“I look for three things wherever I serve: dynamic professionalism, sincere friendliness and embracing courtesy. I’ve found all three here, in this community and on this base,” Rear Admiral Mack C. Gaston said with a smile.
Gaston is commander of Great Lakes Naval Training Center, which, according to the Navy, is the world’s largest military training base.
And the base stands to get a lot larger if Congress goes along this summer with the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s recommendation to consolidate all Navy recruit and service school training at the base. That would add 9,000 trainers and recruits to the 15,000 already there, not including the 3,500 civilian employees.
So in a sense, Gaston has his own growing city to run. And another nearby city that stands to get some growth out of the military’s expansion is North Chicago, where Mayor Bobby Thompson had nothing but praise for Gaston.
“I find Gaston to be an outstanding admiral. He’s great for the community. He participates in a lot of the community activities. He had the mayors from Waukegan, North Chicago and Zion in for a luncheon-nothing business about it-just to get acquainted,” Thompson said.
“This is the first African-American (admiral at the base) that we’ve had,” Thompson added. “Certainly he’s a role model for all of us. But we look at him as being an outstanding admiral no matter what color he is. It probably had to be real tough for him to attain that rank.”
It’s tough for anybody to attain that rank. But as an African-American who grew up in the pre-civil rights South in Dalton, Ga., about 90 miles north of Atlanta, the 53-year-old Gaston has accomplished something in the neighborhood of a miracle.
But in talking to this officer, it quickly becomes obvious how he reached this height. He is extremely friendly but equally tough. There is no retreat in the man.
As one of three African-American admirals, Gaston speaks particularly to young members of minority groups. “Stay in school,” he stresses, “study science and math. Provide your own equal opportunity by being prepared.”
Gaston has been at the Great Lakes helm since August 1992 after having served two years as field commander for the defense nuclear agency at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. In that sensitive post, he reported directly to Adm. David E. Jeremiah, second in command to Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But don’t think the admiral, decorated for heroism under fire in the Vietnam War, is so steeped in military routine that he sleeps at attention. For example, he bakes bread to work off stress.
“If somebody asks me to bake them some bread, I’ll do it, but I don’t take orders for so many dozen loaves or particular types of bread,” he explained. “When I bake bread, I do it because I want to relax and enjoy doing it and enjoy giving a loaf to someone who is really interested in home-baked bread.”
The admiral started baking as a hobby about 10 years ago. His favorites are light rye, sourdough, pumpernickel and fruit breads. Other diversions he enjoys are tennis and frequent long walks with his wife, Lillian, near their home on the base.
Bread is his only apparent vice. “I don’t smoke and seldom take a drink,” he confided. After all, he’s supposed to be an example. And he views his present job as an opportunity to have a positive impact on the Navy’s educational and training programs “after having been a recipient of these programs on ships and in other assignments,” he explained.
Asked about the large green and white “Admiral Mack Gaston Parkway” sign above his office door, he chuckled. “When I called on my boss (the chief of naval personnel, Vice Adm. R.J. Zlatoper) about this job, he asked me when I had my last physical exam, because he then remarked that it was rare to meet someone who had a highway named after him who wasn’t yet dead or nearly so.”
The highway is a portion of the Interstate Highway 75 four-mile bypass in north Dalton dedicated in Gaston’s honor by the State of Georgia in 1992.
Flora Caldwell, assistant city administrator in Dalton, said of Gaston: “He’s a public figure in our community and is very admired and respected. He is a very grass-roots Daltonian. He exemplifies the best and the brightest for young men. He’s just top drawer. He shows you what hard work and goal setting are all about. He’s so pleasant and so humble to be around. He just chats with everybody; you’d never know this is an important naval officer. This is Mack.”
Cornelia Easley, who was one of Gaston’s homeroom teachers in high school, said she wasn’t surprised by her former student’s success: “I just think the world of him. Some people are born leaders, and he is one of them. He loved people, and he loved challenges.”
Gaston carried $100 in his pocket and high hopes when he left Georgia in 1958 to begin college at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama. Gaston described his high school experience as segregated and only “equal” up to a point. “There was no scholarship money for me,” even though he was valedictorian at his high school graduation and was to enroll in a black college.
