Racism USNR

DID THE 'R' IN USNR STAND FOR RACISM?                                 

Published to the internet, August 20, 2018

My job in the US Navy, during the Cold War in the middle 1950s was classified Top Secret. I was a Cryptographic Technician, a fancy rating term for Navy spies (their term) and I was tasked with intercepting both communication and non-communication signals of our military enemies in Cold War Germany.

I was born in 1936 which meant I was an eight year obligor. Born that year, I was automatically obligated for eight years military service. Early on at age sixteen I decided to join the Navy reserves to prepare myself for active duty. The draft was in effect and I knew the Army would not be a good fit for me.  With the consent of my parents I joined US Navy Security Group 13-8, (thirteenth naval district, security group eight.) I trained at Swan Island in Portland Oregon. I was issued a full set of uniforms and attended two weeks boot camp at the Naval Training center in San Diego California.

In 1956, at the age of twenty, with my draft number coming closer, I received my Top Secret security clearance and went on active duty. After training at Imperial Beach California and at Washington DC, I was ordered to Todendorf Germany and assigned to a Navy Security group detachment operating on the coast of the Baltic sea. I arrived in Germany as an E-3 CT striker. I was promoted to E-4 and subsequently to E-5 during my 26 months service in Todendorf. After my service in Germany I was honorably discharged from active duty and returned to Portland Oregon where I remained in the Reserves eventually being promoted to E-6.

While I remained in the reserves for the next eighteen years, I also joined the Portland police bureau in 1961 and worked as a street cop for six long years. In 1967 I was promoted to the rank of police detective, and every summer for the next eighteen years I did two weeks training duty and remained in good standing with the Navy Reserves, serving my country well.

Until, about 1978 when suddenly things changed. While completing yet another four year enlistment, toward my eventual retirement, I was informed, by letter, by the 13th naval district that I would no longer be eligible for a top secret security clearance due to my new “instability.”

The only thing new in my life was that I had recently begun seeing a woman and in time she became my girlfriend and she was a black woman. Stunned at this new development, I typed a letter to the 13th naval district informing them that I was a working police detective, who carried a gun every day and was in no way unstable. Apparently they realized the impossibility of their position and backed down and allowed me to maintain my security clearance and complete my enlistment. I thought that was the end of it, but I was wrong. Several months later as my enlistment expired, I applied for reenlistment, as I had done many times before.

One more enlistment would allow me to make E-7 Chief!

Being an E-7 Chief would secure my retirement income in my later years. The 13th naval district refused to allow me to reenlist with no comment. There was no reason for this to occur, other than they knew something about my personal life and the fact that I had a new girlfriend and she was black. This effectively ended my military career and laid waste to the good time I put in service to my country. It was a perplexing and frustrating turn of events and entirely unfair. I had always passed each rating exam and had never been disciplined for improper behavior or any manner of dereliction of duties. I had always performed my duties with a calm acceptance of my responsibilities and with the utmost professionalism.

If the navy regarded me as a security risk, in 1978, because of my black woman friend, they should have immediately pulled my security clearance. They didn't! What does that mean? It wasn’t about me being dangerous, because I was allowed to complete the remainder of my enlistment. But then I was unceremoniously dumped. There was NO support from the commanding officer team for my position. In retrospect, I can only conclude my career was ended by the blatant racism of the time.

In my case the R in USNR was a death knell and spelled Racism.

What I do know for sure, is that someone in the US Navy decided to do this to me and they came to their conclusions for all the wrong reasons and as a result of racist beliefs. I want to share this story with people so they can understand that racism impacts all areas of life and as bad as things may seem today, in 1978 it was even worse.

When I married my second wife, a black woman, we had our house egged; crosses burnt on our front lawn and received written death threats in our mailbox. That was in 1980 and I learned a lot about the human condition from the intolerance of others who could not accept that a man and woman of a different color could indeed love each other.

Ultimately, there was no reason for the US Navy to not allow me to reenlist, other than the men in charge of those things decided I was not wanted and that had to be because I had a black girlfriend at the time.

Perhaps the universe has a way of righting wrongs. The US Navy has recently admitted that my almost total hearing loss was due to my military service in Todendorf, Germany as a “ditty chaser” during the Cold War. I now receive 100 percent service connected disability pay. It is equal to what a retired Navy Chief petty officer would receive.  

By Don DuPay

Edited by Theresa Griffin Kennedy

If you'd like to contact Don DuPay, you can find him at facebook here...https://www.facebook.com/dondupay

or you can email him at his PSU email, at ddupay@pdx.edu

ABSOLUTELY NO PORTION OF THIS PERSONAL ESSAY MAY BE REPRODUCED OR DISSEMINATED WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR, DONALD LEE DUPAY, UNDER PENALTY OF COPYRIGHT LAWS!!