It All Counts On Twenty

Book excerpt: John R. Burgoon Jr. was never one to turn down an adventure. He joined the US Navy at age seventeen and pursued a career in the aviation branch of the navy. One of his first assignments was flying anti-submarine missions from Panama during World War II. Burgoon carried out his work with distinction, and his radio, radar, and electronic skills did not go unnoticed. He became an instructor-even teaching other instructors how to teach. His twenty-year career was never dull, and included a stint in Guam, where he improved upon a shortwave radio station and relayed servicemen's calls to the United States; he also had an assignment as a legal officer in San Diego, where he never lost a case. Burgoon's exciting off-duty life included being an amateur radio operator, a proficient chess player, an impressive hypnotist, and a certified gemologist. In between everything, his good looks managed to get him in trouble with the ladies; this memoir shares all the good stuff in It All Counts on Twenty.