On Apr. 15, 2023, Commander Fleet Activities Okinawa (CFAO) saw the return of White Beach Festival after a COVID-19 driven hiatus. Warmly welcomed to White Beach Naval Facility was one of its star attractions — the Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Chief (MCM 14). CFAO commanding officer, Capt. Patrick Dziekan, stepped foot on USS Chief for the first time, though he was well acquainted with this type of vessel, not from naval service, but from his childhood in Wisconsin. He saw Avenger-class ships and many others in various states of construction at the shipyard where his father, Michael Francis Dziekan, worked decades prior.

“This was my first time seeing Chief. The keel was laid after I left to join the Navy,” said Capt. Dziekan. “It would have been one of the last ships that the shipyard built.”

Peterson Builders was founded in 1933 and during its years of operation employed thousands who built hundreds of small and medium-sized wooden hull vessels. Most were military craft such as minesweepers and patrol boats for the U.S. Navy and other militaries around the world.

The elder Dziekan worked there for 18 years, beginning as a laminator on the wood and fiberglass warships. By the time of the final naval shipbuilding contract, the Navy’s current class of mine countermeasure ships, he was the quality assurance manager.

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native first began serving his country when he enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in the Vietnam War as a dog handler and “tunnel rat,” lone men armed with pistols who would crawl and move through dark, sometimes booby-trapped, Vietnamese tunnels searching for enemy troops or supply caches. He was shot twice in the war, once in the shoulder and once in the face, losing half his tongue and most of his teeth. He earned two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star medal for his service.

“I imagine he thought he was still supporting his country by building ships for the Navy,” said his son. “I think he really enjoyed it.”

Building wood and fiberglass warships in the late 20th century was done on the Great Lakes, with Peterson as one of two shipyards in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Sturgeon Bay’s industry made it the area’s “big city” with a population of 8,000, fast food eateries, and grocery stores. The biggest local event was watching a ship launching, seeing a fresh new vessel slide into the water sideways with a dramatic splash for the drawn crowd.

Dziekan himself lived 35 miles away in even more pastoral Ellison Bay, carpooling to work daily with an early morning start and late afternoon return.

“He was a hardworking, blue collar guy,” said Dziekan of his father’s work ethic, which he credited as an influence on his own. “Driving an hour and a half round trip, putting in a day at the shipyard, and then during the summer we had a fishing boat and would fish until it got dark out. We’d do it all again the next day.”

Though he passed away in 2008, Michael Francis Dziekan’s legacy, and that of thousands of other shipyard workers, lives on through the ships they built. Still serving the Navy today, they are vital for the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific. What’s more, Dziekan also raised a son who would go on to serve in the military as he did.

This story, and others like it, highlights the unsung everyday contributions of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary work, without which our nation and military could not function. This Father’s Day, we at CFAO would like to take a moment to thank the fathers and parental figures who made us who we are, and who keep both the Navy and our nation strong.