2 minute read
Pete McCall
BY GREG GOLDFARB CONTRIBUTING WRITER
His name is Pete J. McCall.
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Even though he’s been busy for decades serving his country and raising a family, he believes he has just been doing what he should be doing.
“You can just do your job and not need public acclaim, but have the personal satisfaction of having done a job well and not relying on people commenting on how great you are,” McCall said about being asked to share some of his service history.
McCall just stepped down in August as senior vice commander of Suffolk VFW Post 2582 after joining it in 2016 following a membership drive at a local grocery store,
Married for 51 years to his wife, Charlotte Anne Konkus, from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, they live in Suffolk’s Hillpoint neighborhood and have a son and a daughter, Adam, 46, and Erin, 42.
He was born in Aurora, Colorado in 1950 at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center. While growing up, he worked at the A&P Tea Company in Muncy, Pennsylvania, before joining the U.S. Navy in 1969.
“My father was attending flight school and six weeks after I was born we were transferred to Phoenix,” McCall said. “For the next 16 years we were stationed at various bases for the Air Force, including three years in Japan. We moved to Pennsylvania in 1966 and I graduated (in 1968) from high school in Hughesville, which was a small farm community in central Pennsylvania.”
In October 1969, McCall enlisted into the Navy and headed off to Great Lakes Naval Training Center in January 1970. He graduated boot camp from Great Lakes in May 1970, going on to gunner’s mate A and C school from June 1970 until June 1971. After that, he was transferred to White Sands Missile Range, White Sands, New Mexico, until January 1973.
He received orders to the USS Cochrane DDG21 (destroyer, guided missile) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where he served until March 1978 when he was transferred to Naval active reserve attached to Williamsport Naval Reserve Training Center until March 1985, when he was transferred to active duty and received orders to report to the USS Dale CG 19 (cruiser, guided missile) Mayport, Florida.
He served aboard the Dale until January of 1990 and transferred to Great Lakes Naval Base as an instructor at Naval Gunnery School. He instructed at Great Lakes until March 1994 when he transferred to the USS Boone FFG 28 (guided missile, frigate) out of Mayport Naval Station. In December 1996, he retired from active duty as an E7 with total time in service of 27 years.
