Storyteller: Melancon, Rick

Interviewer: Bertalot, Lorretta

Language: English

Initiative: Tulsans Talk

Description: Lorretta Bertalot interviews Rick Melancon about his life as a Navy 1979 recruit out of high school in NY as a Bosun's Mate. He later went through the Striker Program and took the test to be a DPT (Data Process Technician). He worked in the S. Boston Naval Yards then transferred to Brunswick, ME to an Anti-submarine Warfare assignment, and later to Guam as a Fleet Air Reconnaissance VQ-1. Rick wrote code for electronic warfare including Fortran and later went to work in Norfolk, VA for the Atlantic Command Fleet Intelligence Center. After eight years in the Navy, he went to work for American Airlines in Tulsa and at the time of this interview worked for Fiserv. He still lives in Tulsa and states that the Navy made him very successful!

Subjects: USA Navy, Navy Veteran, Woodstock, NY, Bosun's Mate, Striker Program, DPT (Data Processing Technician), USS Edson DD946, New Port, RI, court-martial, Brunswick, ME, Russian submarines, Fleet Air Reconnaissance, Guam, Pentagon, electronic warfare, 1982 - Russian sub off Long Island, NY, Top Secret - SCI, Norfolk, VA, Atlantic Command Fleet Intelligence Center, code, Fortran, American Airlines, EDS - Electronic Data Services, Director of Enterprise Architecture, Fiserv.