It has become a tradition, that upon retiring, a U.S. flag is circulated and flown at places that have historical , personal, or service-related significance to the retiring service person.
One such flag, belonging to Petty Officer Gary V. Neff flew over the post office in Warriors Mark recently.
This flag has also flown at Valley Forge and on the USS Constitution because of their early historical significance in the founding of our country. It has flown at Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, also for its historical significance, and, because Civil War History is of personal interest to Petty Officer Neff.
It has flown at Historic Fort Ligonier, because of historical significance, but also because it was an important local site, visited often by Neff and his family. Upon being asked to fly this flag, and, giving to him the reasoning behind the request, Executive Director Martin West responded, “We are pleased to be able to fly this flag for Petty Officer Neff and are most grateful for his service to our country.”
Neff served at the Pearl Harbor Naval Installation for a number of years, and so, this flag was flown above the USS Arizona in April of this year in honor of his retirement.
The USS Tripoli, the ship upon which Neff served during the Gulf War, has also flown this flag.
Greater Latrobe High School Principal, Georgia Teppert, was most pleased to be asked to fly this flag, and, explained to the students its significance when doing the morning announcements on May 12.
On May 18, the flag was raised in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania. It is here that Neff’s great-great grandfather and grandmother are buried, It is also here that his mother serves as President of the Saltsburg Historical Society and runs the museum there.
The Warriors Mark site recognizes the home of Gary’s grandparents, Florence and the late Donald Neff, and many of his aunts, uncles and cousins.
This flag will continue to be flown; future sites include the City of Latrobe, the Westmoreland County Courthouse, Harrisburg, Appomatox Courthouse, and Shiloh. It will fly over the Great Lakes Naval Station the week of Neff’s retirement ceremony.
Gary and wife Olivia have three children, Adrianna of Norfolk, VA, and Daniel and David who reside in San Diego, California. Neff is the son of Mary Ellen Miller of Greensburg, and Gary Neff of Tyrone.
Born in White Township, Pennsylvania, Neff spent all of his youth in Latrobe. Following graduation from Greater Latrobe Senior High School in 1983, he attended the ICM School of Business and Medical Careers in Pittsburgh.
During his last semester, he talked to a recruiter and decided to enlist in the Navy. In August 1985, he joined the United States Navy and reported to the Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes. After completion of Recruit Training, he reported across the base to Service School Command, where he began studying. Graduating from Basic Electricity and Electronics as well as Electrician’s Mate “A” School as an Electrician’s Mate Fireman in 1986, he headed to his first sea command, the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, to the Engineering Department’s Electrical Division. The most memorable event was the mine hit of February 1991. Following the explosion is where the training and casualty control paid off, keeping the ship afloat and minimizing the damage. Then EM2 Neff spent eight continuous hours at his emergency station, monitoring and operating the forward electrical plant and switchboards. After five years, two months and twenty days onboard, he accepted orders to Subic Bay Naval Station Port Operations Department, in the Republic of the Philippines.
Prior to the final departure of the United States Navy ships and military personnel in mid-1992, he received orders to the Ships Intermediate Maintenance Activity, then restructured into the Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Petty Officer Neff was assigned to the Outside Electrical Shop.
One year later, he shifted to the Inside Electrical Shop, to work on motors and generators. His greatest achievement was the supervision and reshaping of three ship-service gas turbine generators’ slip rings, on three different ships, over a sixty hour period. Five personnel rotated throughout that weekend, working with him while he was shuttling between the ships with the repair equipment, on station for each slip ring reshaping job. By the crack of dawn Monday morning, his accomplishments resulted in the full readiness of the three affected ships to get underway for sea operations. EM2 Neff’s last year and a half were spent in the Planning and Estimating Department, where he estimated electrical and electronic jobs, including the planning of the work and the procurement of repair parts.
Following this successful tour, he headed to the destroyer USS Ingersoll out of Pearl Harbor, where he worked in the Engineering Department.
Among his major accomplishments are: working a straight 24 hour shift, repairing the vital Combat Information Center’s electrical power supplies, fabricating insulation from on-hand materials, allowing the ship to maintain full operational readiness during its Persian Gulf deployment, qualifying as one of the three Quality Assurance Supervisors onboard, as well as an Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist and his 18 hour watch over the ship’s electrical plants during three separate yet concurrent switchboard fires in a 24 hour period. After the decommissioning of the Ingersoll in 1998, Petty Officer Neff was transferred to the USS Tarawa, an amphibious assault ship out of San Diego, California, where he advanced to Electrician’s Mate First Class. His last transfer, in July of 2000, was back to Great Lakes, where he began work as the Video Teleconferencing operator and manager for Service School Command.
In February 2004, he shifted to the Naval Service Training Command, filling the job as the facilitator and manager for most of the Navy Region Midwest Commands in the Great Lakes area.
Whether the conference involves participants from across the United States or across the world, his coordination has proved a valuable asset to the Naval Service Training Command, the Navy Region Midwest and the training commands from the Pacific Ocean to the Persian Gulf, through the international dateline.
