BAY MINETTE, Ala. — How many men in Baldwin County almost sunk a U.S. Navy submarine?

Being in a submarine led to one of Dennis Goodwin’s many funny stories. It seems that the other enlisted members of the crew allowed the Bay Minette resident to control the sub’s diving planes — things that controlled how deep the submarine would go. Goodwin was off from his regular duties and the situation was normal and safe. Goodwin stressed that if there had been any danger, the appropriate person would be at the controls.

However, that night, someone decided to play a joke on another member of the crew. In the horseplay that followed, Goodwin was hit.

“I just reacted,” he recalled.

His action, normal and instinctive, put the sub into a steep dive. Anything unsecured on the vessel, such as the cook’s baking for the next day, flew off counters.

Goodwin says the ship’s captain, awakened by the sudden maneuver, came on deck still dressed for bed. After learning what happened and that all was well, he returned to his cabin.

Goodwin soon found out that he would be punished, but not by the captain.

“Our cook made the most delicious desserts, bear claws, and the like,” he said.

Once the cook found out who was responsible for that night’s baking being ruined, he took action.

“There was no dessert for me the rest of that trip,” Goodwin said ruefully.

Goodwin has spent his life with radios, codes and the worst that nature could throw at him. He’s an amateur radio operator (also known as a ham), a retired cryptographer, a retired naval officer and a retired director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency.

That’s a lot in one life. And Goodwin is looking forward to more. But it all started when he and his newly widowed mother moved into a an apartment in the Birmingham area.

“Someone had left a ham magazine in the apartment,” he said. “I got hooked.” He ordered a crystal radio set and built it.

“It didn’t look too pretty, but it worked,” Goodwin said with a grin. “Every night, I would hear this guy talking. He said his name was Lem.”

He couldn’t talk back with his set and he finally mentioned the matter to his mother. It turned out Lem was a distant relative and Goodwin visited his radio shack. Before long, Goodwin had gear and a license of his own.

“I got my license in 1958. I went into emergency management in Civil Defense radio operations.”

Goodwin joined the Navy in 1960, and found his ham training came in handy immediately. Ham radio operators then had to be able to send and receive in Morse Code. For example, 20 words per minute in was the standard in the amateur “extra” class. Ham operators do not have to pass the Morse Code test anymore.

“I was the night school instructor,” he said “By day, I learned to type.”

His class got a chance to take a language aptitude test. According to Goodwin, “three out of 20 passed.”

Goodwin decided to try his hand at Russian by taking a class.

“After the first two weeks, you said it in Russian or you didn’t say anything,” he recalled. “I still have a Russian Scrabble game somewhere. Good for building vocabulary.”

Goodwin used his skills aboard a submarine. He served on both nuclear and diesel-electric vessels.

“I saved my money while on subs,” he joked. “There was nothing to spend it on.”

He joined the Navy Reserve and went to Auburn to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics. He also earned a doctorate.

He stayed in the Navy Reserve, and was eventually persuaded to “go mustang,” and become an officer after being enlisted.

Goodwin recounts a story when he worked for Faulkner State Community College, where he was the academic dean. Armed with a Ph.D., he was known as Dr. Goodwin at the college, but was away doing his two weeks in the reserve as an enlisted man when someone from the school tried to contact him.

“Someone called and asked for Dr. Goodwin,” he said. “The person who answered the phone said there were no doctors here, that ‘this is not a dispensary.’” Goodwin had to explain the use of academic titles to the incredulous petty officer.

Goodwin says he volunteered his services as a radio expert to Baldwin County.

“I was at the emergency operations center in Fairhope,” he said.

The center, Goodwin says, was an old water tank, modified with doors and such for the center’s needs.

Goodwin was the communications officer for the EMA during Hurricane Frederick. Later, he says then-Sheriff Jimmy Johnson asked him to come and help set up a training program for deputies.

And Goodwin brought with him some improvements in communication.

“I was on the original E911 board,” he said.

Prior to E(nhanced)911, an operator had to determine where the caller was in order to send help. Now, with E911, operators know your address from a landline and can dispatch help quickly. Cell phones, Goodwin says, provide the next challenge.

After Opal in 1975, the center in Fairhope was leaking. Goodwin says the County Commission stepped in to build a new EMA center. A Robertsdale location was chosen and the facility built.

An Emergency Management Agency director became ill and retired, and Goodwin was appointed acting director.

The next day, Goodwin was at the center sorting out things.

“I was still figuring out all the keys,” he said. He got a call from the National Weather Service.

“The director (of the NWS) told me I had better pull out my plan as by 3 p.m. we were going to have (hurricane) warnings.

“I pulled out the plan, a lot of numbers (on the plan for volunteers) were wrong or the people there were on vacation. There was no food at the center. I called Pat (his wife) to go shopping and to bring my mother to be a cook. My son Brock could be a runner.”

With a little luck and help from the state EMA, the county weathered the storm.

“There was no water or electricity for a while. It really hit Lillian.”

Shortly after that, before all the reports could be filed, Opal hit the Gulf Coast. Ham radio operators provided (and still provide) essential communications.

But Goodwin is the first to say, “How tickled I was to see him (the permanent EMA director) walk through the door.”

Goodwin retired fully in 2000, but putters with his antique tractor and is still a ham radio operator. He’s active with a group of retired cryptographers and the North Baldwin Amateur Radio Club.

While the Internet and other forms of communication seem to have made ham radio obsolete, Goodwin points out that it is a reliable form of communication, even when the Internet is lost.

“There is a website, www.qrz.com, with practice tests,” Goodwin says.

People in the northern part of the county can call Goodwin at 251-937-8203, or in the southern part, contact the South Baldwin Amateur Radio Club at www.sb-arc.com.