With a combination of employment and serious study, he spent six years working for his bachelor’s in commercial electronics. Jobs ranged from janitor of Tuskegee’s student union to a better-paying position as an electrician’s helper and later as a supervising electrician.
“The contractor I worked for eventually offered me a partnership, but I declined in favor of finishing college,” Gaston recalled.
Participation in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps was mandatory at the university, and Gaston enjoyed his stint with the Army. “I couldn’t extend ROTC past four years, so after taking six years to gain my degree I took the officer candidate school exam for all services. The Navy was the first one to reply,” he explained.
Upon commissioning in 1964 at Newport, R.I., Gaston intended to serve his mandatory three years of active duty and go to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority utilities. “I went to sea in the Pacific and liked it so much, I decided to stay,” he said.
He and Lillian, his “childhood sweetheart” from Dalton, were married 18 months later. Gaston had found a home in the Navy.
“I’ve liked everything I’ve done, serving with many wonderful people in a wonderful profession,” he said. Gaston has spent 20 of the last 29 years at sea and commanded three ships. His shipboard career really took off during his second junior officer sea assignment, when his commanding officer presented him with a choice.
“He told me I could stay with his ship and surely advance there, or I could go to the new destroyer school, which might broaden my opportunities,” Gaston said. In typical fashion, Gaston chose the untried but wider road. He graduated from destroyer school’s first class in 1967.
Other educational advancements alternated with sea duty for the next seven years. He completed naval command and staff college in 1977, the National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1983 and finished his master’s in business from Marymount University in 1984.
It was in the late 1960s, as engineering officer of the destroyer USS O’Brien, that he earned his combat Navy Commendation Medal for bravery under fire in a Vietnam river delta gun battle. Other decorations that comprise the “fruit salad” bars on the breast of his uniform include the Defense Superior Service Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal and a second Navy Commendation Medal.
His sea commands have been as skipper of a destroyer, the USS Cone; a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Cochrane; and a cruiser, the USS Josephus Daniels.
Gaston’s shore assignments have included serving as branch head for surface warfare training and as director of the Navy Equal Opportunity Division, special assistant to the chief of naval personnel for equal opportunity. In the latter post, he kept commanders apprised of opportunities in the Navy for minorities. Duties included attending conferences of the NAACP, Hispanic groups and women’s groups.
He accumulated data on discrimination incidents, tracked demographics of naval personnel, monitored how commands did on their equal opportunity programs and made recommendations for training programs.
Gaston was selected for admiral’s rank in 1989 and in that quest was sent in 1990 to a program at the National Defense University Institute of Higher Defense Studies in Washington, D.C., a six-week course that every admiral and general officer must complete. The leadoff speaker for the course was Gen. Powell.
“(Powell) told us we were in leadership positions which very few aspire to or attain,” Gaston recalled. “He said the road ahead would be difficult, and in a changing world we can make a difference. His words really inspired me.”
When asked about mentors in his career, Gaston named only one. “My father was the first and best male friend I ever had,” he said quietly. “He told me and my two younger brothers what we should and should not do.
“Even about the birds and the bees, we heard it at home because our father said we needed the guidance,” Gaston explained. “I hope I can influence those around me as my father influenced us.”
The admiral’s father, John Henry Gaston Jr., died in 1985, but his mother, Felicia, now 72, still lives in Dalton. Gaston’s younger brothers have both served in the military, one in the Air Force enlisted ranks and the other as an Army officer.
Just as Gaston’s father influenced him, so has Gaston influenced his only child, Sonja, 24. She is away from her Great Lakes home, pursuing a master’s degree in business at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and she also hopes to go to law school.
When not in class or studying, Sonja works in advertising sales with Flagship, the official weekly Navy newspaper in the Norfolk area. She also has thought about becoming a naval officer, “possibly in combination with being a lawyer.”
“My father has influenced me greatly,” Sonja said. “He has high drive and has always encouraged me but never pushed. Both of my parents have been very supportive about whatever I wanted to pursue. My mom and I are best friends.”
