By: Savanny Savath, Staff Writer

Waves crash against the hull of the ship. Seagulls squawk in the salt-scented air. It lingers around the weary men as they watch pink and gold tendrils appear in the sky. For a brief moment, groundskeeper and retired navy veteran Ricky Shehan watches the sun rise on campus and remembers a day aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

“It was a good tour of duty. I got to see a lot. We went on the Western Pacific deployment. I got to see several different foreign countries: the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and the Persian Gulf. I was also in the Persian Gulf during the Desert Shield and Storm back in 1990,” says Shehan.

Shehan joined the Navy two weeks after graduating from high school.

“The primary reason that I joined the Navy initially was my stepfather. He was in the Navy and he used to always tell me that he regretted not staying in and finishing a Navy career and getting out before he was able to retire. I like to finish things. If I start things, I like to finish it. When I joined the Navy, I wanted to make it a career,” says Shehan.

Shehan was a chief dental technician. He spent the last three years of his Navy career aboard the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear aircraft carrier. After retiring in 1998, Shehan reenrolled in Charleston Southern University and finished a bachelor’s degree in business management. A week after graduating college, he married his second wife and started a family with her in Spartanburg. They have 14 year old boy and girl twins.

However, even after 17 years, Shehan recalls one memorable moment in his Navy career with tearful pauses.

“Probably the highlight of my Navy career was coming home from the Desert Shield and Storm. When our ship was pulling into a port in Morehead City, N.C., my mother had actually chartered a boat. The captain of the charter boat actually came past a lot of the checkpoints that you probably weren’t supposed to come through and met our ship as we were coming into the port. She was screaming from the charter boat, ‘Can anybody find Rick Shehan and bring him up to the deck?’ Somebody came down into the dental spaces where I was at and said, ‘There’s a woman in a boat screaming your name.’ I knew it was my mom. I ran up to the deck, looked over and saw her. I almost started crying. They almost followed us into port until the coast guard came out and directed them away. But when we got into the port and off the ship, they had us on buses to go back to our bases. There were people—and this was a 15 mile bus ride—shoulder to shoulder the whole way, screaming and cheering, waving flags and yellow ribbons. I will always remember that,” says Shehan.

Shehan is not the only maintenance employee with a story outside of Wofford. Residence hall housekeeping supervisor Jeffrey Burney is a deacon of Vision of Faith Christian Ministry.

“My duties are to help out with different things in the church such as opening and closing the church when needed, working the sound board and cleaning and fixing items. I also read scripture and do the prayer when assigned,” says Burney.

Burney has also spent 23 years not in the navy but in his marriage with Rejeaner Burney. Most of his time outside of work involves watching his son’s football games every Saturday. His son Shaquan is a football player at North Greenville University. His daughter is named Jequasia.

Burney began working at Wofford in May of 1998 while Shehan started in May of 2014, but both men share similar sentiments about their work at Wofford.

“It has been an honor and a great learning experience to work with and for such awesome people. [They] help build my skills in all areas of the work place. My job has become like a family setting as I get to know staff, students and faculty. Working for Wofford makes me feel welcomed,” says Burney.

“I love it. It’s one of the best places I’ve worked since I’ve been out of the navy. I like the fact that the president and his wife are so visible on the campus. I’ll be out blowing the sidewalks or mowing or something, and he’ll always walk by, shake my hand and say, ‘How are you doing?’ Everybody, all the management is cordial. It’s easy to do your job if it’s appreciated on a daily basis,” says Shehan.