DePue native will be keynote speaker at Memorial Day service

The DePue VFW 4602 Auxiliary is having its annual Memorial Day service 11 a.m. Monday, May 31, at Veterans’ Memorial Park, at the west end of Fourth Street.

DePue native and Master Chief Petty Officer Larry E. Peterson, U.S. Navy (retired), will be the keynote speaker (through a proxy).

As he is a resident of Gouldsboro, Maine, and unable to attend the service, Peterson’s remarks will be read by Mrs. Penny Blanco.

Master Chief Peterson is a retired 23-year Naval Cryptologist whose service spanned the Vietnam and Cold War periods from 1966-1989. He led teams in Signals Intelligence operations as a member of the Naval Security Group Command, a Service Cryptologic Agency under the tasking of the National Security Agency and predecessor of the Navy’s elite Information Warfare organization.

His sea duty included shipboard and submarine service and his shore assignments were extensive on most of the world’s continents.

Master Chief Peterson’s last tours of duty in the Navy included being a Senior Enlisted Leader on the staff of the Commander of the Naval Security Group and as a Senior Enlisted Leader and Action Officer at the National Security Agency.

After retiring from the Navy, Larry was a senior Program Management Professional for a defense contractor in the field of Electronic Warfare. As such, he managed multi-disciplinary teams of professionals and field technicians engaged in the design, engineering and manufacture of surveillance and weapons systems for installation on Navy ships, submarines and aircraft.

Larry spent over 40 years of continuous service to the nation, most of it in uniform. He is a distinguished graduate of the Navy’s Senior Enlisted Academy and holds a BS degree from the University of Maryland.

In their retirement, Larry and his wife Phyllis live on the coast of Maine where he serves his adopted community in numerous volunteer leadership capacities. He is also an Extra Class Amateur Radio Operator (Ham), an avid amateur genealogist and a freelance photographer, specializing in landscape and seascape images of the coast of Maine. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers and he’s received recognition and awards from the New England Newspaper Association.