spring Athletics you will participate and enjoy it the ring dance first time you wear your ring many get engaged I did you reach first class and start keeping track of the river still to cross your academics turn very Navy you read a 700 page book in a week and you're supposed to know what's in it leadership of the Brigade you begin to be an [Music] officer Five Rivers Four 3 2 1 and you come to the end and to the beginning [Music] June week the final moments of four vital years the June ball the final night farewell and then four years of hard work and discipline of friendship and good times and you're an officer in the United States Navy my assignment division officer aborted Destroyer yesterday Sean Apprentice today an inen with a future that's wide open you can move ahead to Commander to Captain perhaps even to Admiral if others can do it I personally think the academy is is the way of becoming an officer you have the best of everything there and it's an experience a wonderful experience and Now ladies and gentlemen the Naval Academy [Music] choir five men who had the ability and will to climb the ladder to the bridge to advance from enlisted man to officer in the United States Navy why did they go forward what does it mean to be an officer in the Navy the meaning of the present is unfolding Ed in the past an officer in the Navy is a man among men John Paul Jones and the Bon home Richard I have not yet begun to flank Edward Preble and his constellation Oliver Hazard Perry we have met the enemy and they are ours Admiral faragut Damn the Torpedoes Full Speed Ahead Admiral Dewey you may fire when ready gley Firepower sea power the new Navy [Music] a [Music] to what purpose why do we have a Navy the mission of the Navy is to preserve the peace through control of the Seas the United States Navy a respected profession a proud and honorable career from enlisted man to officer five letters to the [Music] bridge OCS the way of qualified SE can rise through the ranks to the limits of his ability NRC the way a man can receive a fine college education while building a background for service as an officer ldo the way a man can advance to the top doing the work he most likes to do Nan the way a qualified Seaman can get the finest education in science and engineering our country has to offer the academy the way a man can become part of a tradition living thinking Navy 24 hours a day for each qualified man who enlists there are five Lads five Lads to the bridge to a man of Courage of intelligence of ability the Navy offers a chance to succeed a chance to mature a chance to lead here is opportunity we