Machine Accountant 3rd Class Cutler Brown / US Navy

Cutler Brown was raised in Englewood, NJ and graduated from high school there in 1959. “From there,” Brown said, “I went to Rutgers University for a year and a half. One day, I decided that college was not for me – and walked away from it. I took a job in a trailer park and every day my father would ask me what I was going to do with my life. Lacking any other ideas, and so my father would stop asking, I joined the Navy. At the time, it looked like a better outfit than the Army.”

Like most Navy enlistees, it was first off to Great Lakes in Illinois for basic training. “At the end of basics,” Brown said, “we all gathered around as our drill instructor called out everyone’s name and where they would see their first duty. Many of the places and MOS names (Military Operation Specialty) sounded familiar. And then they called me – BROWN! – MACHINE ACCOUNTANT! – HOLY LOCH!” Brown continued, “My reply was, where the heck am I going and what am I doing?”

(Author’s Note: Holy Loch {pronounced holly lock} was a submarine base in Scotland. The loch provides a combination of deep-water, natural shelter and easy access to the open sea. England’s Royal Navy used it as a submarine base during WWII enabling them to carry out missions across the Atlantic. At the start of the Cold War, the US and England struck a deal where American subs would use Holy Loch as a base and the British subs would move to Gare Loch. On March 3, 1961, the USS Proteus, AS19, a WWI-era seaplane-tender adapted to be a sub-tender sailed into the Holy Loch to establish the US base there. These submarines were the first capable of launching Polaris nuclear missiles. This drew a lot of protesting from locals, most particularly, the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.)

Computers were in their infancy in the early 1960’s. Actual computers could not be placed on Naval vessels. However, a “Machine Accountant” could amass data by creating punch cards on a special machine designed for doing just that. Then the cards were fed into a computer, on land, to tally information and keep records. Brown’s job was to create these punch cards. He was based on board the USS Proteus. 

Of that duty, Brown commented, “A group of guys would come to Holy Loch from the New London Navy Base in Connecticut to prep the subs for a tour of duty. The subs would run on patrol for 30 to 60 days at a time… without radio contact. That’s a long time to be silent.”

Asked if he saw any action while in the Navy, Brown replied, “During the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, every ship in the Navy was on alert and on the move somewhere in the world. On the Proteus, we were headed to Cuba. On the way, someone noticed a ship following us. Whoever it was, they were trying to look discreet… like they were just a fishing trawler. But the whole time they were behind us, our radio transmissions were jammed.”

Brown continued, “But I did get to fire a weapon – once. I was on guard duty one night at the Holy Loch base, standing on a wharf where ships were tied up. I saw a diver, in the water moving around the ships and subs. He clearly was not one of our guys. I fired at him a couple times. I’m not sure if I hit him or not but I never heard any more about it.”

At some point, the crew of the Proteus was told that the ship was going to another port in Spain. It would be replaced by the USS Hunley, AS 31, a brand-new sub-tender, bult specifically to service the needs of the new nuclear subs. The crew was told if they wanted to stay with the Proteus, they could stay and take a ride to Spain. Those who wanted to stay in Scotland, would be quartered on the Hunley. Brown chose to stay in Scotland on the new Hunley.

Of life in Scotland, Brown commented, “It was a great place to be if you were a smoker – a carton of cigarettes was $1. I enjoy a drink of Scotch from time to time. I figured it would be great in Scotland. It was nasty – like drinking nails. Not the same stuff they export to the US.”

Brown made numerous trips to Dunoon in Scotland, the closest town to the base. It was here that he met his then-future wife, Morag. (Morag is Gaelic for Sarah.) They dated for about a year, and then got married – and have remained so for 60+ years. Dunoon is inhabited by basically two races of people; Scots, and Pakistanis, and both get along well. Morag never had to deal with segregation or racial strife, the way the US was in those times. Brown noted, “She was shocked when we got back to New Jersey. We lived in an area with a large contingent of African Americans. The first time she walked through a supermarket she smiled and said hello to everyone. Many people looked at her like she had three heads.”

Brown continued, “Living in America, at first, was a shock to her. But to me, the Navy taught me it doesn’t matter what color a man’s skin is. If he’s got your back, and you can have his, that’s all that matters.”

Near the end of Brown’s tour of duty, he received a letter from Robert MacNamara, the then-Secretary of Defense, telling Brown that his job was crucial to the defense of the country, and he had to put-in a little more time. Four months later, Brown had reached the end of his extra duty. Brown noted, “They offered me a bunch of money to stay and expand my skill set. But by then, I had had enough, and checked out.”

Upon arriving home, Brown tried to get a job at the Ford car factory in Mahwah, NJ. They wanted him to work nights. That was a non-starter.

Brown continues, “Next, I was offered a sales job with Nabisco. I had to travel, but to do that, I got a brand new 1966 Plymouth Fury. At a time when the median income in the US was about $7400, I was making $9,000 annually. And it could lead to a sales management job based in New York City. I worked this job for two years.” Brown then went back to school at his alma mater, Rutgers, on the GI bill where he earned a Masters in Urban Planning.

Today, Brown and his wife live in Hooksett, NH. For a time, he had a job at the local VA hospital greeting people and directing them to where they needed to go. Brown commented, “I especially liked greeting the Vietnam vets. They got such undeserved poor treatment when they came home from that war. Some vets have such a rotten attitude, Yet, some of the Vietnam vets, even if they lost both legs, have a better attitude about life.”

Brown has never attended any reunions from his Proteus or Hunley crew. He says, “I don’t know if they ever had one… but I never heard about it. I do know both ships that I served on have been scrapped. But my wife is 82 and I’m 84, and we’re still around.”