LCDR Richard Carl Medved (USN) Ret.

Branch of Service: United States Navy / United States Marine Corps

He would have turned 78 on October 18th .

Dates of Military Services: 8/64 – 6/93

At the age of 16, Richard Medved enlisted in the Naval reserves. At the same time Richard was a member of DeMolay a youth organization of The Masons. Linda happened to be a member of The Order of Rainbow, also a youth organization of the Masons. There was a beach party and there were 14 of us to fit in a Rambler American. Linda sat on Richard's lap and that's how they met. They dated on and off for two years then they were engaged at graduation. Richard went on active duty after graduation and quickly became a dedicated Corpsman. While working at Bethesda Naval Hospital, The Navy ordered him to Viet Nam with the 1 st Battalion, 1 st Marines out of Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. He called Linda one day and said, "we are going to get married in two weeks", before he went to Fleet Marine Training. After marring Linda, Richard shipped out to Viet Nam, where he served as a Corpsman for 14 months in-country with the Marines. Richard was combat wounded and received a Purple Heart the same day he received his medal he had a Captian's Mast. He had to pay for the tent he put a bullet through. He was broke for a while but his Marines bought him Cokes for a month.

Upon his return from Viet Nam, Richard was shipped out on the USS Aeolus (ARC-3) as a Corpsman. While there, Richard earned the opportunity to attend Penn State, through the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program (NESEP), completing his BS in Aerospace Engineering in 3.5 years, while married with two small children. Just before his senior year in college he attended Officer Prep School in Rhode Island. The big activity was to do carrier quals on the club's tables. This included sloshing the table with beer and one officer on another's back while the "landed" on the table. His class had so much fun that they were thrown out of the Officer's Club and not allowed in again.

Upon graduation, Richard was accepted to Flight School in Pensacola. Unfortunately, Richard sustained an inner ear injury during a swimming accident and was switched to serving as a Surface Warfare Officer. While on medical hold, however, Richard was assigned to teach Aero Dynamics to new student pilots in Aviation Indoctrination School. He was also credited with teaching the first female flight student  pilots in the US Navy. Upon transferring, Richard was assigned to the USS Laffey (724), the only US Naval vessel ship docked in Washington DC. He had a hard time convincing Navy Housing he really was on sea duty. The next couple of decades, Richard served on destroyers, amphibious warfare ships and logistics support ships, earning his SWO badge. Tours included progressive management responsibilities in deck, operations, weapons and engineering systems, officer and enlisted training, ship control, and tactical deception. His significant shipboard leadership tours included Chief Engineering Officer and department head at several major shore-based fleet support organizations. He also found time to be a Brownie leader when Linda need another adult for her troop. He went to L.A. and sat in a cold warehouse to pick petals off flowers for the Rose Parade floats. He helped Joy tote her drum set to musical events and dressed up as a  pirate when June went to a Halloween party at the MINI dealer.

In 1993, Richard retired after 30 years of service, but that wasn't enough for him. After taking a year off, Richard returned to serving his country, this time as a civilian. For the next 26 years, Richard served at SPAWAR as a defense contractor and representative of the lead Department of Defense Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operational test agency, providing oversight and technical support to the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) and Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity (MCOTEA) for UAV projects. He worked for several civilian companies including Booze Allen and Arinc.

Finally retiring in 2019 after serving his country for 56 years, his main activity was enjoying his hard-earned retirement, relaxing at the casino, and building ship models in his spare time. He also recently started building Lego models, which he really enjoyed, as an engineer. He leaves behind a wife, Linda Medved, and daughter Joy Medved. June Medved predeceased him. She passed away in 2018. He grew up with  siblings: Warren Raymond and Jennifer Raymond. He also had a cousin, Ray Medved here in San Diego and a brother-in-law David Pierson residing in Ohio.