Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405020113
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Hall, who works at the Social Security office in Wytheville, graduated from the academy in 1970. His son, Midshipman Thomas J. Hall Jr., is a sophomore there.
The younger Hall is in maritime training, spending his last two sophomore and first two junior quarters at sea. As apprentice deck officer aboard the S.S. Leslie Lykes, he is crossing the North Atlantic this winter to Belgium and Germany and then will go around the world - literally.
``You keep going west until you get home,'' his father said.
The trip will include stops at Cristobal, Panama; Manila, Philippines; Mombasa, Kenya; Toamasina, Madagascar; and Durban, South Africa. He will be back just in time to start classes again.
``Since he graduated from George Wythe [High School], he has not had a break,'' his father said. Hall, 19, reported to the academy in July for his freshman year. He had a month off last summer but went back two weeks early to work as a drill instructor for the incoming class. He got out for Christmas Dec. 17 but had to meet his ship Dec. 23.
His mother, Laraine, reminded him that his selection for the around -the -world voyage would mean he would lose his vacation time once more. ``Mom,'' he replied, ``this is a vacation.''
The senior Hall marched in the inauguration parade for President Richard Nixon. His son did the same last year for President Bill Clinton.
Tom Hall Sr. is the academy's Southwest Virginia representative. He says any young man or woman interested in attending can contact him at P.O. Box 582, Wytheville, Va. 24382.
So far, he said, Southwest Virginia has few graduates from the academy. There was one from Pulaski and one from Bastian during the World War II period, and one from Smyth County about10 years ago. Hall lived in Carroll County when he got his appointment to go, and his son is the first to attend from Wythe County.
Construction on the Merchant Marine Academy began in 1942 at Kings Point, N.Y. It sent members of its student body into action during World War II, when 142 of them lost their lives, and has done the same for every conflict since then up to and including delivering supplies in the Persian Gulf action.
Unlike the U.S. Military, Naval, Coast Guard and Air Force academies, it is the only one with a battle standard.
``It's one of the five, but it's the one that no one knows,'' Hall said. That may change. After all, he said, ``where else can you go around the world as part of your education?''
by CNB