Photo By J.W. Marcum | PORT HUENEME, Calif.—Jody Sawyer began working at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port...... read more read more
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PORT HUENEME, Calif.—In the spring of 1969, Petty Officer First Class Arnold “Sonny” Sawyer reported for duty aboard Naval Ship Missile Systems Engineering Station (NSMSES) as a missile fire control technician. Sawyer cut his teeth on the ‘three-Ts’—Terrier, Tartar and Talos missiles. By the time his tour ended at NSMSES in 1972, the station had undergone many rapid changes and shortly thereafter would be renamed Naval Ship Weapon Systems Engineering Station (NSWSES), with a focus on terminal defense, over-the-horizon capabilities, in-service engineering and total-strike weapons systems. Sawyer also gained an addition to his family while stationed at Port Hueneme, his son James “Jody” Sawyer, born in May 1971.
Jody would follow in his father’s footsteps, enlisting in the Navy in 1989 as a fire controlman. Jody served aboard Aegis ships as an Aegis technician and later was commissioned in 2007 as an ordnance warrant officer and retired from active duty in April 2015. Jody entered civil service at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) in May 2015. He was assigned as fleet interface for Standard Missile Six (SM-6) in Air Dominance (A) Department’s Weapons Systems Integration Division. “I go out to the ships and teach them about SM-6 and how that relates to how they can use it,” says Jody.
Jody speaks with his father often about their parallel paths and time of service at NSMSES and NSWC PHD, “He’s very excited about me carrying on the heritage and working here,” said Jody. “He has a lot of fond memories of the area.”
“He loves the fact that we kind of completely, unintentionally, walked down the same path in a different time frame, working on similarly in its time, advanced systems,” Jody said. “I work on some of the newer missile systems as did he in his day.” Jody hopes to have his father out to visit soon.
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| Date Taken: | 03.03.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2017 18:44 |
| Story ID: | 225669 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 188 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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