With even his daughter considering the Navy, Gaston obviously is one of the service’s biggest boosters. Young Americans who want to succeed at life should think about a Navy career, according to the admiral. He cautioned, however, that “it’s no longer a case of `join the military’ if you don’t know what you want. We now have the best people we have ever had,” he insisted, and you get the impression he will fight to keep it that way. You become the best, Gaston explained, by preparing for the future.
Part of this admiral’s weekly routine is addressing every boot camp graduating class. “Every Thursday morning, I tell from 300 to 900 graduates about being good persons, having good hearts and being honest in their representation of our country and our Navy,” he said.
He has told more than one graduating group about his fellow admiral Jeremy M. Boorda, now commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe and all allied forces in southern Europe. Boorda started his career at Great Lakes boot camp in 1957.
When not addressing graduates or hosting the receiving line for weekly honor students and their relatives, Gaston keeps busy 10 to 12 hours daily running the base. “I’m a move-around manager,” he said, poised at the edge of his chair.
The admiral periodically visits each of 10 units for which he is directly responsible among the 1,000-plus buildings occupying more than 1,600 acres on the shore of Lake Michigan. He doesn’t give advance notice. “I want to show my interest in what they are doing and see how they live (at their work),” he explained. The visits are not “surprise inspections” but rather “to support my people,” he added.
Boot camp commander Capt. W.O. King attested to the admiral’s leadership self-portrait. “It’s good for us to see him, and it’s good for him to gain an honest appraisal of what’s going on. I want people under me to be honest and frank with him,” King explained. The captain added that alerting people down the line to a visit by their leader can interfere with this spontaneity.
Not at all hesitant to socialize, Gaston readily accepts luncheon and evening speaking invitations. On the base, he has addressed gatherings of the Navy League, Navy Wives Club and the Retired Officers Association. In the community, he has delivered dozens of talks monthly in the suburbs, in Chicago and out of the area. In fact, he just returned from a speaking engagement in Dalton. He is sought by senior clubs, high schools, universities, churches, civil rights groups, parents clubs, Rotary Clubs and veterans groups.
Memorial Day weekend took him and Lillian, who declined to be interviewed for this story, to Lake Forest’s Market Square as guests of American Legion McKinlock Post No. 264. His remarks credited the mothers of fallen American service men and women as deserving “the honors and praises . . . perhaps more than anyone else.” He also said, “I’m very aware of my special responsibilities to today’s mothers, the ones whose sons and daughters are working and being trained at Great Lakes.”
Gaston stressed that the high-technology ships of today’s Navy require highly trained people to run them. “Fleet readiness begins at Great Lakes,” he added. “When our sailors graduate, they are ready to take their places in the fleet. Without them, the finest hardware in the world is simply junk.”
His remarks also affirmed that smaller can be better. “We are getting smaller, but we will always be the best, and, yes, you can be assured that there will always be room for sharp, talented and dedicated new leaders,” Gaston said.
Citing the changes from a Cold War defense posture to the present-day limited conflict/humanitarian mission of our military, Gaston acknowledged that “we must learn how to do business with as much as 25 percent less budget than we enjoyed in the 1980s.”
One of the Legion post’s commanders, David Nash of Lake Forest, a Vietnam veteran, said of Gaston’s appearance: “I was . . . impressed by his high morale, particularly in view of the controversies surrounding the military, like gays and cutbacks.”
His speaking style brought cheers and heavy applause at the base’s 4th of July celebration, where he recited “America, Why I Love Her,” accompanied by the Navy Band. “It’s easy to perform this piece badly, but the admiral did it very well,” said Lt. Mike Mitchell, Great Lakes band director and composer of the piece, adding, “He was my choice as narrator.”
Gaston also was the choice of the Massachusetts Bay Area Navy League Council for its Dalton Bough award in 1992. The award is presented annually to an outstanding black Navy officer in memory of Dalton Bough, one of the “Golden 13,” the Navy’s first black officers commissioned in 1944. Coincidentally, that commissioning was at Great Lakes.
And yet another accolade came his way in the spring of this year. A longtime civilian employee in Building 1, where the admiral’s office is, presented him with a carved wooden figurine. It bears the name “sunshine man.” The woman who gave it to him said she had never seen a commander of the base as happy as Gaston.
But as Dalton, Ga., already knows, that Georgia sunshine can go a long way.
