This week’s veteran of the week is David Beard. David entered the United States Navy in July 1967 and served until June 1970. David’s father was a Navy man to include a championship boxer who got to fight in Madison Square Garden! His brother served as a radioman on the cruisier USS Boston. However it was his mother who was his biggest influencer. David was always gifted in mechanical things, but his brother and his mother told him not to get involved in engine type work as it was down deep inside the ship. Fortunately for him, he also scored very well in many other areas. He began his journey at the Great Lakes training facility – cold was the order of the day. His first “away” orders were to the USS Haynesworth which sailed out of Galveston Texas all over the Caribbean and the Gulf. He completed that tour and was sent to San Diego to join the USS Lawrence where he spent the rest of his time in the Navy. He started his time there as a team member of the 5” gun crew. Surprisingly he never suffered any hearing loss, even without protection, during those years. He then was assigned to the CIC – the combat information center, involved in radar tracking. It was there it was discovered that he could type, so he became involved in the accounting and stores keeper area. As the “stores” guy, David did all of the ordering of food on board the Lawrence. While not up the level of quality of submarines, the food on board the Lawrence was excellent. They served 4 meals a day including MIDRATS- midnight rations at night. He was also selected as one of the 2 “designated swimmers” on board. Their responsibility was to go into the water and rescue any downed pilots using the whale boat on board. His favorite ports of call were two island ports – Palma and Malta. Beautiful locations, friendly people and great food. While in the Med, the USS Lawrence was always shadowed by a Russian ship. Periodically, a Russian Badger bomber would fly by, with a couple of USN F4s flying as escorts. They would push the bomber down low to the water – quite a sight! Throughout his career David always had a desire to learn new things. Every opportunity he had he would volunteer for any school that came open. Whenever they came into port for any length of time, he would attend another shore school. He felt that it always gave another skill or qualification. Upon leaving the Navy, David’s mother had a friend who was a court reporter. She spoke of what that entailed and the money that could be made from that job in the future. David liked what he heard, and then went to Court Reporting College in Houston. Upon graduation he spent several years working in Miami, Florida, San Antonio, and finally started his own business in Houston. One of the reasons David started coming to the Wednesday breakfasts was his lifelong (since the 4th grade) friend DD Shirley, who is also a regular at the Wednesday meetings. David is married and has a son and a daughter. Congratulations on being MCN’s Veteran of the Week.