Vietnam-era veteran pleased with decision to be part of submarine operations

 A characteristic that Patrick Beard acquired from his time in the Navy that he still uses to this day is to be mission driven.  

“Submarines are so precise and that’s a trait I still carry,” he said. 

The 78-year-old Beard, of Grosse Pointe Farms, grew up in Detroit. The Vietnam-era veteran graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School in 1964.  

The names of three of Beard’s relatives – George Beard, Jr., Thomas Beard, and Willias Beard – are inscribed on the World War II Honor Roll plaque located inside the Alger House at The War Memeorial. He’s been coming to Veterans Day Breakfast for about three decades and regularly attends veterans' gatherings like Vet-To-Vet. He recently became a member of the newly renamed Frederick M. Alger American Legion Post 372 which frequently meets at The War Memorial.  

“The three boys were in World War II,” he said. “My uncle, Pat Beard, was in the Army Air Corps and his name is read each year on Memorial Day here. In 1944 he was a B-25 bomber pilot and he and his crew were taken down and didn’t return from the mission.” 

Enlisting in the Navy in September of 1966, Beard went to Brodhead Naval Armory in Detroit. 

“When I finished high school, I was burnt out with schools,” he commented. “There was a lot of disruption because of the way we moved about, I went to a different school every two years. I had a student deferment from the draft and was taking classes at Macomb Community College. A lot of friends were being drafted. I was fine serving my country, I just wasn’t ready to run off to Vietnam when I had options.”  

At Brodhead, Beard was recruited to go into submarines, and by September 1967 he was off to submarine school for two months at Groton, Connecticut. 

“I graduated in November 1967,” he said. “Between the academics and the physical training, it was pretty intense. You had to really be focused.” 

While at submarine school, Beard had a full day of classes like underwater physical dynamics and physics.    

“On paper, it was probably everything you needed to know to serve on a nuclear submarine,” he said. “Slacking and failing weren’t tolerated. You knew at the end of the day that you had to complete the task. Submarine school was pretty much tougher than anything I had at college, including graduate school.”   

Beard was assigned to the USS Will Rogers, a ballistic missile submarine, in late 1967. 

“It was three months on the boat and three months off,” he said. “It was always stationed in Rota, Spain. It had a 3,000-mile missile range. We’d fire from 200-300 feet underwater, and it would go into space and then find their targets down range.” 

The submarine, over 400 feet in length, had a crew of about 115. Beard explained that Naval Station Rota was primarily a naval air base, with submarine operations being secondary. 

“The idea of being a long side a tender was they had a compliment of 150 Marines on board whose job was to guard the submarines,” he said.  

Beard was on the Will Rogers for over two years, spending a majority of that time as a navigator. 

“It was commissioned in 1967,” he said. “In that era, they made 41 missile boats, and they called them 41 for Freedom. The Will Rogers was number 41 of the missile boats.”  

 Aboard the Will Rogers until the fall of 1969, Beard’s responsibilities included navigation watch, working with chronometer clocks, charting, and more. 

“We’d be one month in port and two months under water,” he said. “We’d come back, and the other crew would be there.”  

To this day, Beard is happy with his decision to be part of submarine operations. 

“It was a higher quality,” he said. “There was much better food, we had our own lockers on the tender. Our bunks were about 6 and half feet long. I was 6 feet, 4 inches tall then, so there was plenty of room. We got hazardous duty pay 12 months out of the year, which was a third more in your pay, and we got sea pay for 12 months. They really treated us well.”   

When it comes to charting where the Will Rogers was, Beard commented that its location was always top secret. 

“Where we were was top secret,” he said. “I had a top-secret clearance. I knew where we were. We were in the Artic Circle area and up around Murmansk where the Russian submarine port would be. The radio people and missile techs knew where the targets were, but neither knew about the other role.” 

By the time his duty on the Will Rogers ended, Beard was a petty officer third class. He then worked for a year, then attended Northwood University for an associate’s degree. From the University of Michigan, he earned a bachelor’s degree in business. Years later, he was awarded a Master of Business Administration degree from Central Michigan University.    

Part of active-duty Navy until 1969, Beard was discharged from the Navy Reserve in 1972. 

Looking back on the Vietnam War all these years later, Beard said the U.S. started off on a rough road. 

“I love the greeting that started a few years ago - ‘welcome home.’” he said. “No one said that back then. Americans embraced World War I, World War II, and Korea.” 

In his civilian life, Beard worked in technology industry sales, retiring 11 years ago.  

To learn more about The War Memorial’s Vietnam War Commemoration Celebration, click here.