SST: June 02, 2009
[I’m still recuperating. Although I left sick bay this morning, I spent most of the day in my cabin. One of the junior officers, Paul Kalapodas, offered to write a piece introducing himself and give you a sense of what he does on the ship. – Fr. Farrell]
Meet the Mate/Training officer for the SST 09.
Dear Alumni and friends,
My name is Paul Kalapodas, a Maritime College alumnus, Class of 2000. I am still active in the shipping industry with an unlimited USCG Third Mate’s license and sailed with MSC (Military Sealift Command) upon graduation. I also served on the USNS Leroy Grumman, a fleet oiler T-AO 195 as cadet observer during the winter break of the school semester of my 1/C year.
I sailed with MSC for about 4 yrs. on various vessels, fleet supply vessels, USNS Saturn (T-AFS class), and USNS Sirius. I also served as Third Officer on the USNS Patuxent (T-AO 201), and an ammunition supply vessel out of San Diego, USNS Kilauea (T-AE), touring to Honolulu HI, Tumon Bay, Guam, the San Francisco Bay area and Alameda, CA.
When I’m not at sea, I live in the Fort Lauderdale area. I enjoy the warmer weather in my time off from sailing and operate yachts in the S. Florida area. I keep in touch with Maritime friends and alumni in the South Florida area and was elected an officer of the newly established Maritime Alumni Association, South Florida Chapter. I am the Chapter President down there, with the two vice presidents being Sebastian Sora (’97) currently a reefer container broker with the G.E. Saco Corporation in Miami, and Tim Claybor (’91), a career placement specialist for the marine engineering industry with Fast Stream Inc. in Fort Lauderdale.
More recently I have sailed in the offshore oil industry with Tidewater Marine as a limited tonnage Master in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, Angola Luanda and Cabinda, aboard the Platt Tide (Anchor Handling Tug Supply) and Maiden Tide, fast offshore supply vessel.
In my time off I enjoy working for my father’s company, Logtron Research and Engineering Corp. in new projects development (www.logtron.com). Last year I accepted the offer to sail with a cruise line company head-quartered in South Florida.
But the thing I enjoy the most is coming back to sail aboard the EMPIRE STATE on Summer Term 2009 as a mate and instructor!
