He was commissioned as an ensign on June 1, 1951, serving aboard USS Newman K. Perry (DDR-883) for three years, barring three months spent at the Destroyer Force, US Atlantic Fleet Engineering School in Newport, Rhode Island.

[2] While assigned to the Worcester, he attended the Combat Information Center Watch Officer and Day Air Control School in Boston, Massachusetts.

He then learned to speak Russian at the Defense Language Institute, qualifying as an interpreter in 1957 and serving at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade.

As a result of meritorious service between March 31 and October 15, 1967, he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V. Back on dry land, in April 1968, he became executive officer of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at Prairie View A&M College in Texas and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.

He was the second African American to achieve this landmark, preceded only by Admiral Samuel L. Gravely, Jr.[2] The newly promoted rear admiral became commander of Destroyer Squadron 5 before in 1975 becoming the acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and then the Director of the Near East, South Asia and Africa region at the U.S. Department of Defense in the following year.