Sea Stories
Uncle Mike’s Oral History
In line with the military theme that runs throughout my family history, I decided to interview my dad’s first cousin that captained nuclear submarines in the navy, who we all refer to as Uncle Mike. Uncle Mike’s mother, Helen McClintock, was the sister of my grandfather, Myron McClintock. He was born in a small town near Lawrenceville, Illinois on his grandparents’ farm. He attended the University of Illinois on an ROTC scholarship and walked onto the baseball team during his first three years there. After college, he went on to have an illustrious career in the Navy, the details of which are contained in this interview along with different details about his life.
Uncle Mike is currently enjoying retirement, and as I am writing this introduction, I believe he is currently on vacation with his girlfriend in Hawaii. He lives just outside of Seattle, so I had to call him to set up the interview. He was very happy to share his stories with me over the phone. For they are stories few other men could tell…
Q: What was your household like growing up in terms of values? What was the value system you grew up with?
My graduating class was about 106 people. The industry that supported the town was a Texaco refinery. I grew up in a small town environment. Most everybody in town knew everybody else. Therefore, you almost had town full of parents.
My mother and father were blue collar folks… both high school graduates. My father’s first job was as a milkman. My mother really never worked. Which most women back then didn’t. My father was in the navy about two and a half years during World War II. He also spent time stationed ashore in Panama.
As far as are family life, it was very much family centric. My mom was a family mom and cooked breakfast for me and supper. And pretty much my family always ate together.
Q: Did you go to church growing up and if so what kind of church did you guys go to?
As a young kid, I remember my grandmother kinda went to church at the Methodist church.
Once my parents moved back to Lawrenceville, my mother and father basically decided they wanted my sister and I to grow up in a christian environment, so they joined the Presbyterian Church in Lawrenceville Illinois, and that’s where I went to church throughout my school years and throughout high school.
Q: Do you know why your parents chose to go to a Presbyterian as opposed to another church?
I think it was because of the minister. I don’t think there was any real reason as far as philosophically. I think they just felt comfortable there.
I was pretty active in church. In fact I was the president of the youth fellowship group in high school.
We went to church pretty much every week, and I continued to go to the Presbyterian church in college.
Q: Are you aware at all of your Scots-Irish ancestry, and do you think it has affected your life in any way that you know of?
At a young age, no.
As you get older you get interested, and you look at your mother’s name, and you look at your father’s name and you want to know where these names come from. I haven’t formally gone and researched it though.
Q: Did you have any older relatives that served in the military that influenced you growing up? And how did they influence you?
Your grandfather, and then my dad was also in the military, and one of my dad’s brothers, Bob was a navy pilot in the Second World War.
So I knew about the navy. I knew about the military. Of course I knew that your grandfather was very involved with it. Even when I first graduated from high school, I stayed with your grandfather, and I remember he had reserve training, and I used to ride in the car with him while he was doing reserve training.
I had a good feeling about the military. First of all, we had the draft, and I knew I was going to have an obligation to go in the military. When I got ready to go to college, basically my mom and dad didn’t have a lot of money, and so I wanted to go to engineering school. And I wanted to go to a larger school like the university of Illinois where I went, or some place like that. I couldn’t go there without getting some sort of financial aid or scholarship, so I applied to the naval academy and naval ROTC. I decided I did not want to be in the army. I did get a navy ROTC scholarship, and that’s what I chose.
Q: When did you first know you wanted to serve in the navy?
I was doing it as a means to an end knowing that I’d probably have to join the military because of the draft. I liked it, and it was comfortable for me, and I was good at it, so I said ‘hey sounds good to me’.
Then i got involved with the nuclear submarine program, which was the best thing that ever happened to me. I interviewed with admiral Rickover, the father of the nuclear program. I interviewed personally with him, and was selected for the nuclear power program. The nuclear program took off, and the diesel program went down, and the rest is history.
Q: Could you outline your navy career for me?
Sure. Well you know when I graduated from the university of Illinois, I got a degree in petroleum engineering, and I got that degree because I grew up in the oil fields. Then I went into the nuclear program. The first 18–22 months was pretty much all school. After about 3 months delay, I started a 6 month academic course in nuclear submarine stuff. It was really a masters degree in nuclear engineering on top of your engineering degree. Yeah… it was pretty intense.
Once I finished that 6 months of training, I transferred out to Idaho. Out in the desert there the navy had operating reactors at that time. We learned about all the systems on the nuclear reactor. How to operate them. Learned about the principles behind the whole thing. When we graduated from there, we were basically nuclear reactor supervisors. That part of my navy career was the hardest part of my navy career. All of my exams were oral, and I had never taken an oral exam.
