HOM: San Diego Again

As soon as we got in at COSRON3, I had a moment of orneriness. The crew's families came down to meet us and there was a crowded reception/get together. When I had a free moment in the resulting festivities and found him alone, I remarked to one of the engineers that his brunette wife sure looked different here than she did as a blonde in Tacoma. All of a sudden he had me by the throat and was holding me on tiptoe in a corner while he explained to me that if I repeated that remark where his wife could hear me, I was a dead man. It was the reaction I had expected from him and it hit my funnybone. He wasn't the only one in the crew with a wife in SD & and a GF in Portland, or maybe vice versa, but with his temper he was the easiest to tease, if not the safest. A lot of sailors figured marital fidelity ended when you left port and what you did when you were away didn't count. These were the same guys that got divorced if they found out that their wives cheated on them. The personnel of the U.S. Navy definitely supported a double standard! Shortly after we got back into San Diego, Mr. Hanley took it upon himself to track down my missing sea bag. It took a while, but he located it -- in a warehouse at the base in San Diego, less than a mile from COSRON3! It was nice to get it back, but being reunited with the little bundle of dirty laundry that had been moldering in the bottom of the bag for months was less than thrilling. As a side note, Let me mention that Mr. Hanley was an exemplary officer and had quite a career! ---------- PAUL HANLEY was born in England, raised in Arizona and Los Angeles, and educated at Oxford University, Claremont Graduate School, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Before returning to the Pentagon in March 2002 as Director of Strategic Communications for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was founder and Managing Principal of DC Inc., a twelve-year-old consulting firm that specializes in helping small government agencies and non-profits with corporate communication and strategic planning. Recent clients include the Commission on Roles and Missions in the Armed Forces, the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, the National Defense Panel, the NRO Commission, and the Space Commission. Mr. Hanley was the Director for Public Affairs for the Defense Conversion Commission from its inception in May of 1992 until it completed its work in March 1993. The Commission was responsible for assessing the impact of defense reductions on the U.S. economy, reviewing programs to assist military and civilian defense personnel whose jobs are deleted and examining measures to help defense industries convert to commercial activities. He served 24 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy, mostly as a public affairs specialist, retiring in 1992. Among other assignments he was Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Atlantic Command and Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia, where he dealt with the first Soviet Navy ship visit to the U.S., the entry of the Defense Department into the counter-narcotics effort in the Caribbean, and the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo. Mr. Hanley was the Public Affairs Officer for the Joint Staff in the Pentagon during the escort operations for reflagged Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf. Before that he directed public affairs for the National Security Council in the White House. He served from 1983 to 1986 in the office of the Navy's Chief of Information in Washington, having returned from four years' duty in Yokosuka, Japan, where he was Public Affairs Officer first for U.S. Naval Forces Japan, and then for the Seventh Fleet. In 1978 he went to the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command, where he served as public affairs officer until the withdrawal of U.S. military forces following Washington's normalization of relations with Beijing. His early naval career included the Navy Office of Information, Boston, which handles the Navy's media relations in New England, a tour of duty as the Special Assistant to the Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe in Naples, and billets as English teacher at the United States Naval Academy, Weapons Officer in the commissioning crew of the gunboat USS Grand Rapids (PG-98), and Special Assistant to the President, U.S. Naval War College. Mr. Hanley is an adjunct professor at American University’s School of Communication. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, Priscilla, and has two adult children. ---------- Anyway, life was great once we got back into a routine. I spent as little time as I could aboard and as much time as I could over in Ocean Beach pretending to be a civilian. TBC (Me) (Home)