Captain John Peters

I wish that you all could know John Peters the CO of the USS John Adams (SSBN620B) before Van Meter. In the past 15 years I have become friends with him and his darling wife Joan. As a matter of fact I got their Christmas picture yesterday in the mail. Kari and I spent an afternoon and evening with the Peters in their home in Hawaii in Feb 2003. Even though he makes me call him John I still want to call him Captain.

Here's my favorite John Peters story. When we were in the yards at Portsmouth, Admiral Hyman Rickover used to stay with John and Joan as their (uninvited) guest. John had a Golden Retriever that he had trained to salute by strategically placing scotch tape on the dog's eyebrow. When John gave the command "hand salute" the dog would smartly sit up and render honors with a regulation salute. When Rickover showed up, Hymie (actual AKC registered name was Hyman George Rickover XX) was standing as a "side boy" and on command welcomed the Admiral. John said that it was one of the only times he ever saw the Admiral laugh. (and Peters knew him as a subordinate and a friend for 20 years). Joan said that at bedtime they put Hymie in a dog run in the back yard and after lights out Rickover went out to the back yard and took the dog to his room to watch him do his many tricks.

When we left the Peters home I paused and shook John's hand and said, "I just want to say thank you for taking a punk kid and help him grow into an honorable man." He replied, "I wouldn't have expected anything less from you."

John is one of my biggest heroes.