On top of the nuclear training I had to go to 6 months of classic submarine school, where you learn how to dive a submarine and operate the systems and so on.
I went to one of the original “41 for freedom” polaris missile submarines. I went on the USS John Adams.
The first thing you do is: They assign you as a division officer on the ship. My very first job was as a division officer for the reactor controls division on the USS John Adams. I went through a pretty rigorous qualifications course while on the ship to be able to wear the submarine dolphin insignia.
I completed that, and then got assigned to the USS Lewis and Clark.
Before I went there though, they sent me to strategic weapons school for about 3 months. I learned basically how to be in charge of strategic nuclear weapons on submarines in Virginia Beach.
I did 2 patrols on John Adams out of Holy Loch, Scotland. Then I got to the Lewis and Clark and did 4 patrols out of Charleston in the North Atlantic. I made 4 patrols in the strategic weapons department; at first as the division assistant and then as the department head. By that time i was a lieutenant.
So, I successfully completed that stuff and then almost got out of the navy because I had a bad commanding officer on the Lewis and Clark and because I thought my wife wanted to get out. I actually turned in my resignation, but another commanding officer talked me into pulling my resignation. They said, “what’ll it take to keep you in the navy?” And I said, “I want to teach ROTC at the university in Washington”, and turns out that position was open.
I spent 2 years there. Made lieutenant commander while I was there. Then I went to the USS Sunfish. We were home-ported out of Charleston. I spent basically 3 years on the Sunfish. That was my only assignment on a non-missile sub.
I went as the executive officer on the USS Andrew Jackson. I took over in about 1974 and made another four patrols there out of Holy Loch as the executive officer, which was second in command. I spent almost four years as an executive officer, which is a pretty long time.
I then went off to Prospective Commanding Officer School. Basically, you go over how to be a commanding officer. By that time, you got a lot of experience.
I went from there to be be the commanding officer of the USS George C. Marshall. I made four patrols; two out of Rota, Spain, one out of Holy Loch, Scotland, and then the last one, the ship was going into overhaul, so we patrolled in different areas. I was relieved of command in New London.
I went from there to my next assignment as the anti-sub warfare officer and commander of a sixth fleet staff in Gaeta, Italy. I spent two years there. Loved it. My family wasn’t having it at first, but then when I left they wanted to go back. Every month we would go to some different port in the Mediterranean. You name it we were there. I was the only submariner on the staff. I made captain while I was there.
When I left there I was awarded a major command as the commanding officer of the USS Georgia. I reported in Groton. I took it out on sea trials. I actually drove the ship from Connecticut through the Panama Canal up the west coast to our new port up near Seattle, which is where I live now. I made two strategic patrols out of there.
I went to the Pentagon, and I ran a navy research program that looked at new detection technologies that people would use to try to detect submarines. It was a pretty cool and unique program. I was there for about 2 and half years. I worked directly for a three star admiral there. That job really set me up for my post navy career as well because I did a lot of other research and development stuff after I got out of the navy.
I left there, and I got assigned as the squadron commander back out here in Bangor, Washington. At that time, the squadron had the first eight trident class submarines in existence. I basically was the squadron commander for 8 trident submarines and 16 commanding officers. It was basically like herding cats you know. Great job. Very prestigious.
And at that point, it was either I was going to make admiral or not, and it turns out I was probably pretty close, but it turns out I didn’t make it. At that time I was in the 28th year of my navy career.
I took one more job as the chief of staff of the navy regional command here, and I had responsibilities for kind of the logistics of navy units in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. I was in that job for a little over a year, and then I retired from the navy, and that completed my navy career.
People ask me if I miss the navy, and I always say that I don’t really miss going to sea because that’s a young man’s game, but I certainly miss the camaraderie. I don’t know what else I would’ve done that would have been more rewarding or satisfying.
Q: Can you take me through a day to day on the sub? What is it like out there on the subs?
Well, let me tell you a feeling about being a commanding officer. I remember the first time I went on patrol as a commanding officer. Even though I had a lot of experience back then, I can remember the first time I went out on patrol. I remember looking back. I didn’t have anyone else with me. I was in charge. I remember looking back and thinking: ‘holy moly there’s no one out here but me!’ But at that point, I had a lot of experience and most of the things come pretty natural, although you never know.
On patrol on an SSBM, once you’re out on station there’s large areas of the ocean that you can patrol in. Nobody on the beach knows exactly where you are. You need to concentrate on the mission, which is making sure the missiles are ready to launch. Every time you go out to sea, about 25% of your crew is new, so there’s’ a bunch of guys you have to train.
