Meissner served as engineer for 38 years
PHOTO PROVIDED
This is Norm Meissner's yearbook picture in 1961 as a Midshipman when he graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
PHOTO PROVIDED
The crew of the Exxon Galveston stands under the 15-foot propeller blades of the giant oil tanker while in dry dock being repaired.
PHOTO PROVIDED
Meissner served aboard the 803-foot-long, 75,000-ton oil tanker Exxon San Francisco as chief engineer during the 1970s and '80s.
SUN PHOTO BY DON MOORE
Meissner, 70, at home in Deep Creek.
Norm Meissner graduated in 1961 from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was erupting at that moment. The U.S. was on the verge of going to war with Russia over missiles the Soviets snuck into the island nation and aimed our way. President John F. Kennedy threw a naval blockade around Cuba that defused the confrontation. The Russians withdrew their offensive missiles and World War III was averted.
