At the time of his arrest, a now-retired educator who had been one of Whitworth's teachers in elementary school noted he "seemed to struggle to find a place to belong".

Whitworth was transferred to Naval Air Station Los Alamitos in January 1965 where he decided to convert from storekeeper to radioman.

He graduated from radioman A school at United States Naval Training Center Bainbridge in 1966 and spent a year with Tactical Air Command squadron TACRon 12.

Whitworth was advanced to radioman first class in April 1969 and transferred to USS Ranger (CVA-61) in August for the aircraft carrier's fifth combat deployment to Vietnam.

This was also noticed by Walker, who sensed an easy mark in expanding his spy ring, and befriended Whitworth by offering to spend weekends together sailing.

During his final year on Diego Garcia, the Navy began construction of a secret satellite intelligence facility code-named Classic Wizard intended to eavesdrop on radar and communications signals of Soviet ships.

Whitworth left Constellation in 1978 and was assigned as the chief radioman and classified material systems custodian aboard the supply ship USS Niagara Falls, the same ship upon which John Walker had served as communications officer after leaving Fleet Training Center San Diego in 1971.

Whitworth was assigned to the telecommunications center at Naval Air Station Alameda from September 1979, and then to the fleet satellite communications station at Stockton, California, before returning to sea as a communications watch officer supervising cryptographic technicians aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise from October 1982 until retirement from the Navy a year later.

He seems to have changed his mind during that summer—his final letter, dated mid-August 1984, said that he thought "it would be best to give up on the idea of aiding in the termination of the espionage ring previously discussed".

Walker entered into a plea bargain, agreeing to testify against Whitworth, apparently mainly in return for lenient treatment of his son.

Whitworth ended up receiving the harshest punishment of the spy quartet, being fined $410,000 and sentenced to 365 years imprisonment.