Tom Moore at boot camp in May 1960.

“I knew I would be in the Navy when I was six years old,” Tom Moore writes in a story he submitted to the Wetzel Chronicle, recapping his military career.

Moore currently lives in Las Vegas, Nev., and travels by RV every year to get out of the heat. He’s a veteran of the Navy of 20 years and a 1959 grad of Magnolia High School.

“After school, some got married and moved away; some got married and stayed in New Martinsville, and a couple even got married while we were seniors,” he says. “Those were the days.

“The family business was Van Sickles Monument Studio in Steelton,” he writes. “We placed most of the tombstones in Northview Cemetery.

Moore stated that as a child his uncle asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Moore responded: “a sailor.”

Tom Moore at the North Pole.

“At the time, I was in bed with a cast from my toe to my hip, but that is another story,” he says.

Moore says the events that led up to his career made his wife laugh, so he thought he would attempt to put them into writing:

“When I graduated from high school I did not know what I was going to do with my life,” he writes. “I went to work across the street at a drive-in restaurant and really wasn’t doing what I wanted. At least I didn’t think I wanted to be a short order cook the rest of my life, so I decided to go visit my brother in Louisville, Ky., and go from there.

“I went there about February and was looking around for some work and one day I decided to go to the War Memorial Building and join the service,” Moore states. “I went down the stairs, since that’s where all the recruiters were and the first door I came across was the Coast Guard.

“I looked around and no one was there. The next door was the Marine recruiter and I hurriedly passed that door, the next was the Air Force and I had no desire to fly, so I stopped at the Navy recruiter’s office.

Tom Moore at Adak Harbor.

“Behind the desk was this First Class Yeoman and he looked up and asked if he could help me,” Moore writes. “I stated that I wanted to join the Navy. He handed me four pieces of paper and said, ‘Go fill these out and come back.’

“I went over to a table and filled out these papers and took them back. I really didn’t know that what he gave me was a test to see if the Navy would take me or not.”

Moore stated that the recruiter graded the test and told him to come back tomorrow and they would take Moore to the base and test him some more. “He then gave me a piece of paper and told me to go home, fill it out, and bring it in tomorrow,” Moore says.

“The next day I showed up with my paper, gave it to him, and off we went to the ‘base’. There, I got off the bus and a guy handed me some papers and said, “Fill these out”. I went over to a desk and filled them out, brought them back to him, and was told to go to another room. I went to another room and a doctor made me strip and do more tests. He gave me some papers and said, ‘Fill these out,’ which I did and gave them to the guy in the next room.

“We had some lunch, and I had to fill out a paper for that too.” Moore says. “After lunch we went to some other buildings and I can’t really remember what we did except that everywhere I went somebody handed me some papers and said ‘Fill these out.’ which I did and gave them back.

Tom Moore states this was a plane that saved his life when he suffered from appendicitis at the South Pole.

“I finally made it back to Louisville and when I went into the office the recruiter handed me some papers and said ‘Fill these out,’ which I did and gave them back to him. He then told me that I was underweight. I was at 124 pounds and the minimum weight to join was 125 pounds. The recruiter asked me when I wanted to go and I said ‘Thursday’ so he handed me some papers and said to go home, fill them out, and come back on Thursday.”

Moore writes: “I did and when I returned back I was still underweight so he took me into a back room and gave me a bag full of bananas and told me to eat. Then I got an a scale and I weighed 126 pounds, which is heavy enough to join, so I was sworn in and then handed some papers and was told ‘Fill these out.'”

Moore states that after all of this, he was taken to the airport and “as I was getting on the plane I was handed some papers and was told to ‘Fill these out’ and give them to whomever met me at the airport in Chicago.

“No problem. I gave them to the greeter and he handed me some papers to fill out on the way to Great Lakes Training Center.”

“Interesting? Not really,” Moore states. “I just thought of all the papers that I filled out. Where are they today? Probably in a landfill somewhere since everything is now microfilmed or on a disc.”

Moore states that he was in the Navy for 20 years, two days, four hours, 12 minutes, and 18 seconds, jokingly adding that he was not counting.

He says he was mostly on submarines. In between those times he went to the South Pole, North Pole and “all poles in between.”

He participated in three tours in Vietnam, “got involved in the Bay of Pigs dispute, Dominican Republic dispute, and visited lots of ports around the world.”

He says he retired in Pearl Harbor as a “Chief Petty Officer (E-7),” adding that his official rank is “SKC/SS/, USN, RET.” He says he went to work for Gould Inc. and then civil service in Pearl Harbor.

When asked what his most memorable experience in the military was, Moore states that is hard to answer since he’s travelled the world, with three tours in Vietnam. “I’d have to say my best times in the Navy were serving aboard submarines,” he says.

“I figured if the Navy was going to trust me to operate a multimillion dollar submarine, I was going to do the best I could. So when I retired I was Chief of the Boat on the U.S.S. Queenfish (SSN-651).

Also, Moore states that in in 1997 he attended the decommissioning of U.S.S. Hawkbill SSN-666.

“This was my first submarine that I qualified,” Moore noted, “the one I went to the North Pole . . . When I got my dolphins (the insignia meaning that I am a submariner) the crew threw me over the side, which means I was accepted.”

“Ever been in Puget Sound, Wash., in February?” Moore asked. “It’s cold!! That was the spring of 1973.”

Moore states that after 14 commands, it was time to retire. “So now I live in a desert and go RVing. I’m still lovin’ life,” he notes.

Moore encourages old friends to find him on Facebook or send him an e-mail at Mooretg99@ yahoo.com