Friends and Neighbors: Tom Hewitt

A 1962 graduate looking for adventure and unsure what he wanted from life joined the United States Navy. Tom Hewitt found his adventure on the decks of a diesel submarine and learned some valuable lessons along the way.

"I have always loved the water and I always knew I was going to join the service, this was before Viet Nam," he said. "Out of boot camp I went to electrician's school for quite a while and then they sent me to New London, Conn., and that is where the submarine school is."

He said that shortly after he arrived in New London, in 1963, the USS Thresher sunk 80 – 100 miles off the...