Noble Service

The hub of Columbus County, it has a population of around 5,000 and a land area of 5.5 square miles.

 

“You can walk from one end of it to the other,” said Gerard Bullock, a Help Desk technician at Collegiate who grew up there, earned a reputation as a stellar linebacker for the East Columbus High School Gators in nearby Lake Waccamaw, entertained offers to continue his football career in college, but opted instead to enlist in the U.S. Navy to, in his words, “step out into the world and hurry up and be a man.”

 

Once he left Whiteville, Bullock grew up quickly.

 

He turned 18 in boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes just north of Chicago. He was then assigned to the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship, and embarked for Bahrain on the first deployment.

 

During his six-and-a-half-year career, Bullock served as a boatswain’s mate, a specialty often referenced as the “backbone of the Navy.”

 

“As a boatswain’s mate, we do a lot of grunt work,” he said. “The first person you see when you walk onto a pier is the boatswain’s mate. There’s a lot of pride in this job.”

 

The boatswain, Bullock quickly learned, has many responsibilities, among them but hardly limited to preserving the ship’s exterior, assisting with mooring, standing watch, and handling highly challenging but thankfully rare man-overboard situations.

 

“If you’re pulling into port or leaving,” he said, “it’s a boatswain’s mate who helps you. It’s called sea and anchor duty. We also did a lot of other things like underway replenishment, which is when you’re on deployment and you need to take on store, mail, and things like care packages from families to help morale. It’s a very important procedure.

 

“Two ships would come beside each other, same speed. We’d shoot a line across to the other ship to connect hoses [to refuel] or set up a pulley system to transfer things like mail. We’re also in charge of the small boats attached to the side of the ship like the red boat used in search and rescue and the captain’s gig.”

 

Bullock remained in that specialty (“rate” in Navy terminology) on the Iwo Jima for his entire stint in the service.

 

“It’s a very important job in the Navy,” he said. “It’s one of the oldest rates. You always need boatswain’s mates. You can’t move a ship without a boatswain’s mate.”

 

A leg injury ended Bullock’s career but not his sense of pride in workmanship and commitment to serve.

 

While on myriad deployments throughout the world, he became fascinated with technology and came to understand that he had an aptitude for troubleshooting and problem-solving. He picked the brains of the ETs (electronics technicians) on the Iwo Jima. He was a sponge for information, and as he grew in knowledge and understanding, he realized that resolving computer issues and helping others was a calling and perhaps a future career path.

 

“When you’re out at sea, if you have an issue with a computer — or an issue, period — you mostly have to reach out to your peers,” he said. “I ended up becoming one of those people who other people would bring their computers to. Once I got out [of the Navy] and was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I decided that computer technology was what I wanted to go into.”

 

He enrolled at the ITT Technical Institute in Norfolk, earned an associate’s degree, and soon landed his first tech-related civilian job in the IT department at Military Credit Services. His next stop was Hampton University where he served as systems technician for the Harvey Library supervising all the computers, kiosks, and printers in the four-story building.

 

From Hampton he moved to the technical support department of Snag-a-Job in Richmond.

 

When the Help Desk position at Collegiate opened, he applied, interviewed, and joined the team that provides expert and friendly service to students, faculty, and administration on all things technology-related.

 

The Navy, he had found, had provided opportunities for him not just to grow, serve, and see the world but to discover his passion as well.

 

“I’m very proud of my service,” he said. “Honestly, I enjoyed the structure. Being in the military has helped me be more organized. I enjoyed the sights and the opportunity to experience so many different cultures. I loved the knowledge that I gained.

 

“I feel like it was a great decision. If I had to go back, I’d choose the same thing. It gave me the building blocks to become the person I wanted to be so I can provide structure for my family (which includes his fiancé Chelsea Blackwell and their sons Gerard, 5, and Gage, 2).

 

Today, November 11, marks Veterans Day, which honors those, like Bullock, who served in America’s Armed Forces. 

 

“To me,” he said, “this is a day we celebrate and acknowledge the veterans who fight for their country and make change in the world. I wanted to be part of the change. Veterans Day for me is the appreciation for all the people who put their lives on the line so we can keep our freedom.”

~Weldon Bradshaw