This post is homage to someone who had a significant impact in my last year-and-a-half in the US Navy. Senior Chief Raymond P. Lucasy was the senior enlisted in the Public Affairs Office of COMSUBLANT when I returned from deployment to Vietnam on board the USS Newport News, CA-148, in 1972. He came aboard early in 1973 searching for a young Navy journalist to recruit to his office.
Before I met him, Chief Lucasey served with the American Forces Vietnam Network, in Vietnam. He was one of the program directors with Detachment 7, AFVN at Chu Lai from 1969-70. I haven’t been able to find more information on his service career. This page, AFVN, has a lot of information on the work of the American Forces Network during the Vietnam War.
The third class journalist (JO3) in our shipboard Public Affairs Office had already gotten out and there was another guy who was more junior to me and still in his first year of sea duty. I was due to transfer to shore duty, so I was his most likely recruit.
Motivation
At this point, I had been an E-3 and later JOSN since I had joined the Navy in 1970. I had no motivation to go beyond that. Yes, I had done the study and could pass the exams for promotion to JO3. I just wasn’t motivated.
After working with Chief Lucasey for a few months and learning things he taught me, I started to change my mind. I ended up taking the exam and earning promotion. I got my crow, as they say. It wasn’t easy. Chief Lucasey required my best efforts in writing, photography, and media relations.
During that last year and some, we worked side-by-side dealing with media and writing press releases. We had to respond to media regarding race riots at the remote submarine bases in Glasgow, Scotland and Rota, Spain. We covered media for the Johnson Sea Link rescue in Florida. I was also assigned to the Skylab Contingency Team later in 1973 and had to get a passport in case the Skylab fell out of orbit in some odd location.
Writing
Chief Lucasey also worked with me on writing. I had a bad habit of–what he called–backing into sentences. His coaching helped me a great deal. Of course, I couldn’t give you an example of that now. It’s just been too long.
Not only was he a mentor, he protected me. As the junior enlisted man in our building when I first came aboard COMSUBLANT, I got assigned coffee making duty. I believe the expectation was that I would be in the office by a certain time, and coffee would be made by a certain time. Due to my other responsibilities, I sometimes had to be on assignment or off base. Chief Lucasey backed me up when others in the building couldn’t find coffee made.
It is thanks to Chief Lucasey that I was prepared one day. The Public Affairs Officer and the chief were both out of the office. I got a call that someone needed to go to the communications shack to view a Top Secret message. We’d had an incident. As it turned out, I had to memorize a message, then return to the office and work through an incident file to be prepared to respond to media queries. I knew what to do and handled the task properly. Thanks, Chief!
Assume
The greatest lesson, though, came as a response to my use of the word “assume.” I don’t remember the specific situation or event that brought this up. But, this lesson stayed with me all along. The word came up in writing or discussion. He walked up to the office white board and wrote the word there.
“Do you know what assume did?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
He drew two slashes in the word on the white board.
ass / u / me
“Assume made an ass out of you and me,” he said pointing to each part of the word as he spoke. “Remember that. Never assume.”
This lesson stayed with me ever since. It was so powerful that I almost removed the word from my vocabulary. I’ve passed the lesson on when the opportunity cropped up.
Impact
Chief Lucasey retired some time after I separated from the Navy and evidently moved to Arizona. He passed in 2013 according to what records I could chase down. I wish I had been able to keep in touch with him and share my life experiences. He took a struggling, confused young sailor and straightened his path and life. I will always be grateful for this.
Everyone should have someone in their life that has that kind of impact.
Keep writing! Never assume!
