The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the May 2018 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Navy Veteran, Enginemen Second Class Jim Peterson. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program was privileged to interview Enginemen Second Class Jim Peterson at the USS Spinax SS-489 reunion at Daytona Beach Florida in the fall of 2017.

A year after graduating high school, Jim Peterson decided to enlist in the United States Navy in January of 1967. Three weeks after entering boot camp at San Diego, Peterson was sent to the drum and bugle corps. He shared, "every graduation day... we marched and played for each graduation... we traded in our rifles for musical instruments.” In addition to his specialized duty at boot camp, he was introduced and gained an interest in the submarine service. Peterson shared, “one of the things that influenced me was that we had different folks come from different ratings...and the one that caught my attention was the guy from sub school...I put in for it and I got it.” Peterson was then sent to Submarine School in New London Connecticut. He spoke in detail about his extensive training at Submarine School and upon completion, received orders to the West Coast. His first submarine would be the USS Spinax.

After reporting aboard the USS Spinax, the submarine was ordered to be overhauled in San Francisco. Once the overhaul was completed, the USS Spinax departed for a WestPac cruise. During a critical time during the Cold War, the USS Spinax visited Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and participated in war games in the Tonkin Gulf. The USS Spinax was then ordered to the Northern Pacific. Peterson remarked, "We did a mission to the Bering Sea and our main job was to look for Russians. We spent 28 days on station. We were successful and completed our mission. We got a picture of a Russian Submarine.” Upon returning to San Diego, the USS Spinax was decommissioned and Peterson was ordered to the USS Razorback SS-394. While on the Razorback, he would participate in the hand over operation to the Turkish Navy.

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Navy Veteran, Enginemen Second Class Jim Peterson, 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.