Your typical days as the commanding officer, you got to know that the weapons system is ready. You gotta know where you are in very high accuracy and you gotta be able to train the crew and be up to date on all that stuff, so your day is pretty full. As the commanding officer, you are always on watch. If anything happens on the ship, you have to know about it. You expect the guys to know what they are supposed to do, but you have to know about it. As the commanding officer, you give a command and people have to follow it, but I always told my guys ‘don’t you dare let me make a mistake or do something stupid’. It’s dangerous when you think you have all the answers and some commanding officers have gotten in trouble for that.
We had a little projector to watch movies. You have 3 meals per day. Breakfast lunch and dinner, and then at midnight the cooks put out midnight rations.
Q: How many guys total are on the crew?
On the Sunfish, fast attack, it was about 120. On the George C. Marshall, it was about 108. On the Georgia, it was about 162. On all the ships it’s about 14 or 15 officers.
Q: What was my grandpa, Myron like as a person? What do you remember about him?
He was a real character. He was a handsome, devenir guy. Likable, but very “business” guy.
When he was in the army, his 95th infantry division was at the battle of the bulge. Yeah, he went through some tough times and some big battles. He had some real emotions because he saw a lot of his buddies get killed.
I remember that while I was in Italy, I bought a BMW. When I was over there, I had it delivered over here, and I remember that I was driving one of my cross-country trips through Billings, and I stopped to see your grandfather. He gave me such a headache about the fact that I was driving a German car. That just shows how intense his feelings and emotions were from the experience he had during the war.
He was a great guy and good mentor for me. Because he was unmarried for so long, I was kind of the son he never had until he had your dad. When I graduated from high school, I spent about a month staying with he and Charlene, and he took me fishing all over the Billings area and we’d drive all up the rivers and stuff and fish for trout. And you know I’d go hunting with him. He knew different ranches up there.
I spent as much time as I could with him. When I met my wife that was a result of me coming through Billings and spending time with him.
He was of course a county commissioner for years in Billings. He was a tough businessman. I think he was very well liked. He probably made a few enemies because he was very opinionated. He was a good mentor for me. He was different than my father. My father wasn’t a hunter. He was more of a sports guy.
Always an interesting guy to talk to. When I got to be in the navy, he would always ask me about what was going on in Washington and in the military. I think he thought that I knew what was going on in Washington. I don’t think anybody knows what’s going on in Washington.
Q: How in your eyes were you mentor to my dad was at the Merchant Marine Academy and going through his navy career?
I think your dad more or less adopted me as his male mentor once his dad passed away. It took your dad a while to get it together after your grandfather died. He was kind of wild at the Merchant Marine Academy.
I don’t remember purposely trying to mentor your dad, but it got to the point where he would call me and ask me about things. That’s the kind of relationship that your dad and I have now. We can discuss a lot of things.
Post-Interview Thoughts
How does your tradition-bearer’s story relate to your community in both the present and the past? How does it relate to you?
Uncle Mike’s story is connected to my community through the values that he grew up with and gained in the military. The value system that he and I both know is not only my family’s value system, but has been the value system of Scots-Irish immigrants for generations. The military life-style, the self-reliance, and the conservatism are what defines us as Scots-Irish.
How did your perception of community history change, from before the interview to now?
Sticking to my Scots-Irish values, before this interview I was not concerned or aware of community history. I thought of history, community, and my own life as separate entities. After conducting this interview, getting to hear about Uncle Mike’s life story, and researching the history of Scots-Irish immigrants, I have realized that my life is connected to Uncle Mike’s life in more ways than I could have imagined. On top of that, both of our lives are connected to the lives of other descendants Scots-Irish immigrants throughout the country.
How did this project inspire you to learn more about your family and community?
I was never that interested in my family history before this project. However, after getting to hear about all of the amazing things Uncle Mike accomplished throughout his life, I feel very confident that and inspired about my own life and where I am headed. I also feel a deep interest to find out more about my other relative’s and ancestor’s lives. Uncle Mike’s life is truly amazing, and if I had not interviewed him, I would have no idea about how cool it is. I was honestly blown away by the things he has accomplished in life.
What were some of the challenges you faced during this project? What could you do differently in your next oral history interview?
A pretty significant challenge that I faced during this project was the fact that I have literally no relatives in Georgia. Because of this, I had to conduct my interview over the phone. Although the interview came out great, I think conducting the interview in person would have made the whole process much easier.
If the roles were reversed and you became the tradition-bearer, what stories would you like to tell?
I would tell the story of how I got to travel all around the world before and during my college years speaking foreign languages and experiencing life to the fullest. This story would be comprised of innumerable smaller stories; some of which I tell my friends and family today, and many of which I suspect have not yet occurred.
