A little background. After some high school and college, I joined the Navy to become a Photographers Mate. My recruiter explained to me that the Navy was like college whereby you could switch majors, so it made sense when he told me to join the NNP program at an advanced rate, and then switch later (my recruiter obviously had a good sense of humor, and was
a good salesman).
I went right to new construction right from prototype, and was part of the initial 12 man complement of the JAX. The JAX was in new construction period almost double the time of most of the other boats because of weld QA issues, so we did have some down time. One day our COB asked if anyone had any desire to attend Navy barber school in Charleston. I had a desire to, but my Sea Dad suggested “Hey, its two weeks in Charleston, and you’re a nuke, you’ll never realistically cut anyone hair ever again”, he was pretty much right with one big exception.
So clock goes ahead about 1.5 years, I’m now a MM2(SU) and the JAX was on Alpha trials. I was standing Engine Room Lower Level watch and working on an oil strainer, when a NR Captain, the JAX XO, my division officer, and my chief come to retrieve me. They tell me Rickover wants a haircut. They literally strip me down, wash me, and put a clean uniform on me as we make our way forward. As we are walking the XO states “Tolliver, DO NOT ASK HIM ANY QUESTION, answer any questions he asks with Yes Sir, No Sir, or I don’t know Sir, do you understand?” I think I mumbled back Yes.
The JAX Captain R.B. Wilkinson was waiting for me in the wardroom to brief me, and as mentioned he just smiled and said “Petty Officer Tolliver, I know you’re feeling nervous, but you will spend more time alone with the Admiral than anyone else onboard, and I guarantee you’ll never forget it”, he then walked me to his stateroom, knocked and opened the door, motioned me to enter, and closed the door after I did. Leaving me and the good Admiral alone.
The first words out of Admiral Rickover’s mouth were; HGR: “Did your XO tell you not to not ask me any questions?” JT: “Yes , Sir”
HGR: “Well you ask me whatever the you want, because I outrank him”
We then discussed education (luckily I had read his book on Swiss Schools, I think), the Navy (and his disdain for Electric Boat) but we actually had a good conversation, with him doing most of the talking, but I did continue to ask questions. I was never so scared in my life, so pretty much never even cut any of his hair, so instead I just went through the motions.
About half way through, they made an announcement that they would be doing an Emergency Blow (The JAX’s first if I remember correctly), for testing. So I took a step back away from the Admiral, and he bellowed;
HGR: “Why are you stopping your work?”
JT: “They just announced they would be doing an Emergency Blow Admiral, so I figured that would be safer”
HGR: “Oh you think its because I’m old and my hair won’t grow back, that’s why you stopped, right?”
JT: “No Sir…….I I”
HGR: “You keep cutting, because my hair will grow back just fine”, then he looked at me and smiled, and as you probably remember he had eyes that made you feel like you were being xrayed.
We continued for a while longer with about another 20 minutes of conversation, then I was thrilled to be done. I still remember thinking to myself during the Emergency Blow that I don’t want my mark in history to be the guy that accidentally severed Admiral Rickover’s carotid artery, because no one would ever believe that he insisted I go forward during the emergency blow.
I think the JAX was the next to last boat which the Admiral took out on Sea Trials. As you probably remember the quick stop tests were criticized by both EB and Congress as a main driving force on his retirement. It was an amazing period of years though. Also on that voyage, I remember asking my chief to ask this one shipyard worker onboard to stop annoying me by offering too much hands-on help in ERLL, when my chief investigated, he found out that shipyard worked was actually Admiral McKee, so needless to say I accepted the help after that.
