One of the comparative newcomers to the school staff is Jack Dea Adams, Jr. HMC. Chief Adams has been assigned to faculty.

He comes from the historical North Carolina town of Manteo, the site of the "Lost Colony".

If we could turn back the calendar a few years, back to the days before bridges were built between Manteo and the mainland, we could stand on the wharf at Elizabeth City, NC, watching and waiting for the old steamer to come up from Manteo. This steamer was the method of connecting Manteo with the mainland. As the steamer pulls alongside the dock, we watch the passengers disembark. This is a great past-time. One of the passengers attracts our attention by his nervousness.

He boards a bus for Norfolk, VA, which isn't unusual, and we follow him aboard. Upon arrival in Norfolk, we have a dickens of a time "following the chase," which leads us finally to the U. S. Post Office Building. Now where? No, not in there! The sign printed in large black letters reads, "U. S. Navy Recruiting Office." The story could very easily end here, for we have found our answer.

But what happened after he left this office? The Navy sent him to boot camp at Norfolk for a period of about sixteen weeks, after which he was transferred to the "old" Hospital Corps School here at Portsmouth. Upon completion of school, he went to the Naval Hospital at Annapolis, MD, for duty. This first duty at a hospital is always quite a nerve-racking experience, because not only the new corpsmen, but everyone else at the hospital will know what he knows and many times this is embarrassing.

When the tour of duty at Annapolis was completed, Adams was transferred to Mobile Hospital Unit No.1 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later followed this unit to Bermuda.

Among the several other duty tours he has had, was aboard the YMS-404, an LST, and an AKA. While he was serving aboard the AKA Procyon in 1945, his ship participated in the invasion of Okinawa and the Japanese occupation.

Chief Adams' most recent duty prior to coming to the school was at Cherry Point, NC.

Note: Jack Dea Adams, Jr. was the son of Jack Dea Adams, USCG, and Maretta William Midgett,

and the husband of Frances Etta (Francetta) White.