AMBROSIAN VALUE:
Service
DEGREE:
Bachelor of Arts in English, 1967.
CAREER:
John was hired into a management training company right after graduating from SAU. He was with that company, Sea Land, for 34 years and stayed on after the company was sold to their competitor Maersk. He retired in 2008.
SERVICE:
John enrolled in the Navy Reserves following his SAU graduation and hiring by Sea Land. In the summer of 1969, John deployed to Vietnam for a year-long tour of duty. He was stationed at Benluc, a base located 60 miles west of Saigon in the Mekong Delta River Valley. Protecting a critical nearby bridge and patrolling the river to ensure no military hardware got into the wrong hands were his unit's primary duties. He served there for the first 10 months.
HOW DID SAU HELP YOU:
Over his final two months "in country," John used his SAU education in teaching English to Vietnamese Navy officer candidates. Those who passed the course were sent to Rhode Island for Officer Training School.
AFTER VIETNAM:
John returned home and was assigned to work in Florida. There, he met his wife, Jane. During his time with Sea Land, he twice was sent to work in Asia, in Tokyo for four years and Singapore for four. While John was stationed in Singapore, a bill allowing Americans to start businesses in Vietnam was passed in Congress. In 1994, almost 25 years after his tour in Vietnam ended, John returned to start a Sea Land subsidiary in Vietnam, opening offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
JOHN SAYS:
"That one-year stint I thought would be possibly terminal, turned out to be very interesting for me. Asia ended up being a big part of my life."- Interviewed by Natalie Woodhurst '15, an Air Force veteran and the coordinator of SAU's Office for Veterans Recruitment and Services.
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