Orangeburg resident Jim Wyrosdick is red, white and blue to the core.
He has served as the past president of the South Carolina Society Sons of the American Revolution, and his ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War.
Wyrosdick, who is a member of American Legion Post 4, had an opportunity to serve the country he so loves as a member of the U.S. Navy on active duty and the Navy Reserve for a total of 24-1/2 years.
“I am happy with my service,” Wyrosdick said. “I don’t have any complaints — generally speaking, it was all right.”
“I cannot complain,” he continued. “It was a little hard and difficult and you have to put up with a lot, but it was not anything you don’t have to put up with working at any job.”
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in July 1948, Wyrosdick grew up a military son.
His father, Charlie, was a captain in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville when Jim was born.
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For the young Jim Wyrosdick, life on the move was common.
He lived in Indiana, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and then Oklahoma while his father was overseas.
“I averaged about five schools from the first to the twelfth grade, essentially almost a move every two years,” Wyrosdick said.
Wyrosdick later moved to the Charleston area and ended up graduating from Summerville High School.
He graduated from Baptist College of Charleston (now Charleston Southern University) in May 1970 with a degree in history and a minor in sociology and German.
At the time, the Vietnam War was going on. It was the first year of the draft lottery and Wyrosdick drew number 151.
“I thought it would be wise to get into something else rather than the Army,” Wyrosdick said. “I had the experience of several friends I graduated from high school with who went to Vietnam and were killed and also the Marine Corps.”
Joining the military was a natural fit for someone who grew up as a “military brat.”
“I was used to military life and military service; the military persona you might say,” he said.
Wyrosdick tried go into the Air Force, but there were no openings. He ended up getting into the U.S. Naval Reserve at Charleston Naval Base in May 17, 1970, as a Seaman Recruit (E-1).
He enlisted for a six-year program with one year of inactive duty training where he would go for monthly drills and get trained.
He went on a four-week summer training program at the Orlando Recruit Training Center. The four-week program consisted of a two-week accelerated program as a recruit and two weeks as a Naval Reserve shipman in Florida.
“I liked that because I didn’t want the 12-week recruit training,” Wyrosdick said. “The two-week was an accelerated program. It wasn’t easy.”
Prior to going on active duty, Wyrosdick worked at the Charleston Area Mental Health Center and had thoughts of going to law school, with hopes that he would not have to go on active duty.
“It turned out I had to do what I said I would do,” Wyrosdick said.
And so, in April 1971 Wyrosdick entered active duty.
His first assignment was with a U.S. Naval Reserve ship he had been previously drilling on: the U.S.S. Gainard destroyer.
He went to another destroyer – the U.S.S. Strong and then the U.S.S. Harwood.
“We called them tin cans,” Wyrosdick said. “They were known as greyhounds too.”
Wyrosdick was a part of the U.S. Navy’s anti-submarine warfare program stationed in Charleston.
“They wanted to beef that up because there were reports of Russian submarines outside of the Charleston Area, especially with the naval weapons station and other surveillance activity going on,” Wyrosdick said.
During this time, Wyrosdick was a designated yeoman who worked in the ship’s office where he maintained service records, correspondence and worked on daily plans.
“We did not stand on quarter-deck watches because we were in the ship’s office working at all hours,” Wyrosdick said.
Wyrosdick was then transferred to a Commander Cruiser Flotilla 6 still at the Charleston Naval Base. His duties remained the same.
“Since it was a flotilla staff, we really didn’t get underway, we didn’t go out,” Wyrosdick said.
For the next nine months, Wyrosdick was on the flotilla until it was eventually dissolved and then he was reassigned to a seagoing command on the Charleston-based USS Macdonough DLG-8, a destroyer guided missile frigate that was designed to shoot down guided missiles.
During this time, Wyrosdick met his future wife, Andrea Jo Goodman, and the couple married while he was on active duty in 1972. Goodman’s father, Charlie, was from Orangeburg and owned a business in the city called Goodman’s Glass Company.
The couple eventually moved to Orangeburg following his active duty service.
