John David Tinsley ’29 served in the U.S. Navy before he began his college career at Eckerd in August. Photo courtesy of John David Tinsley
Veterans Day, celebrated each year on Nov. 11, is a federal holiday that honors those men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. Eckerd College can claim several faculty members, staff and students, as well as many alumni, who are veterans.
Among this distinguished group are two current Eckerd students, and a member of Florida Presbyterian (now Eckerd) College’s Class of 1968. These are their stories.
John David Tinsley
Since he was a child, John David Tinsley felt drawn to the ocean. “So the Navy felt like a good segue after high school,” he says. Raised in Mississippi, John is a first-year student who now lives in nearby Gulfport. He enlisted when he was 17, and after two years of intense training, became a fire controlman on board the guided-missile destroyer U.S.S. Roosevelt.
His job was to help operate and maintain the weapons systems on the ship. From 2017-19, he was stationed in Jacksonville, and he also spent time in Spain. “I enjoyed learning about complex weapons systems and I made a lot of friends,” he says, “but I’m more of a free spirit. I didn’t like being told to shave every day and make sure the corners of my bed were square.” When his enlistment was over, he separated as a petty officer second class, the equivalent of a sergeant in the Army or Marine Corps.
John David’s service took place aboard the U.S.S. Roosevelt.
John settled in Gulfport and worked different jobs, but one day realized he had 10 years to use his G.I. Bill benefits, and five had already gone by. A friend who knew about his interest in marine science told him about Eckerd College. “I saw how much practical work and field research Eckerd did,” John explains, “and I didn’t want to just be in a classroom all the time.” For now, he plans to focus on marine biology. This semester, he’s also taking classes in elementary Italian and calculus.
John David commutes to campus from Gulfport on his e-bike. Photo by Penh Alicandro ’22
“It’s new to me,” admits John, who is 28. “And it’s kind of different. I’ve gotten told I look like someone’s dad. And I’ve been asked if I’m a maintenance person. But it’s nice to be able to get a sense of what younger people value. It’s pretty inspiring. They care about the environment and the world.”
During the week, John hops on his e-bike and rides from his home to campus along the Skyway Trail. The trip takes 13 minutes. “It gets me to campus faster than if I drive my car,” he says. And in what spare time he has, he works as a freelance photographer. “I’ll take any side work I can get my hands on.” He also enjoys spending time with Arya, a female wire haired pointer that he found on the side of the road in Mississippi when he was home visiting family.
On Veterans Day, John says he’ll “think about the people who have served before me, the people who risked their lives and gave up their lives. I definitely have a lot of respect for them. Every job in the military is important. But it’s a job that only the people on the inside can understand.
As for his own service, “Sometimes I get the feeling I didn’t serve my country for democracy.” he says. “I made certain politicians richer. It’s the business of death. But it is important that we have a strong military. The people who are serving have good intentions, they’re putting their lives on the line, and they deserve our respect.”
Mac Fite
In June of 1968, John “Mac” Fite from the Florida Panhandle town of Marianna, was in the fifth graduating class at Florida Presbyterian College, and the world was his oyster. He was scheduled to enter Vanderbilt Law School that fall. But a month later, he got his draft notice. He received orders for Vietnam in November the following year. His wife, Celia Goodson ’70, was a student at Florida Presbyterian while Mac was in Vietnam. They had been married just six months before he shipped out.
“We were walking into a very serious world,” Mac recalled of his classmates. “Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, and 1968 was the bloodiest year of the Vietnam War.”
Mac Fite (third from right) celebrated his Golden Triton anniversary at Eckerd College Reunion.
Mac estimates that about half of the men who graduated from FPC in 1968 entered the service. “I can name eight or nine who were close friends of mine,” he said.
“I believe about 125 men and women graduated in June 1968, the worst year of the war. Assuming half were women not subject to the draft, and not including those men with health issues, I figure about 50 men were eligible for the draft at this point. Next there were an unknown few conscientious objectors and a few more that went to seminaries or were otherwise deferred.
“At this point I’m guessing a remaining pool of about 40. I was one of the 40, and I suspect a high percentage of that group served in one of the armed forces. In other words, possibly as many as half the male grads were in uniform by the end of 1968. Several went to Vietnam. I’m aware of one woman that served, second lieutenant Sharon Caveth ’68.
“I believe that as a percentage, the Class of 1968 had more graduates that served in the armed forces than any class before or since, and possibly the most in raw numbers.”
Mac spent a year in Vietnam (December 1969 to November 1970) as part of the Army Security Agency. He worked as a linguist, librarian and radio traffic analyst at Phu Bai, a major U.S. Army and Marine Corps base near the border with North Vietnam. The base came under occasional mortar and rocket attack, but because he had a high level security clearance, the area where he lived and worked was well protected.
He went on to earn a law degree at Vanderbilt—they had saved his spot—and spent 43 years as a civil trial lawyer at the Barron and Redding law firm in Panama City, where he became a full partner. He has since retired and he and Celia have two daughters and four grandchildren.
“My experience in the Army was one of the defining events of my life,” Mac says, “along with getting married, coming to Florida Presbyterian College, and law school at Vanderbilt.”
Shea Sabolsky
One of the things that helps veterans get through college, Shea Sabolsky will tell you, is the ability to handle stress. After high school, Shea enlisted in the Navy and spent nearly four years as an armorer—fixing and maintaining small arms and munitions—in the Weapons Department of Naval Support Activity Bahrain, located on the Persian Gulf next to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The base is home to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the United States Fifth Fleet.
During his time in the Middle East, Shea met people from all over the world and learned as much as he could about Islam and the Muslim culture. He served from 2018 to 2022, separating as petty officer third class.
On Veterans Day, Shea, 26, a senior from Millersburg, Pennsylvania who is majoring in animal studies with a minor in biology, will be in class all day. Along with his classes, he is also a teaching assistant for associate professor of biology Jeff Goessling, Ph.D. He plans to attend graduate school, and is trying to arrange financial help from the Veterans Administration.
“I’m glad I had that experience in the Navy because it gave me the perspective I have now,” he says.
Shea Sabolsky ’27 turned his Naval experience into a marine science interest. Photo by Penh Alicandro
“Unlike regular college students, I don’t stress about academic stuff like they do. I was talking with a professor recently about students stressing about academics. He said he noticed I don’t stress about that sort of thing. I told him it was probably because I’m a veteran. Most of Bahrain is pretty laid back. But a couple times there was some dangerous stuff going on. And if I didn’t do my job correctly it could kill a person. A bad grade doesn’t hurt anyone but me.
“I’m just here to get an education, not to party” he adds. “I did that.”
Many of his fellow students, he says, notice that he’s older. “I was in a class with a student last semester who picked my brain about the military. He asked me if what his recruiter told him was true. I said most of it wasn’t.”
Veterans Day is important, Shea says, because there are so many things that we as a country celebrate. “And the only reason we have so much to celebrate is because there are people willing to die so we can continue living that experience. This weekend the senior class was up in arms because of a change in where they will graduate. We live in a country where people can stand up for themselves and enjoy the right to protest. But that comes at a cost. And we should celebrate the veterans who made that happen.”
