At the age of nine, he would load up his bicycle with fishing gear and a sleeping bag and take off to go fishing for the weekend. Sometimes he would have a friend with him. If not, he would go by himself.

Wayne sold newspapers on the streets of Reno at the age of seven and purchased some of his own clothes and his own fishing gear to fish the Truckee river. in July 1954 at the age of twelve the family moved back to California, where they lived in a motel on San Fernando Road in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. He started Junior High School in grade seven at San Fernando Jr. High school, where he broke his right hand in a fist fight. He didn’t like fighting but, he wasn’t to be pushed around.

The family was always short of money, and he sold papers on the street corner in San Fernando on Saturdays and Sundays. He also had a morning paper route before school. In 1954, His family moved to San Bernardino, California where he once again got a paper route in the summer. He completed the eighth and ninth grades at Arrowhead Jr. High School in San Barnardino, and he started his tenth-grade year at Pacific High school in San Bernardino, California. At the end of his tenth-grade year, he dropped out of school due to poor grades, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy on the 28th Day of September 1956, as a high school drop-out.He made his first WESTPAC deployment while serving aboard the USS Molala ATF-106. During that deployment he was assigned temporary orders to attend Navy Diving school in Sasebo, Japan, all while he was still seventeen years old. He was later transferred to the USS Staten Island AGB-5. An Ice Breaker, as a Second Class Diver. The Staten Island was on its way to the Antarctic as part of Operation Deep Freeze IV. He conducted a dive to inspect the hull and for suspected damage to one of propeller blades while alongside of the Ross Sea Ice shelf. Because Wayne enlisted before he was eighteen, the Navy was forced to discharge him prior to his twenty-first birthday.

Wayne was a civilian again. He reported into the Reserve Harbor Clearance Unit in Long Beach, California by the tenth of September 1960, shortly after his arrival in California.

Wayne reenlisted in the U.S. Navy in September of 1961, and reported to Submarine School in January 4, 1962. Upon graduation he went to Submarine Quartermaster School, and upon graduation, was assigned to the USS Salmon SS-573 in May of that year and made his second deployment to WESTPAC.

He then served aboard the Stonewall Jackson SSBN 634 as a member of the commissioning Blue Crew. He wasn’t happy about being transferred but, promised himself that he would make one patrol and if he still was not happy with the FBM Navy, he would request to go back to the surface Navy. True to his word, he requested to be transferred to the Surface Navy, after the submarine completed its first Patrol. He then served two years aboard the USS Reclaimer ARS-42.

The Quartermaster Detailer In the pentagon called him directly on the phone to tell him that he must go to shore Duty. He had been at sea for over twelve years. The Detailer told him he could have any duty station he chose. He asked for Recruiting Duty in Reno, Nevada. He spent the next three years as a Recruit Company Commander. While there he pushed four companies, was a Water Safety Instructor, as rifle and pistol instructor and spent six months as the Graduation Parade Drill Master. In addition, he was in charge of the fifty State Flag Team and represented the Recruit Training Command in many in State Parades.

He Requested Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal School three times only to be denied the first two times because he needed an age waiver, a GCT/ARI Waiver and finally a Rate waiver. Quartermasters were not one of the source ratings for EOD. He was finally accepted in November of 1971 to attend the January 1972 class and spent the rest of his Navy Career assigned to different EOD commands. During the time when he went aboard the USS Reclaimer in 1965 until 1975, he completed six tours in Vietnam aboard five different ships. The USS Reclaimer (ARS-42) twice, the USS Kilauea (AE-26), the US Cavalier (APA-37) and the USS Constellation (CVA-64).

In 1975 he attended Basic Parachute Training at Fort Benning; GA. Wayne was commissioned a Chief Warrant Officer in 1977. He became a Naval Parachutist and a Jump Master in 1979. He became the Officer in Charge of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment Adak, AK. In 1981 he received orders to the Naval Officer Exchange Program and was ordered to The Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic. He was assigned as the U.S. Officer representative to Canada’s Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic In Nova Scotia, Canada. Where he was assigned as the Senior Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer for the Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic’s Area Of Responsibility.

Then a tour as the Operations Officer of EOD Mobile Unit Two at Fort Story, VA, where he was assigned as the EOD Liaison Officer for the Admiral Staff in Cairo, EG during the 1984 Mining Incidents in the Red Sea.

In 1985 he became the Executive Officer of EOD Training and Evaluation Unit One and finally the Assistant Chief Staff Officer for Operations at EOD Group ONE in 1987. On the twenty-eighth day of September 1990, after 34 years of service at the age of fifty-one, Lieutenant Commander Wayne A. Wright, USN Retired. In 2006 Wayne Wright Received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Management From California Coast University.