1959

At least eight and probably more of our classmates had military careers. Let's catch up with some of them.

Did you read the bestseller, BlindMan's Bluff,The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage? Did you realize that it was our classmate Charlie MacVean, commander of the submarine Seawolf about whom you were reading? Charlie was only 38 years old when he took command of the huge Seawolf, especially fitted out for espionage work, with 130 men, a 15-ton nuclear reactor and missions he still cannot discuss. In one 12-month period they were at sea 300 of 365 days!

Retiring after 22 years, Charlie then held senior positions in several corporations, culminating as CEO of a company specializing in wireless e-mail applications. Currently he consults, holds volunteer board positions and travels with wife Ellen. Now in San Diego, they moved 19 times in 22 years. "The toughest duty in submarines," says Charlie "is that of wives and families. Submarines are completely forbidden to communicate with shore while on patrol so wives must handle everything for months."

Peter Bulkley also spent time underwateras a deep-sea diver and salvage officer in Hawaii, the Aleutians and the Far East. Later he served on an icebreaker, two destroyers and a frigate, held senior Sixth Fleet and NATO staff positions, lived "four wonderful years in Italy" and commanded a Naval Weapons Station. Pete once visited the South Pole and also sailed into the Arctic Ocean ice. Says Pete, "My Dartmouth Arctic seminar studies became very real!"

After retirement he kept sailing, delivering tuna boats from San Diego to Singapore and the square-rigged HMAV Bounty, the one used in the movie, to Vancouver. For 15 years Pete sailed as captain or mate on large square-rigged ships, went fox hunting (coyote chasing in California, near their home in Bonsall) and became master of fox hunting for the Santa Fe Hunt. He still rides four days a week as whipper-in. "The Navy was right for me," says Pete, "providing my family with a lifestyle that gave us a great deal of pleasure."

Peter Scott, an Army "tanker," commanded cavalry troops in Vietnam and squadrons of tanks in Germany. Like the others he was ROTC in Hanover and has no second thoughts about a military career and, like them, stresses, "It must be something both you and your spouse want to do."

Following 1987 Army retirement Peter joined FMC Corp.,windingup near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with the job of first building and then running the factory that manufactures the Paladin self-propelled howitzer. Now fully retired, he and Anne recently sold their Gettysburg home and are trying to figure out where to live the rest of their lives, according to Peter. "Maybe on a boat. We rented one for a trial this summer. Or maybe traveling in an RV or in a house in South Carolina or Texas or somewhere. Who knows?"

To be continued next issue.

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