"They have a saying on submarines: You have days and weeks of total boredom and minutes and seconds of sheer terror." (Audio Interview, 15:52)
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Gerald McCarthy
War: Cold War; Cold War Branch: Navy Unit: USS Lowry (Destroyer) Service Location: New London, Connecticut; Pearl Harbor; Charleston, South Carolina; United States Naval Academy, Maryland; Naval War College, Rhode Island; Pentagon; Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) at Purdue Rank: Captain Place of Birth: IA
Gerald McCarthy entered the Naval Academy in 1950 and spent his first two years of active duty aboard a destroyer before switching to submarines. He served on four subs and offers detailed descriptions of what it takes to become a submariner and his various duties in confined spaces. His missions during the Cold War and the Vietnam War were mainly patrol and reconnaissance, some of which he's still not at liberty discuss in detail. He also enjoyed a satisfying series of shore duties in the Pentagon, the War College, and at Purdue University with their ROTC program. After retirement from the Navy, he taught at Purdue for 14 years.