During active duty, Wyrosdick made his first three-month overseas trip to the Mediterranean where ports of stop included Barcelona, Spain; Villefranche, France and Naples, Italy.
“It felt like 50 years,” Wyrosdick said. “It was enjoyable. It was a different experience being ‘shipward.’”
He said the Navy is different than being in other branches because there was really no place to rest one’s head on land.
“You are there at sea with nowhere to go,” he said. “You are on board ship with very close quarters. It is a stressful type of situation. You’ve got to be very flexible.”
It was there that Wyrosdick had his real first taste of military tensions.
“I was never in actual combat,” Wyrosdick said. “When I was on that cruise, Russian ships were around us all the time, spying.”
“There was one Russian ship as we were going that went right across our bow, which is a highly dangerous maneuver to make, because A, you can have a collision, and B, you just don’t go across a bow according to the international rules of the road.”
“The captain was upset about that and said get in touch with that Russian ship and tell him to not to do that again,” Wyrosdick recalled.
The ship’s signalman was also told to issue a warning signal to the Russian ship.
“The Russian ship, as it passed our bow, had their guns trained on us as they went by, which is a little bit unnerving,” Wyrosdick recalled. “That was about the most noteworthy thing that really ever happened to me.”
Of course, living on sea was also an experience.
“There were some storms that we were involved with,” he said. “That ship rocked and rolled and I thought for sure we were turning over.”
“I was in my rack, my bunkbed, and I was in the top bunk,” he continued. “I was entirely thrown out. We were piling on top of each other. It was just going back and forth.”
For the most part, Wyrosdick had a good experience on active duty.
He recalled one time he almost pulled boiler room duty aboard ship because, “I was taking a Hollywood shower, or a longer shower. That causes the boiler room people to sweat extra hard because they have to maintain boilers.”
Wyrosdick said he went to his division officer to plead his case and was able to get out of boiler room duty.
From then on, he took shorter showers and to this day continues to take shorter showers.
Wyrosdick returned to Charleston and was discharged from active duty in April 1973, but continued to drill with the U.S. Navy Reserve for the next two years.
As part of these two years, Wyrosdick had the opportunity to sometimes go on summer missions where he would remain in port and sometimes go out. Some of the training missions took him to Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina.
In 1975, Wyrosdick had a chance to leave the U.S. Navy Reserve but decided to remain in the program while working in Orangeburg.
Wyrosdick first worked at his father-in-law’s business — Goodman’s Glass — before joining the Orangeburg Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center as a vocational rehabilitation counselor and evaluator for 34 years.
Wyrosdick eventually retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve on Dec. 31, 1994, as an E6 Petty Officer First Class at the age of 46.
Upon his retirement, Wyrosdick earned the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal for his more than 20 years of service, six Naval Reserve Meritorious Service medals and a Battle Effectiveness Award.
“I did not miss a drill that I can remember for at least in excess of 20 years,” he said.
“I am glad I did all that,” he continued. “It was a real experience. I had not planned on remaining in the Reserve program, but I am glad I did.”
“I am a real advocate of the reserve program,” Wyrosdick said. “I think every person … should serve at least two years in the Armed Forces — including men and women — and then be in the reserve program up until they are 40 or 45.”
Wyrosdick noted Israel has a similar model that has proven very successful.
“It is very dangerous to have a very large standing army,” Wyrosdick said. “I don’t think we should have a professional army.”
He believes the Founding Fathers of the United States envisioned a citizen army, but not an army to the scale the United States has now.
Though no longer with the U.S. Navy, in many ways, Wyrosdick remains on “active” duty.
He remains extremely busy in the Orangeburg community and beyond.
He is a substitute teacher at Orangeburg Preparatory School, continues to be active with Orangeburg’s American Legion Post 4, the Orangeburg Kiwanis Club, the Orangeburg Touchdown Club, the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Orangeburg County Historical Society, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, the Fleet Reserve Association and the Retired State Employees Association.
When he has free time, Wyrosdick enjoys working on his 1980 MGB and two old Buicks and spending time with his wife of 50 years. He also enjoys time with his two children and five grandchildren.
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