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By Lauren
1/6/06
Gerald Pursley
2005
Gerald Lee Pursley was born in Akron, Ohio on July 2, 1945. Both his
father and mother worked in factories and his two brothers worked as laborers.
He also has two sisters, one is the controller of a public school system, and
the other is a preschool special needs aid. He and his siblings grew up on a
200 acre dairy farm near Chippewa Lake, Ohio. When he was young he liked to
hunt and camp out a lot. On the farm
he had to get up at around 5:30 and go milk 37 cows, he finished around 7:00.
When he and his brothers were done they had to change for school and catch
the bus. For school he attended Westfield, Kent State University, and
University of Akron School of Law. After school he had to change and milk
again. He would have to do this every day, even in the freezing cold. He
disliked Jr. High but liked being an undergraduate and law school.
He enlisted in 1962 for the navy. He
joined to get away from a bad home situation. He started basic training 5
days after his 17th birthday (July 7, 1962). He had thought about
joining the navy before but thought that this was the best time because the
government was drafting men to serve in the army but he wanted to join the
Navy. He was proud and excited about joining because he was too young to be
afraid. He had his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. When he left Great Lakes he was a seamen apprentice, he
later became a seamen during shore duty. Training was very strict and
challenging for a 17 year old 9th grade drop out, yelling and push
ups were big things there. He was trained to be a seaman, but did not request
to be trained for that job. He had never seen the ocean before he was
trained. His uniforms were dress blues and whites and dungarees during most
of his time serving. He did not have any advanced training because he had
dropped out in 9th grade. His experience was very interesting
because every sonar technician had at least some college experience except
him. He did have some close friends in training that he studied with or ate
lunch with. And usually the food was decent tasting. In his free time he
would read and go to clubs. Basic training lasted about 12 weeks, and another
1 or 2 weeks for physicals, he got a lot of shots. There they taught him
basic seamanship, all about the navy, and about ships and rates otherwise
known as jobs. At first he was enlisted as a seaman. The reason he was
enlisted as a seamen was because at this point he had not graduated from high
school. When high school graduates were enlisted, they were asked what they
wanted to be when they went in. They were guaranteed at least an “A”
position, which was the lowest rank in that job. If you did well you could be moved to “B”,
then “C” school. Being a ninth grade drop-out he was not guaranteed anything.
The reason he joined was one of his best
friends was joining. The Navy had a program that you could join with a buddy
and stay with them. When his friend asked him to join with him, he said yes
anything to get away from home. There was one new friend he made while
serving on board a destroyer, Bob Taylor. Bob had been in the Navy for seven
years and knew where to go and have fun and hang out in the Mediterranean. During the time in the Navy he
went through three hurricanes and was docked in many ports. Their destroyer
was a hunter killer for enemy submarines. While never seeing actual combat,
he and his crew helped to support the Naval effort of the 1960’s. After basic
training, he was in Dam Neck, Virginia serving at a very boring job and
wanted some excitement. He volunteered for a classified task, at first they
didn’t take him, but five days later, they needed more volunteers and at last
picked him for the task. He was told to go back to the barracks and pack his
sea bag and meet the bus at the administration building. He and the other
volunteers were met by the base commander, a full captain. The commander told them that he was very thankful
for everyone who volunteered, the assignment was classified but if he never
saw them again that he wished them the best of luck. He was thinking what
could we have gotten into!?
Then they left for Little Creek
Virginia. Little Creek is where they have the ‘AMFIB’ base, which is where
the SEALS and underwater teams train. They unloaded the sea bags and went in
to a barracks, where there was a day room with a TV. Unusually there were
fifty men gathered around the TV. The new arrivals were curious as to why
there was so much attention given to the broadcast. President John F. Kennedy
was announcing the blockade of Cuba. The only thing he remembered
of that speech that day was when Kennedy said we will consider any attack of
any country in the America’s as an attack on the United
States calling for a full retaliatory response. Wow! What a
statement! He also participated in the blockade of Cuba. Those first volunteers were
sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to evacuate the enlisted men’s
families. His group received them at Little Creek and got them settled. At this point he wasn’t on ship yet, that
would come six months later.
Gerald has been stationed in Great
Lakes, Dam Neck, Virginia, and May Port, Florida. The ship he worked on with
sonar, the U.S.S. Meredith DD 890 destroyer, was stationed in May
Port, Florida. He has traveled throughout
Europe and the Caribbean. His favorite place he was stationed was Spain. His career choices have been a
farmer, a sailor, a factory worker, a social worker, a prosecutor, a service
director, a law director, a superintendent, a judge, and a deputy executive
director. And he will soon be a business owner.
He married Jaclyn Abrams in 1968. He had
two children, Adrienne and Mark. Adrienne married Michael Dougherty and is a
stay-at-home mom. They have four children, Lauren, Jenna, Renee, and Tessa.
Mark married Sue Dishong and has 1 child, Kyle. He is now married to Nancy and has two step daughters,
Eileen and Sarah.
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