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Todd Allen Voge

Faribault Senior High, Concordia University St. Paul

Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach, Fallbrook Annex, Fallbrook, CA.

Navy Achievement Medal x 2

Photo was taken in 1990 as an AT2.

Narrative

I left for Recruit Training Command (Boot Camp) on February 3, 1986. Boot camp was a life lesson. Being with 70 guys day in and day out for 8 weeks allows you to really take stock of the human condition. I learned early to play the game by their rules (the company commanders or our instructors) and life would go well. A lot of guys didn't learn that. They tried to buck the system and ended up getting set back or drummed out. I learned a lot about myself in those 8 weeks. I pushed myself beyond what I thought I could do and came out stronger as a person.

I went through Basic Electricity/Electronics school and then Electronics Technician school at Great Lakes before transferring to Orlando, FL for Nuclear Power School. In Nuke school, I got the equivalent of two years of college in six months. Everything from Heat Transfer/Fluid Flow, Thermodynamics, Chemistry, Physics, Metallurgy and Radiation Principles to Reactor Operations. It was intense. The final test was a 4 hour, 20 question, 400 point essay test. I failed it by 10 points. Upon failure, I had to go to an academic review board where I had to answer questions thrown at me by a number of high ranking Navy instructors. I ultimately failed. Surprisingly, I was only dejected for about 5 minutes. Two immediate things came to mind. First, they couldn't take away the knowledge they had given me in those six months of training. Second, I had the opportunity to do something totally different in the Navy.

Instead of sending me to the fleet and working on a ship, I was tasked to go to Lakehurst NJ (the site where the Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed in the 1930's) for training in Law Enforcement/Security. After 4 weeks there, I went to Fallbrook, CA and worked at a Naval Weapons Station as Security. I eventually moved into the training coordinator role and provided military and tactical training to our guard force.

I left the Navy on February 2, 1992 after exactly 6 years of service.