CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Navy veteran cooked aboard submarines

Brunswick News - 12/26/2018

Dec. 26--Today's veteran: Mallory Logan, 48

Born: Detroit, Mich.

Residence: St. Marys

Service: Navy, 20 years

Duties: Cook

Rank: Petty officer 1st class

Recognitions: National Defense Service Medal; Good Conduct Medal

Duty stations: Norfolk, Va.; Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay and aboard USS Flying Fish; USS Atlanta; USS Minneapolis-St. Paul.

His story: Mallory Logan chose the Navy over the other military services for one reason: he like the uniforms.

Other than that he knew he wanted to enlist in the military, and he wanted to be a cook because it ran in his family. His father was a baker and his mother was a cook, so he grew up in a kitchen.

"I always want to be a cook," he said. "I cooked all my life."

He endeared himself to the crew on his first boat, USS Flying Fish, when he decided to tweak a soup recipe. A commanding officer asked him why he changed the recipe, and he was blunt.

"The recipe sucks, and the soup was bland," he said. "I'm enhancing it."

He expected he might get scolded, but instead the officer told him to keep improvising. The problem was his meals were so good, sailors were coming back for second and third helpings, and the food would run out. The big challenge was finding the space to store food on a fast-attack submarine with limited space.

He also had the challenge of earning his Dolphins Pin when he joined the crew.

Instead of the rigorous testing most young crew members endure, Logan brought cookies to the board, and they told him to keep cooking good meals for the crew and told him they would take care of him.

After five deployments aboard the Flying Fish, Logan was sent to Norfolk, Va., where he worked in the base galley several years before he was assigned to the crew of the USS Atlanta. He spent five years cooking in the ship's galley for the crew.

"I loved being in the galley," he said.

He assumed more responsibility as he gained rank and spent more time supervising and taking care of the administrative side of managing a galley such as planning meals and ordering the food necessary to feed a crew on a deployment that could last months.

After four years aboard the Atlanta, he was sent to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, where he worked in the galley two years before he was assigned to the crew of the USS West Virginia, his first ballistic missile submarine.

Logan said he had to re-qualify aboard the West Virginia.

'I was like a fish out of water," he said. "I loved it once I got settled in."

He finished his Navy career in Groton, Conn., and now owns a bakery in St. Marys with his wife.

"It met my expectations," he said of the Navy. "I got a chance to visit places I'll probably never see again. It made me more mature."

Our Veterans runs Wednesdays. Contact Gordon Jackson at gjackson@thebrunswicknews.com, on Facebook or at 464-7655 to suggest a veteran for a column.

___

(c)2018 The Brunswick News (Brunswick, Ga.)

Visit The Brunswick News (Brunswick, Ga.) at www.thebrunswicknews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.