Today's Featured Biography

 
Kevin Smith

What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?
I went on a Speech and Drama bus trip to Stratford, CT during my Junior year. Upon our return to the bus after the play, we discovered a half pint of Vodka under each cushion of the rear bench seat of the bus??? The only thing to do was to buy huge cups of orange drink and down the vodka. Even though we had a solemn pact that what happened in Stratford would stay there, the word got out. None of us could go to the senior prom (damn – and I had a date with a senior, too). We each had to tell our parents – right!
    
What was your overall impression about high school?
I was just starting to figure it out, and wasn’t ready to graduate.

After high school I went to Belmont Abbey College, near Charlotte, NC - a couple of times! During my Junior year I joined the USCG Reserves, and stayed in for 6 years. Nona Kelly (BHS '66) and I were married in 1970. My first real job was as a management trainee for Lorillard Tobacco Company, in Greensboro, NC. After three or four years, Nona and I moved to Odessa, DE to care for her grandparents. That lasted about 6 months, then we moved to near Easton, MD where I was hired to sell trucks and farm equipment - that ended with being let go after 6 months, right before our daughter Kate was born. After that I worked in a sporting goods store in Easton, and next as manager of the Suzuki dealership in Cambridge, MD. Thankfully, the Coast Guard allowed me to change from reserve status to active duty, in 1976. I was stationed in Ocean City, MD running lifeboats - the most fun job I have ever had. Officer candidate school followed, and I was assigned to law enforcement duties in New Orleans. Next, I served on a ship out of Panama City, FL, primarily involved in counter drug ops in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico. Guam was next, where I supervised the Rescue Coordination Center and became the Deputy Commander, traveling through Micronesia - tough duty:). Our kids were young, and we really enjoyed our two year tour there. All of that hard work was rewarded (not) by a tour at CG HQ in Washington, DC, where I worked in a staff position in the Law Enforcement Program office. I fortunately escaped a little early and was assigned to command a brand new cutter being built in Louisiana. My crew and I lived in New Orleans while the ship was being finished, then, in 1987, we sailed her to our home port of Cape May, NJ. After that, we were sent to Portsmouth, VA where I was Opcenter supervisor, and assistant to the Chief of Search and Rescue for the Mid-Atlantic region. This was followed by another job in Portsmouth, where I was assigned to command a large shore unit responsible for all CG operations in the lower Chesapeake Bay. After three years there, I got a one year assignment to a deployable squadron, and deployed on a US Navy frigate for a 5 month, 22 port call trip around South America - fun, but hard on the Mastercard and liver! Another staff assignment in Portsmouth followed, as program manager of tactical law enforcement and harbor defense and port security programs east of the rockies and in the Middle East. I was then assigned as USCG Liaison to the Navy and Army in Norfolk, VA. After two years I couldn't take any more and retired. I flew as a corporate pilot for a small group of companies in Southeast Virginia, but after two years the Coast Guard asked (ordered) me to return to active duty for another year, in Portsmouth - (guess I didn't learn enough the first time!) In 2005 I retired again, with 34 years wearing the Coast Guard uniform....It was the second best decision I have ever made - always number two to marrying Nona!
We moved to Savannah, GA to be near GKids, and we both worked for FEMA as Reserves for a couple of years. I did a little Port Security consulting after that. We moved to our current home in Camden, NC in 2011, and have been enjoying seeing our son and his kids, and enjoying retirement.

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