The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the January 2020 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Navy Veteran, Captain Richard Galecki, USN. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program was privileged to interview Captain Richard Galecki at the USS Nimitz CVN 68 reunion being held at Philadelphia Pennsylvania in the Fall of 2018.

Captain Richard Galecki began his interview by sharing, "I became part of the Naval ROTC unit at Villanova University in Pennsylvania in 1969, became a midshipmen, received a Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University and chose that curriculum and plan of study so that I could marry that with my potential naval experience in learning about politics and world interactions between countries. I wanted to know why I was going out there in the service and defense of my country.” Upon entering the Navy, while at Villanova, he participated in various training exercises during his summer breaks. He recalled, “While most college students would take their summer break and have jobs or go to the beach, I went to sea.” His first midshipmen cruise was on the USS Wasp where he traveled above the Arctic Circle in between his freshmen and sophomore years. In between his sophomore and junior years, he went to amphibious training and aviation indoctrination. Between his junior and senior years, he was on a foreign exchange program with the Mexican Navy and attended the Mexican Naval Academy and also sailed on ARM Chihuahua (B06) to Northern Europe. Upon graduating from Villanova University in 1973, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy.

As a recent college graduate and newly commissioned officer, his first assignment would be the newest United States vessel at the time, the USS Nimitz. Galecki remarked, "I was assigned to the weapons department and served on the USS Nimitz from 1973 to 1976 as a plank owner. I was on the USS Wasp but I had never seen an aircraft carrier as large as this. When I first encountered the Nimitz, she was still being built in Newport News. She was about 90 percent complete and it was just watching something being born. To be part of the pre-commissioning crew and plank owner, was a tremendous honor." While the Nimitz was being built, Galecki was sent to the USS Forrestal and the USS Inchon before participating in the Commissioning of the USS Nimitz. Following three years of service on the USS Nimitz, Galecki’s service would span till 2004 and encompass different shore duties as well as assignments on the USS Ainsworth FF 1090, USS Patterson FF 1061 and USS Clark FFG 11.

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Navy Veteran, Captain Richard Galecki, featured within this series titled, Stories of Service, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at https://www.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service.