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COPYRIGHT 2005 U.S. Navy Safety Center
At this post as the 35th Surgeon General of the Navy and Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Vice Admiral Don Arthur is all business. [Incidentally, he's the first flight surgeon to hold this position.] However, there's another side to him: He rides motorcycles, and I don't mean just around the block. This Northampton, Massachusetts, native logs a whopping 30,000 to 50,000 miles per year on a bike.
How? "If the Navy decides to send me down to Pensacola for a meeting, I ride my bike," he explained. "Next week, I'm riding out to Kansas City for a meeting. And I just rode to a meeting west of Ashville, North Carolina, last weekend, but that was a short trip--only 550 miles."
Besides these "business" trips, there are the "pleasure" trips. "Folks I know in the long-distance riding community set up fun activities," Admiral Arthur continued. "They have what are called RTE (ride-to-eat) events. They'll say, 'We're going to meet at such-and-such barbecue place in Alabama on Saturday night; meet us there.' We'll ride there, have dinner, then ride back home--whether it's Washington, D.C., Utah, or California--all in one weekend."
There also was a May 2002 U.S.A. Four-Corners Tour [sponsored by the Southern California Motorcycling Association], in which Admiral Arthur touched all four corners of the United States. He rode his motorcycle from Madawaska, Maine, to Key West, Florida, to San Ysidro, California, to Blaine, Washington, before returning home--a distance of nearly 11,000 miles.
I had the privilege of interviewing this well-traveled 31-year Navy veteran on April 26, 2005, and learned that he's as dedicated to his avocation as he is to his vocation. His passion...
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