May 1970 I checked into Navfac Bermuda and was assigned to the infamous I-Div (cleaning heads, swabbing decks, polishing bright work, burns and whatever other menial task needed to be done.) One of my duties was also to make a pot of coffee in the large 55 cup pot. One day I thought I would impress the Ops Chief (some guy named Widenor). I filled the pot with the required amount of coffee and had a plan to have the coffee ready in a flash. I filled the pot with hot water knowing it would be done sooner. The chief drew his cup and let out a bellow. I think he said "who made this coffee". That was my first direct interaction with George. Sometime later I came in late because I missed the ride to the Navfac. I, being the honest guy that I was, I informed the chief that I was there. I hadn't realized that he didn't know I was late until I confessed. Needless to say he assigned EMI working for BM1 Earls in the barracks. This was my next good impression on George. Several weeks later I was assigned to a watch section with a group of great guys who all seemed to know everything. My supervisor was a guy named William R. Sharon. He was a training fool. He quizzed me non-stop until I think I knew the pub library including all gram cuts inside and out. I had become a hotshot reader under his wing. One particular day-watch chief George was walking the mats as he always did. He always quizzed the readers when making his rounds. He would pick a display, ask the reader to count the number of red lines they had annotated, took a TARF, covered up the annotation and had you count the total number of lines visible. Typically the two numbers did not match and he would dress you down for gun-decking. I was one of those individuals and this was another encounter with George. On another watch he came by and asked me about a signature and why it had the same number as the day before. I quoted the PROMAN and he stormed off and confronted my supervisor who later called me and wanted to what kind of BS I was feeding the chief. I told him exactly what I said and he confirmed I was correct. This really ticked me off and I had enough of this canoe club and submitted a request for a discharge as a conscientious objector. It obviously got trashed in the end. Another time I tried to impress George by showing him my two wrist watches, One set to real time and the set to Zulu time. He wasn't impressed. I think after several encounters with him I saw him as a straight shooting, hard charging professional who expected the highest standards from all who worked for him. We parted ways for several years and as it often happened in our community, I'm now a first class transferring to COSP where to my surprise the Command Master Chief is, you guessed it, George Widenor. Upon check-in he looked at me and stated that I had put on some weight since he last saw me. Thinking he was referring to body weight I quickly acknowledged his comment. He further qualified his statement by saying he was referring to the first class crow I was wearing and complimented me on my accomplishments. I think it was at that point that I realized that George Widenor was not a man to fear but to respect his abilities and strive to follow in his footsteps. I think I learned some great things from George and thank him for all the things he instilled in me and what he did for our system. I salute you George.
And John - through the magic of technology, here we are - over a half century later, reminiscing about a very special time in our lives. You were a very special young man, and it filled me with pride to see how you progressed in a system we loved. There must have been some magic in that "pixie dust" because that pride in what we did, and the personal bonds we still enjoy continue to endure. Thank you for the kind words.
