Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Tom Ramsey is pictured at his home in Chatsworth, Ga., on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021.CHATSWORTH, Ga. - For Chatsworth, Georgia, veteran Tom Ramsey, the distinction of being only one of four sailors in the U.S. Navy who served in highly specialized roles aboard one of the nation's two operating "Doomsday ships" during the latter part of the Cold War is one of unique pride.
Ramsey, 76, served as a petty officer aboard the USS Wright CC-2, a converted aircraft carrier that served as a mobile command for the president and military leaders to use to direct operations worldwide.
He got his draft notice in late 1966 and asked his uncle, a Marine veteran, which branch to enter.
"He said, 'If I were you and doing it today, I'd go to the Navy,'" Tom Ramsey said. "I said, 'Why?' and he said, 'They'll probably teach you a skill that you can use when you get out because everybody in the Navy has a job. With my background in the Marine Corps, I know the Navy doesn't have to sleep in the woods and they get three meals a day every day, on time.'"
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With that, Ramsey was off to the Whitfield County recruiting office to put his name in for the Navy. A few days later he learned he would become a sailor.
Ramsey learned basic electricity and electronics and related skills at boot camp in San Diego, then in September of 1968 was assigned to the Wright, where even as a petty officer he would have an important role. Often, members of all branches of the military were aboard.
BIO
Name: Tom RamseyAge: 76Branch of military: U.S. NavyYears of service: 1967-1971
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Tom Ramsey at his home in Chatsworth, Ga. on Wednesday, October 20, 2021. The most prominent feature is the "tropo tower," the primary piece of communications equipment that uses a technology known as tropospheric scatter transmission.
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The specialized communications ship was able to connect global ship-to-shore and secure telephone calls on normal and closed lines among top officials - as well as having the usual military radio capabilities. Ramsey said, displaying photographs taken during his service of the areas on the USS Wright where he worked with his lifelong friend Dan McKelvey. McKelvey now lives in Illinois and visits from time to time, and the two men had top-secret clearance to do their jobs as interior communications electricians. Their specific role was unique on the Wright, which had one sibling at the time, the USS Northampton. One of the two was always on duty.
"There were thousands and thousands of interior communications electricians in the Navy, but none of them were working on the president's phone system. Dan and I were the only two aboard the Wright that did it and there were two guys on the Northampton that did it," he said.
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Ramsey, his friend and their Northampton counterparts served military leaders who assembled in the ships' Combat Operations Center, the nerve center of the ship to oversee military action. The room inside the Wright had a large conference table for the highest-ranking officers and a gallery for lower-ranking officers, Ramsey said.
They never got the call that meant real global trouble, Ramsey said. But it wouldn't be long before the Wright's time on the high seas would come to a close.
Ramsey said the primary international enemy in those days was the United States' Cold War foe the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - the USSR - and their military and technical advances going into the 1970s would spell the end of the Wright.
U.S. military leaders decided the president and military leaders could no longer be counted safe on the Wright due to improvements in enemy satellites and missiles, Ramsey said. Some of his last duties were to remove sensitive, secret equipment from the ship before it was "turned into razor blades," as he put it.
Ramsey reflects sadly on the loss of the Wright, but he's proud of its service and his role aboard it.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton.
Veteran Salute will be published daily through Veterans Day on Nov. 11. Read about more Chattanooga-area veterans at timesfreepress.com/veterans/2021.