James W. Vernon

James W. Vernon began his naval aviation training in 1942 after two years at the Montana School of Mines. While serving aboard the carriers USS Randolph and Ticonderoga, he flew Hellcats with three Air Group 87 squadrons and saw combat at Okinawa and Japan. After World War II Vernon earned a Ph.D. toon meer in geology. He returned to active duty during the Korean War as a photographic intelligence officer, retiring from the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant commander in 1967. As president of a geological scuba diving consulting company, he pioneered the application of manned submersibles to commercial geological exploration. As an exploration geologist, he traveled all over the world gathering geological and geophysical data from the seafloor. Vernon now lives in California with his family on a hill overlooking the Santa Barbara Channel toon minder