By Jill Fennema –

Victor Menning graduated from Edgerton Public School in 1980. “Everyone said I should go to college, so I did,” he said. He really didn’t like school, but he went to college at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, anyway.  He declared his major late because he simply did not know what he wanted to do.

People said that since he got along with kids, he should pursue an education degree. He earned a political science degree, with a physical education minor, with a concentration in secondary ed.  As he neared graduation, he started his student teaching. He hated every minute of it.

“I thought, boy did I just waste everything?” Vic recalls. He needed to figure out what he was going to do. He had an uncle that was an officer in the military, and he talked to him, but being an officer did not interest Vic.

He talked to another relative that had served in Vietnam, who talked about getting lost in the jungle and being rescued by guys from the Air Force. On the AFB they had everything – hot showers and food! That relative said, “Go into something where you are not going to get shot at all the time.”

Vic Menning joined the Navy after college

He got to know the guy who came to occupy the bunk above him. Cliff Hartsfield was the son of a Baptist minister from the east coast. They became good friends and vacationed together in the boundary waters every year.

After boot camp, Vic went to service school command where naval trainees were taught what they needed to know. A recruiter assigned Vic to weapons fire control, but that area requires excellent math skills, which Vic did not have. So instead, Vic became a gunners mate, which he said really worked out for the best. A gunners mate is responsible for the operation, repair, and maintenance of guided missile launching systems, large gun mount systems, small arms, and other equipment. 

In order to become a gunners mate, he had to pass basic electricity and electronics school and then Gunners Mate A School. Vic did well in both those areas and was able to choose his next school – Gunners Mate C School. This school gave him specialized education with a particular weapons system.  Vic graduated at the top of the class and was sent to the Mark 13 Guided Missile Launching System C school. He was assigned to the U.S.S Richard E. Byrd, a navy-guided missile destroyer, which had its home port at Norfolk, Virginia.

The USS Richard E. Byrd’s self-defense force. Vic Menning is standing third from the right, in front of the missile launcher.

The USS Richard E. Byrd.

His friend Cliff was assigned as a hull technician (a welder) to the U.S.S. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier that was also stationed in Norfolk. Once on the ship, Vic was assigned to T-division which had men trained on the 3D radar, weapons direction equipment, fire control radar, missile plot (a massive computer used for this equipment on an older ship), and the guided missile launching system. All of this equipment and the men who man it are required to launch a missile.

Cliff’s dad was a pastor in Maryland at the time and they became Vic’s second family. He visited them a lot. While he was stationed in Norfolk, Cliff invited Vic and his parents on a “Dependent’s Cruise” on the Eisenhower. They got to get up close and personal with an aircraft carrier. Vic said that the shear size of an air craft carrier is overwhelming.  They were able to watch the F14 Tomcats come in and land on the flight deck and do mock fights. “It was really a great time doing that,” Vic said.

For the next three and a half years, Vic was stationed on the U.S.S Richard E. Byrd. Some of the time it was in its home port at Norfolk where they performed maintenance and checks on the ships systems. In between the longer cruises out to sea, they went on three week training cruises. One time, they went on a month-long law enforcement cruise where they worked with the Coast Guard to track and stop gun and drug runners in the Caribbean Sea.

Vic was part of the ship’s entrance team. This group was tasked with removing unwanted people from the ship. vic is kneeling on the right.

The USS Byrd’s missile launching system. Vic is standing closest to the launcher in the dark jacket.

Vic experienced two long cruises where he spent months at sea.

In January 1987, the USS Byrd was assigned to the Nimitz Battle Group. Vic explained that when the United States Navy is at war, the aircraft carrier is the heart of the battle group. Around the carrier, you have cruisers and destroyers and there are usually supply ships that come and go. When you are out there, the Nimitz Air Craft Carrier was the center. There are also frigates, smaller armed anti-submarine ships. There is also a submarine under the water. Usually there are also “gater freighters” that are amphibious warships that have marines on them.

“When you go to war and you want to send a message, you send a battle group,” Vic said.

For his first trip or cruise out to sea, they went to the Mediterranean Sea. Vic’s ship was tasked with doing exercises with other NATO Warships from Britain, France, and Italy.

The most memorable thing that happened during that six months out to sea was the hostage crisis in Lebanon. At that time, a TWA jet had been hijacked by militants in Beirut, Lebanon. The hijackers had demanded that Israel free 735 Lebanese and Palestinian detainees in exchange for the 39 Americans who were taken prisoner on a flight from Athens to Rome. The prisoners in Israel had been seized in southern Lebanon on suspicion of terrorism.