John M. Lounge - Military Career

Military Career

Lounge entered on active duty with the United States Navy following graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy and spent the next nine years in a variety of assignments. He completed Naval flight officer training at Pensacola, Florida, went on to advanced training as a radar intercept officer in the F-4J Phantom II, and subsequently reported to Fighter Squadron 142 based at Naval Air Station Miramar, California. While with VF-142, he completed a nine-month Southeast Asia cruise aboard USS Enterprise (participating in 99 combat missions) and a seven-month Mediterranean cruise aboard USS America. In 1974, he returned to the U.S. Naval Academy as an instructor in the Physics Department. Lounge transferred to the Navy Space Project Office in Washington, D.C., in 1976, for a two-year tour as a staff project office. He resigned his regular Navy commission in 1978.