This short piece of mine won the 2010 LESSONS IN MANLINESS contest sponsored by THE ART OF MANLINESS blog.
Happy 86th Birthday
CWO4 Exum !!
Today, at 86 years young, Wallace Louis Exum remains the embodiment of true Navy leadership. He
is a man who lives his life richly in our Navy’s history, has performed
bravely in battle, written lovingly about our Navy’s past and has
prepared so many young men and women to lead our Navy’s future.
The
Navy brought onto its rolls an improbable leader and a truly remarkable
individual in an underaged 16 year old Seaman Recruit named Wallace
Louis Exum in September 1943. Born in Akron, Ohio and raised mostly in the Los Angeles, California
area by his two very loving parents, “Wally” Exum knew he had to
perform his patriotic duty and join his young friends fighting the war
in the Pacific.
Seaman
Exum had not been in the Navy long before he strayed from his true
course. More than once, he ran afoul of the Navy’s rules and
regulations. Somewhere early-on he earned the nickname “Bigtime” for his
easy-going manner, his extra thick Navy mattress and his home-of-record -- Los Angeles. More than once he had some difficulty in finding his way back to his ship on time. But, he never did anything seriously wrong and NEVER ONCE did he ever do anything with malice against anyone.
17
February 1945 marked one of the many milestones in his life when he was
wounded in battle as his Landing Craft Infantry (LCI-457) came under
fire during the battle for Iwo Jima. On 17 February 1945,
Landing Craft Infantry vessels supported underwater demolition teams
(UDT), which conducted beach and surf condition surveillance and
neutralized underwater obstacles. Japanese coastal batteries heavily
damaged 12 of the vessels, resulting in 38 killed and 132 wounded. At 18
years old, Wally was among those many young men wounded who earned the
Purple Heart Medal. The skipper of his LCI, a LT, won the Navy Cross.
Having won the war on both sides of the world, the military released many young men from the service. Wally Exum was among those men. But, somehow, he always found his way back to the Navy. He served in the Navy during the Korean War and Vietnam.
Over
his career he found himself at sea for 18 years and gave the Navy and
the nation 42 years of selfless service. His service took him around the
world. He continues to serve the Navy in retirement today as a
“Goodwill Ambassador”; his wonderful books tell the Navy’s story – and a
wonderful story it is.
In
1981 at 55 years old, he was the first (and only) Chief Warrant Officer
assigned as an instructor to the Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS)
in Newport, Rhode Island.
Somehow, the Chief of Naval Personnel, VADM Lando Zech had a personal
hand in assigning CWO3 Exum to OCS. As a Celestial Navigation
instructor, he would prepare hundreds of young men and women for
successful careers as Naval officers – showing them all how to “navigate
life – steering one’s true course”.
VADM
Zech was certain that CWO3 Exum was the right man to develop these
young men and women into professional Naval officers. VADM Zech sent
exactly the right man. By all reports CWO3 Exum was an excellent
navigation instructor.
With
few (if any) exceptions, the officer candidates loved their instructor.
Frequently he would spend many extra hours in the evenings with the
officer candidates, teaching them the finer points of using a sextant to
“shoot the stars” – absolutely essential to celestial navigation.
His evening lectures always ended with the same admonition to the young people trusted to his care. “Remember, ladies and gentlemen”, he would always say, “you can shoot the stars but we never shoot the moon.”
The groans from the officer candidates would follow him all the way
back to the parking lot where he parked a beautiful convertible Cadillac
that his “even more beautiful” Joyce (one of the two loves in his life –
the other being his daughter Marilyn) had given to him.
Without
their realizing it at the time, Warrant Officer Exum was teaching these
young people how to navigate their lives – not just celestial
navigation. He taught them good manners, courtesy, honesty, patience,
teamwork, integrity and so much more. He taught hundreds of young men
and women to be good Naval officers. Those officers went on to lead thousands of Chief Petty Officers and Sailors in our great Navy. It
is reasonable to say that CWO Exum impacted the lives of tens of
thousands of Sailors through his good work and leadership in Newport, Rhode Island. He
helped produce countless Navy Captains and certainly a few Admirals for
the Navy. Not too bad for a 55 year old Chief Warrant Officer who was
originally uncertain about his ability to get the job done for his
friend and mentor Vice Admiral Zech.
Following duty as an instructor and Company Officer at Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island,
CWO4 Exum was assigned as the Security Officer at the Fleet Activity
Sasebo, Japan. Once again, he was challenged to put Sailors on their
true course. He had no idea that he would be providing course corrections for his Commanding Officer. But, it didn’t matter. The CO was off course and it was CWO4 Exum’s duty to bring him back to the right course. Turns
out the CO was violating Navy Regulations by allowing bulk sales of
alcohol to Sailors during all hours of the day and was not attentive to
many security issues confronting Fleet Activities Sasebo. Besides
being against Navy Regulations, these bulk alcohol sales were creating
all kinds of discipline problems among the Sailors in Sasebo – a lot of Sailors and a lot of alcohol are not a good mix. CWO4
Exum tactfully and discretely let the CO know that the bulk alcohol
sales were prohibited by Navy Regs and were causing some discipline
problems among the Sailors, as well as some black- market issues with
the Japanese. CWO4 Exum also informed the CO about a number of security
issues the base faced. The CO wouldn’t hear any of it. CWO4 Exum knew he had to get the CO on course to protect the CO from himself and to protect the Sailors. He
told the CO he would take it up the chain of command. Anyone who knows
anything about the Navy understands this put CWO4 Exum in a really tough
spot. No one enjoys telling their CO that he’s wrong. And the CO sure
doesn’t enjoying hearing it. But CWO4 Exum had long ago committed himself to “steering a true course”. CWO4
Exum filed his report and the CO promptly sent the Chief Warrant
Officer to the psychiatric ward at the Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan.
It was readily apparent to the doctors examining CWO4 Exum exactly what
the CO had in mind. They kept CWO4 Exum aboard for a short period and
released him back to Sasebo “fit for full duty.” Somehow the bulk
alcohol sales ended soon thereafter and CWO4 Exum got the attention of
the right people in the chain of command the correct the many security
deficiencies aboard Sasebo. Once again, this part of the Navy was back
on its “one true course.”
And
that is what his life is all about. You’ll find him teaching celestial
navigation in the middle and high schools in Washington State from time
to time. I am sure those students haven’t figured it out yet but ‘ol
mister Exum is teaching them how to navigate life. Those kids are still
getting lessons in courtesy, teamwork, honesty and so much more. Count
on CWO4 Exum to make sure all the charts are current, we’re steering by
the stars, we’re taking the whole crew and everyone is steering “one
true course”.
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a lesson in manliness.
