Sagerholm

From Green Hills to Blue Seas is the memoir of a young American determined to be a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy. With no nominations available from his state's members of Congress, he enlists. From such humble beginnings, the young man makes his own way and retires from the US Navy thirty-nine years later in the rank of vice admiral. Beyond being a compelling story of personal success, From Green Hills to Blue Seas is one of a family's triumph over tragedy and a military community's legacy of strength and national service. Author James Sagerholm's only son went on to attend the Naval Academy. Though his life was cut tragically short during a military aircraft accident, his own son grew up knowing his father had been a hero. That boy became a third-generation graduate of the academy, served his country in Afghanistan, and is now a Marine Corps captain. He encouraged his grandfather to write this memoir, drawing together one family's story--and opening it up to touch the lives of other US Navy families.

Born in Uniontown, PA, in 1927, Sagerholm graduated from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in 1946, and enlisted in the Navy. In 1948, he received an appointment to the Naval Academy from the Secretary of the Navy, graduating ninth in the class of 1952. Saw action in the Korean War aboard the cruiser Rochester during the campaigns of 1952 -53 that led to the truce of 1953. Had additional service in coastal minesweepers, destroyers, and nuclear submarines, commanding a ballistic missile submarine from 1968 to 1971. While ashore, he served in naval intelligence, and later, as a rear admiral, worked on Navy budgeting and programming on the staff of the Secretary of the Navy. He commanded the South Atlantic Force, making two circumnavigations of the South American continent, and instituted the first West African cruise in 1978. Following a year in the Reagan White House, he was Chief of Naval Education and Training. He retired from active duty on 1 November 1985. He lives near Annapolis, Maryland.