I recently had a conversation
with an active-duty U.S. Navy 2nd Class Master-at-Arms.
Master-at-Arms perform law enforcement,
security and force protection aboard Navy ships and shore bases.
The young sailor read
some of my pieces about my many years doing security work for the Defense
Department before I became a full-time writer, first as a teenage sailor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty
Hawk during the Vietnam War, and later on a Navy tugboat at the nuclear submarine base at Holy Lock, Scotland.
After serving in the Navy, I performed security work as a Defense Department civilian at
the Defense Personnel Support Center, known locally as “the Quartermaster” (seen in the above photo) in South Philadelphia, and later at the Naval Support Center in Northeast Philadelphia.
As the administrative officer
of a Defense Department command, I oversaw all security programs, served as an investigating officer, and performed
security briefings and seminars for the command's military and civilian employees.
After 9/11, my security work at the Navy base doubled.
He asked me about security after
the 9/11 terrorist attack, and I asked him about present-day security in the Navy.
It was a most interesting conversation.
I'm proud of my service in the Navy and the Defense Department
I suppose I was destined to do
security work, as evidenced by the above photo of me when I was about ten years old guarding
our Christmas tree.
The above photo is of me on
guard duty as a sailor at Boot Camp in 1970 when I was 17 years old, and the below photo is of me at my desk in my office at the Quartermaster where I oversaw security for the Defense Department command in the 1990s.
You can read some of my
pieces on the Navy and the Defense Department via the below links:
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