Sitekeepers Bio
Ken Deshaies -
<--BEFORE --- 
<--AFTER
Prior to joining up with Uncle Sam, I attended Mass. Radio And Electronics
School in Boston, Mass. completing a two year Basic and Advanced electronics curriculum. graduating in April 1962.
After reading this poster , and running in to these two swabbies , I was convinced to join the US Navy on 3 May 1962. Upon completion of basic training at
Great Lakes Naval Training Center, I was then assigned to the USS Saratoga (CVA-60) in
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Va. as a designated striker (ATRAN). Saratoga got underway for Guantanamo
Bay Cuba and participated in the 1962 Cuban Missile Blockade. Made 3 Med Cruises on the Saratoga. While on the
Saratoga, I held rates of ATR3 and ATR2; and then changed rate to MT3 and MT2*.
I shipped over (re-enlisted) in 1966 for 4 more years, and then was transferred to shore duty at Polaris Missile Facility Atlantic (POMFLANT) - Naval Weapons Station, in North Charleston (Goose Creek) South Carolina for about a year and a half (rotation for MT/FTM was 7 years sea duty and 2 years shore duty). While at POMFLANT, I changed my rate again from MT2 to FTM3 and then to FTM2 and finally to FTM1. While in the Navy, I took 7 rating exams to advance 4 pay grades *(example: if you were changing from MT2 to FTM2 - you took the FTM3, FTM2 and rating exams in order to advance to FTM2).
In 1967, I was next transferred to the USS Leahy pre-commissioning crew. Leahy was scheduled for a modernization upgrade at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Prior to locating to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, I attended various Class C schools at the Naval Guided Missile School in Dam Neck, Va. USS Leahy was re-commissioned on 4 May 1968 (CO Captain William B. Murray Jr.), and re-assigned to it's new homeport of Norfolk, Va. On 28 July 1969, Leahy commenced participation in the UNITAS X cruise to various Central and South American ports (photo above left, shown landing the "big one" in the Galapagos Islands - August 1969), and returned to Norfolk, Va. at the end of 1969. I remained on Leahy until my discharge date of 09 June 1970.
In civilian life, I worked briefly (2.5 years) for Pacific Ordnance And Electronics Co. in Norfolk, Va. I then hired on to the General Electric Co. in their Medical Systems Operation as a Field Service Representative and Support Engineer in the Norfolk, VA Area. While with GE, I also held positions of site support at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC and at headquarters support at GE Medical Technical Services- Operations in Pewaukee, Wisconsin and instructor at the GE Medical Systems Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (the home of real winter weather). On my 60 birthday in 2001, I retired from GE after 28 years of service. I then relocated from Pewaukee, Wisconsin to the sunny Melbourne- Rockledge(Viera), area of Florida, in the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center, where I currently reside with my bride of 41 years, and where I can spend most of my free time in my new pool and banging on my various keyboards.
