Welcome to a series of web pages I am creating as a tribute to my father and his thirty years of naval service. Only my father could begin to tell the complete story of this adventure, but by sharing some images, some facts, and some of his recollections I hope that the reader can appreciate why I was so proud of my dad when I was a little boy and why I'm just as proud of him today.

Introduction

William B. Abbott III was born December 27, 1930, in Tampa, Florida. When we've talked about why he became interested in the Navy as a career, one of the things he remembered was seeing an impressive story about US Navy ships and sailors in LIFE magazine in the late 1930s. World War II began in Europe around the time that my father turned nine years old, and he remembers hearing Adolph Hitler's menacing voice on the short-wave radio in his home. Shortly after the United States entered the war, when German U-boats roamed freely along the US coast, my father remembers seeing the glow of burning ships that had been torpedoed only a few miles from the Florida beaches. During the rest of the war, my father followed the initial setbacks and eventual triumph of the US Navy with great interest. His father, William B. Abbott Jr., entered the US Army Air Corps early in the war and was stationed in Europe for much of the war. Fortunately he returned unscathed, with souvenirs including the Bronze Star medal he had been awarded and vivid photographs from the Battle of the Bulge.

Navy Career Summary

My father entered Georgia Tech in 1948, where he was a Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) midshipman. In 1952 he graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and was commissioned as an Ensign. The first ship he was stationed aboard was the destoryer USS John W. Thomason, DD 760, where he eventually served as Chief Engineer. The John W. Thomason participated extensively in the Korean War, with missions including task force escort and providing gun fire support to United Nations troops on shore. My father still has an acrylic paperweight containing large pieces of shrapnel from communist shells that exploded close enough to the Thomason to rip many holes in her.

Later in the 1950s my father served as the Main Propulsion Assistant aboard the aircraft carrier Valley Forge, CVS-45. In the early 1960s, my father was stationed aboard the then-new aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, CVA-63. In his roles aboard the Kitty Hawk he was responsible for the Terrier surface-to-air missile system and all of the weapons to be delivered by the Kitty Hawk's aircraft. Between these assignments the Navy provided opportunities for my father to study at two more prestigious universities in preparation for future assignments. He earned another Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at the Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering at MIT.

In the mid-1960s my father began working with the US Navy's fleet ballistic missile (FBM) program, which at the time was improving the new Polaris missile. Although he was away from this program for a few years when he was stationed at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, my father had developed a deep personal commitment to the FBM program. His commitment, as far as I can tell, came from several sources. The primary source of his commitment was a deep personal conviction that a credible nuclear deterrent (including the FBM) was our nation's best hope for deterring nuclear war. The other aspects of his commitment to the FBM programs came from the inspired leadership he encountered and the satisfaction of working with talented military and civilian colleagues to solve truly unique problems in engineering and management. My father's commitment led him to devote the remainder of his career to the Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident missile programs. My father served as the Naval Plant Representative at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company from 1972 until his retirement in 1982.

My father now enjoys a pleasantly busy retirement in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I see him when I can.