Retired Navy officer recounts 32 years of service

Longboat Key native John Roble was in junior college when President John F. Kennedy made his famous inaugural address.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” said President Kennedy on Jan. 20, 1961.

Those words rang in Roble's head as he visited a naval boot camp with a high school friend a year later. When he saw the men dressed in their blue naval uniforms, he knew he was making the right choice. Roble enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 20 years old.

Roble was commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer in 1963 and served in Vietnam, starting in 1965. Throughout his career, he returned to his home state of Florida and finished his education at the University of South Florida in 1970. He participated in the invasion of Grenada in October 1983 and served until the end of the Cold War in 1991. 

After attending the Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Roble flew radar planes for the Navy. He maneuvered five aircraft carriers, a destroyer and a command and control ship. One of the aircraft carriers is still in commission today.

“I witnessed everything good about our world and unfortunately, everything that's bad about our world,” said Roble. “I flew all over, from the Arctic Circle to the International Dateline and through the Pacific into the Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean. Where haven't I been?” 

Roble shared that his most monumental moment in the Navy was watching a ship he helped build be commissioned. He said it was awe-inspiring to see the USS George Washington launch in 1990 from Norfolk, Virginia.

The Navy was also instrumental in finding the love of his life. Roble’s late wife worked for the Navy as a civilian logistics system analyst for 45 years. The two met at a Navy base picnic while the squadron was across the street from where she worked. He said they truly were a Navy family.

After 32 years of service, Roble now is a member of Bird Key Yacht Club. On a normal day visiting the club, he will run into friends that at one time he never thought he would see again. Since joining the club, Roble has become close friends with Pete Bruder, who will often come as a guest for lunch. The two flew in the same squadron in 1973. 

He said that this interaction is different than with a former co-worker you might run into years later. Their experiences bonded them for life and made Roble the man that he is today. 

Roble was honored with more than 40 other veterans at the Bird Key Yacht Club Memorial Day ceremony on May 27.

“In 32 years, I learned who I am,” said Roble. “I think about before I joined. You really take all this for granted. Those years reinforced again that the liberty, the freedom and justice for all of this country are a part of our lives. That is very important to me as our way of life for everybody in this great country.”