Decades of Service

Decades of Service

By Andrea Howry

Former WAVE retires from Port Hueneme school with 58 years of Navy memories

At age 87, and after 56 continuous years of service to her country — 58 total, if you factor in her two years in the WAVES — Eileen Hunt is retiring from her civil service job as student services director for the Civil Engineer Corps Officers School at Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme.

"I figured this is what I need to do," said Hunt, who knew some of today's admirals when they walked out the CECOS doors as ensigns. "My children think I tire more easily these days. I don't think so, but they're concerned and they're begging, so I'll do it."

Hunt, known as "Miss Eileen" or "The Commodore," could have retired 30 years ago. Instead, she continued to show up day after day, donating her annual leave to others and serving out what for many people would have been an entire second career.

"She's a good role model for people who don't want to come to work in the morning," said Susan Lester, public affairs officer for the Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering, which oversees CECOS.

CECOS trains civil engineers how to become leaders in the military. The men and women who enter the school have college degrees, and some have prior military experience. When they graduate, they have a rank of Navy warrant officer, ensign or higher, and they go on to their assigned commands or to other branches of the military. Some return to CECOS as instructors specializing in career development, energy issues, environmental issues or facilities management and acquisitions. Many continue through the ranks, with a few becoming admirals.

"These young gentlemen — and now women — do very well," Hunt said. "All of them want to be here."

That's one big change from when Hunt first started at CECOS in 1966. At that time, the Vietnam War was raging and young men — and only men — would spend eight weeks at the school and ship out.

"Get them in, get them out and get them on their way," she said. "That's the way it was."

Today's classes are three months long, and in all, Hunt has seen 251 classes come through CECOS.

There are usually 30 students per class, with three or four of them women.

"These students are very well-versed," she said. "A lot of them are married, some have children. They're all set for whatever's ahead. Well, not always war and things like that, but sometimes that's what happens."

As the student services director, Hunt makes sure all the students' records are in order, that any transportation and lodging are arranged for them and their dependents, that someone is always on hand to greet them on their first day and that they're all set for their classes.

Once they're settled in, she takes on the role of den mother, from tracking down lost ID cards to lending an ear to someone who just wants to talk.

"They're always nice, polite people who come through here," she said.

Hunt was born Aug. 24, 1924, in Ohio. Her brother was in the service, and she decided to follow in his footsteps even though he didn't approve.

"He didn't think girls should go into the military," she recalled. "But the rest of my family was supportive."

In 1944, she joined the WAVES — Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service — at age 20, the minimum required. She went to boot camp in Oklahoma then was stationed at Jacksonville, Fla.

"I was a yeoman, and I did office work," she said. "I was hoping for something different, but I was deemed fit to be a yeoman."

After hours, she'd go dancing.

"I wanted to dance a lot," she recalls. "If you didn't like dancing, I didn't have time for you."

It was on the dance floor that she met the man she'd marry, and in 1946, after just two years as a WAVE, she became pregnant and had to leave the Navy.

"That's the way it was back then," she said.

Hunt had two daughters and a son and remained a full-time homemaker and a mother until 1955. "But by then, I really wanted a new car," she said.

And so she re-entered the workforce, working in the Yards and Docks Supply Office at Port Hueneme until 1958, then moving to Hawaii, where she worked until 1961.

She came back to Port Hueneme, but the YDSO was decommissioned in 1963. She opted to join the Construction Battalion Center Office of Personnel, which was renamed CECOS in 1966, and she's been there ever since.

CECOS moved to a new building in 1990, and Hunt admits that while it's larger, sleeker and more modern, the new building doesn't have the same feel as the old one.

"It seemed more like family there," she said. "I guess I just don't make changes very easily. I get someplace, I like it, and I like to stay."

Dec. 2 was to be her last day at CECOS. So what would happen on Dec. 3?

"I guess I won't be getting dressed," she said, laughing.

Now divorced, with a daughter in Oxnard, a daughter in Simi Valley and a son who lives with her in Oxnard, she'll be busy, especially when seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren are factored in.

CECOS will have to deal with some changes as well.

Chances are Hunt's typewriter will go away. Hunt never made the transition to a computer because she lost vision in her left eye in 1998 and preferred the typewriter. It has come in handy for many a person who has had to fill out a form in hard copy or whip out an envelope.

The office won't have to field phone calls every Aug. 24 when people from all around the world, including admirals, call to wish Miss Eileen a happy birthday.

Students will miss the answer, "Tip top!" when they ask Hunt how her day is, and they'll miss the flower she always wears in her hair on Fridays.

"My daughter is a hairdresser and she does my hair on Saturdays," she said. "By the time Friday comes around, it needs help."

What will she miss the most?

"The people," she replied, not missing a beat.

Were there some for whom she made a difference, perhaps a student who was especially lonely or uncertain about the future?

She pauses on that one.

"I like to think so," she said. "But I don't."

She should.

Across from her desk is a plaque that honors the person in each class deemed to have the valued traits most like Hunt's: the most personable, the most helpful, the one who takes the best care of his or her shipmates.

But the best proof that Hunt has made a difference in her 56-year career came at 4:30 p.m., Nov. 14, when her retirement ceremony took place in the lobby of CECOS, Bldg. 1444. Dozens of people attended — including two admirals.

Howry is the editor of The Lighthouse magazine.  read more...

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