Richard A. Steiber - U.S. Navy 1974-96

Richard “Rich” Steiber served as an Aviation Electrician in the U.S Navy for over 20 years. He served for 8 years aboard the USS Midway working on A-7, F-4, F/A-18 and E-2C aircraft primarily as a black box technician.

In April of 1975 Rich was 19 years old and on his first deployment when the Midway was ordered to help with the evacuation of Saigon, Operation Frequent Wind. “The helicopters were coming in like flies on dung, it was just amazing. A lot of stuff got thrown over, a lot of the helicopters that did get thrown over did so because…we couldn’t get the rotors stopped in time for the next ones coming in.”

Rich looks back on his 21 years in the Navy as; “A, I had a blast. B, I had an education that you would never get in any college. Rich retired in 1996 as a Senior Chief and is a member of both the American Legion (Post 924 – Hampton Bays, NY) and The VFW (Post 5350 – Westhampton Beach, NY)