Stauff, Kurt M (Interview outline and video), 2016

• Main Author: Stauff, Kurt M.
• Other Authors: Hammond, Steve (Interviewer)
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan 2016
• Subjects: Oral history; Veterans History Project (U.S.); United States > History; Military; Veterans; Video recordings; Iraq War; 2003-2011 > Personal narratives; American; Other veterans & civilians > Personal narratives; United States. Navy; Arctic; Petty
• Online Access: https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/document/40698; https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8994293287960e47b5c2e86b7a0376fc.m4v; https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bb641fe57a7140fbbcc3cd318621cdfa.m4v; https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/75062da6e3d141d66ecad1ffc39dd408.pdf

Kurt Stauff was born in November 1954 in Jackson, Michigan. In December 1982 he enlisted in the Navy. He started basic training on June 20, 1983 at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, and received Basic Enlisted Submarine Training at Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut. He attended the Submarine Sonar Technician Apprenticeship School in San Diego, California and received further training at "C School." After two years of training he boarded the submarine, USS Pargo (SSN-650) in December 1984. He went on intelligence gathering missions, torpedo exercises, and got to sail north of the Arctic Circle. For a short time he served aboard fast-attack submarines and ballistic submarines out of Pearl Harbor. In 1994 he transferred to mine warfare and from 1995 to 1997 he trained in Charleston, South Carolina. From 1997 to 2000 he served aboard the USS Patriot (MCM-7) at Sasebo, Japan, then returned to the United States to serve as an instructor. During the War in Iraq he spent a year in Bahrain overseeing mine sweeping missions in the area. In 2007 he reached his highest rank, Master Chief Petty Officer (E9), and spent the next five years as the mine warfare master chief to an admiral. He retired from the Navy in 2012.