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Online Learner Profiles: Lawrence

Profiles of Real Online Learners

Guide to Online Education > Online Education In-Depth > Meet Real Online Students > Lawrence, Master of Public Administration

Lawrence R. “Mac” McKeough is currently attending American Military University, located in Charlestown, West Virginia. It is an appropriate setting, since he has had a long career in serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Lawrence graduated from the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home in 1969. Soon after he joined the United States Navy and served his first assignment overseas in Vietnam. In 1971, he married his wife and was assigned to work aboard the USS Brewerton in Long Beach, California. Their first child, Chad, was born in 1972. He re-enlisted in and went on Shore Duty at Naval Air Station Moffett Field in California, working for the police department. His second child, Julie, was born in 1974.

His next assignment was to a Submarine Tender in San Diego. After being assigned to live in Holy Loch, Scotland, he completed requirements for the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) program, and received the ESWS pin. The family returned to California four years later and he applied for the Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Program. Of 365 people who applied in his specialty area, 18 were selected. Lawrence was third on the list.

“At about the same time, I found out I was on the promotion list for Senior Chief (E-8) – quite an honor for someone with just 13 years in the Navy. I was commissioned as a Chief Warrant Officer (CWO2) in April, 1983 and went to Officer Indoctrination (‘Knife and Fork School') in Pensacola, Florida, for six weeks,” he says.

Lawrence served for a year of isolated duty as a harbor master and diving officer for the Naval Support Facility in Diego Garcia. After leaving there he went to Rota, Spain, from 1984 to 1988, where he made CWO3 and applied to the LDO program for the second time.

Education Overseas—Before the Internet

At that time, he began taking courses through University of Maryland. While at sea, the only way to take classes was through a university instructor teaching onboard the ship.

“We didn't have the luxury of the Internet and distance learning, like they do onboard ships now,” explains Lawrence.

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