Excellence on high seas: Recalling 36 years in U.S. Navy

Herbert Gregory says it’s an experience a man never forgets.

He pulled into Alameda, Calif. at about 9 p.m. in his 1959 El Camino. He grabbed his sea bag and headed down to the pier where he got his first glimpse of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Three of the immense vessels were docked side-by-side and could have housed the entire population of Lincoln County. Startled by their size, 18-year-old Gregory began to second-guess his choice to enlist in the Navy.

“I’m looking down and as far as I can see is ship – and they’re huge,” Gregory recalls. “They’re 60 feet in the air to the flight deck. I’m going, ‘Holy crap, what did I get myself into?’”

A young petty officer took Gregory under his wing that April 1974 after the teen gingerly stepped aboard the USS Enterprise for a three-year tour.

Gregory, a Lincoln County native, could never have imagined that he would someday become a master chief, the Navy’s top enlisted rank, and work to lead and guide young sailors just like himself. Though he has accomplished many things during his 36-year career, what he is most proud of are the sailors that have succeeded under his supervision.  

“The medals I wear on my chest are not mine, but the people that worked with me,” Gregory said, addressing a crowd of family, friends and old Navy buddies at his retirement party Saturday. “The people that worked with me performed well – that’s how I got them. I provided the environment for them to succeed.”

After changing out of his hot and restricting uniform, Gregory briefly slipped away from the party for an interview. He sat back in a loose button-up shirt and pair of shorts. Civilian life appears to suit him.

He said the transition has been positive.

“I retired while I still love what I do,” he said. “I’m in my mid-50s and I’m at an age where I don’t want to spend time away from my family. I want to spend time relaxing a little bit more – the military is an arduous life.”

Gregory recalled working 18-hour days while at sea. He was ready to settle down with his wife, Linda, in their Troy home and to spend time with his two grown children and three grandkids.

His wife has been so supportive his entire career that he jokes that she enjoyed him heading out to sea on three-year stints.

“I’ll go on deployment occasionally with my fishing pole,” he said to the crowd with microphone in hand. “My grandson will be my first mate.”

Gregory plans to open a woodworking business using his skills at building small furniture and shadow boxes.

“My goal is I really don’t want to work for someone else again,” he said.

Gregory enlisted in the Navy at the tail-end of the Vietnam War and has had a hand in almost every U.S.-involved conflict that followed. He recalls port visits where the U.S. Navy was welcomed with open arms, like Hobart, Tasmania – the island state of Australia – in 1976. He also recalls Karachi, Pakistan in that same tour. The third-world country had a unique culture and delicious food, but what sticks in Gregory’s memory was the city’s filth and foul-smelling open sewers. 

The most memorable time with his family was the three years they spent on a base in Japan.

“My daughter went there kicking and screaming,” he said. “My wife, while she was supportive, was not sure about it. But after three years there, they wanted to stay another three years.”

Gregory and his neighbor, Mike Waters, were both involved in the Booster Club while in Japan.

“I had the unique experience of seeing Herb in a different light,” Waters said at Saturday’s party. “I saw him as a family man, as a father and as a husband.”

Though they haven’t seen each other for years, Waters and his family traveled from Colorado to welcome Gregory into civilian life.

Other Navy comrades who traveled to Troy for the occasion had stayed in contact through Christmas cards and occasional phone calls. They remained friends through their years apart and picked up on Saturday where they left off.

“That’s something you find a lot in the military,” Waters said, the bond is “kind of a shared hardship.”

Gregory began in the Navy as a photographic intelligenceman. He interpreted film from reconnaissance planes, identified targets and planned bombing missions. He stayed in intelligence until he graduated from the Command Master Chief Program in 2000.

From there, he only answered to one person, the ship’s commanding officer. He served as a liaison between the commanding officer and the crew – he managed people programs, informed the captain of sailor morale and made recommendations.

“It was a chance to influence young sailors,” Gregory said, “and that is what my real passion has been.”

When contemplating what he is most proud in a career that spans over three decades, Gregory cited a sailor named Patrick.

“He was the most hard-headed, bull-headed kid I’ve met,” he said. “It was like beating him down everyday to get him to do what you wanted him to do.”

Gregory fondly recalls meeting his former subordinate 10 years later after the sailor had become a senior chief. He thanked Gregory.

“He said, ‘When I made chief, I looked back on my career wondering what got me there.’” Gregory recalled. “He said, ‘You held me accountable for everything I had to do.’”

Gregory said he enlisted at 17 for the adventure. He re-enlisted for active duty when his family was suffering financial hardship. But he continued on and made it a career for another reason.

“I served the United States Navy for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I loved what I did,” Gregory said, “which was taking care of sailors, watching them succeed and watching them perform a mission that the average American could not do.”