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JOHN SILCOX, LT
Watching the fall of shot on the strb side of the bridge, standing next the the Captain in his bridge chair.

"I think what helped me a lot as a JO was that I had some pretty good characters with whom to work. And I enjoyed what I was doing. I guess that it takes all kinds but too many officers thought that their 'stuff' didn't stink and that made it awfully tough to be a leader. They tended to lead through a feeling of superiority rather than by example. Again, thanks for the memories.

"I stayed in until May of '81 having decommissioned 2 more Frams. After a 6 year break, signed up in the National Guard and just a year ago, retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve with 26 years. Kind of a strange path for a Navy guy. I certainly do miss going to sea - particularly over out of Japan. Those were pretty good times.

"Now I teach high school math - have been for almost 15 years and raise over half a million chickens a year for Perdue, a major producer. I've got 3 kids; 21, 18 and 16 and have been married for almost 25 years."

Excerpt from John's letter to Webmaster in response to a comment made concerning what an outstanding and well respected officer he had been.  I think he'd agree that the letter belongs to the crew.