---
feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE"
codex_section: "S09"
source: VideoTranscript
title: "360MEN MUGSHOTS and COFFEE - Merlin Berg Torpedoman"
conv_id: "video-RMTws4a83J8-20180517"
share_url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMTws4a83J8"
created: "2018-05-17"
message_count: 1
category:
  - "360MEN"
  - "Mugshots and Coffee"
  - "Interviews"
summary: "In the first of three Mugshots and Coffee episodes, Daniel introduces his friend Merlin Berg in Glendale, Arizona. Merlin shares his Navy journey beginning in 1962 — joining right after high school, volunteering for submarines after a chief petty officer’s pitch about great food, becoming a torpedoman, qualifying on the USS Bluegill, serving at Pearl Harbor, and experiencing Westpac operations during the early Vietnam era (including the Gulf of Tonkin incident and a collision while submerged). He credits the Navy with teaching him discipline that transformed him from a poor high-school student into someone who later earned a master’s degree and built a career in education and rural economic development."
keypoints:
  - "Merlin joined the Navy in 1962, volunteered for submarines after hearing about the food, and became a torpedoman to guarantee sub duty"
  - "Served on USS Bluegill at Pearl Harbor Sub Base; crossed paths with Daniel years later at Mare Island and during Westpac"
  - "Participated in early Vietnam-era operations in the Gulf of Tonkin; survived a collision with another ship while submerged that bent the periscopes into a pretzel"
  - "Navy instilled discipline and study habits that turned a struggling high-school student into a successful graduate student who earned a master’s in agriculture/natural resources"
  - "Submarine life featured excellent food, tight quarters, and lifelong lessons in responsibility that carried into education and economic development work"
tags:
  - "360men"
  - "mugshots-and-coffee"
  - "merlin-berg"
  - "us-navy"
  - "submariner"
  - "torpedoman"
  - "vietnam-era"
  - "discipline"
  - "scotomaville"
monomyth_stage: "06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies"
gameboard_position: "Camp 2: Tests, Allies, Enemies"
truth_score: 91
entropy_score: "Low"
tone:
  sentiment: "Warm"
  emotions:
    - "Humorous"
    - "Respectful"
    - "Reflective"
  sycophancy_level: "None"
  notes: "Friendly, laughing conversation between Daniel and real guest Merlin Berg; light-hearted Navy storytelling with self-deprecating humor; marks the first of three episodes with Merlin; recorded after Merlin’s wife passed and he had relocated to the Phoenix area."
related_events: []
syndication_status:
  arnie: false
  chris: false
  redmond: false
  clint: false
  pilot: false
ma5_inheritance: "None"
pre_silicon: true
voice_print: false
codex_candidate: false
phase: "Prologue Scene - Mugshots and Coffee Series (Episode 1 with Merlin Berg)"
enriched_date: "2026-04-13"
---
![[RMTws4a83J8_maxres.jpg]]
### Original YouTube Description

In this episode of MUGSHOTS & COFFEE Daniel comp introduces Merlin Berg and his Submariner adventures with the United States Navy. They crossed paths from Pearl Harbor to a Westpac and even at Mare Island. Merlin shares about lessons he learned from the Navy that impacted his education and lifelong achievements in education and economic and rural development. Ask Merlin questions and join the conversation at [http://360MEN.net](http://360MEN.net)

**Note:** This is the first of three episodes with Merlin. Daniel met him while documenting the Sirolli Enterprise Facilitation project in Maupin, Oregon, and caught up with him after Merlin’s wife passed and he had relocated to the Phoenix area.

### Cleaned Transcript

**Daniel:**  
I’m in Glendale, Arizona and it is hot but I want to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Merlin Berg. So in this episode of Mugshots and Cappuccino we’re gonna learn a few things from ol’ buddy.

Coughs. Oh really it’s Mugshots and Coffee. So this is my good friend Merlin Berg and we’ve worked on a bunch of stuff together, haven’t we?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Yeah we’ve done a lot of stuff together. I can’t even remember what we’ve done. We keep talking.

**Daniel:**  
Oh that’s a problem you have and that’s nice he’ll remember. The problem we got… Merlin is gonna share a little bit about his time in Antarctica… well enough that he can tell me what to do. So we’re gonna change this from Antarctica to the Navy because I showed you his Navy lanyard and now he’s full of drinks. He’s a popular guy. Tell us about your time in the Navy.

**Merlin Berg:**  
Okay Dan you know it’s… I joined the Navy in 1962 about five days after I got out of high school. Yeah fortunately it was had an enlistment that time I would have been three and a half years. And I got the boot camp and there was a chief petty officer — you know there’s a lot of training in boot camp and that — and he came in and he started talking about the submarines and what a great place that was to be and what you had to do to get on and all that. For me the pitch was “Oh the food is great. You want to do sucks this food is unbelievable.” I don’t think on you I probably yeah but I you know… but growing up I watched Run Silent Run Deep. Yeah I probably saw every episode of that on television. And of course you know and that when the chief got done giving his pitch I got up and had a talk with him and before I knew it I knew I was on the right track and I could be on submarines. Of course to make sure that I got on a submarine I chose a career as a torpedoman on the submarine. Ha ha like I wanted to get on a submarine. Yeah that was the most important thing that I did.

**Daniel:**  
So they explain to them what it is that that means. If you’re a torpedoman isn’t that like being a frickin’ sardine in a can? They just stick you in that little hole in front of the submarine.

**Merlin Berg:**  
Yeah I thought I just spent quite a bit of time in one of those holes you know. You gotta clean up after after you flood them with water.

**Daniel:**  
One of the things I want to know is how was the food?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Well the food was pretty good you know. We were fortunate. We would get a lot of fresh vegetables and just cooked that. Walt was… there’s only one cook but the person that did that was good at preparing the meals in them and it’s never never an issue.

**Daniel:**  
What’s up? Were you on… where were you stationed?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Well I was stationed in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, the submarine base. And a hell across the bay from me… well you did what the hell you hit. Nice guide those a dozen yeah we’re like probably an eighth of a mile apart from each other right there. Were there quite a few people? I didn’t know that we’re on the submarine.

**Daniel:**  
Was on three different submarines. I started it out on the Bluegill and got my qualifications. In other words the little pin that you wear on your uniform is a submarine pin. We had a little dolphins.

**Merlin Berg:**  
Your dolphins yeah. And I got that on that on the USS… we went to the CUS. I went there because I wanted to go to Westpac and you see the rest of the world.

**Daniel:**  
Yeah ah okay this is funny as hell because he’s under submarine wants to go see the world. He don’t show you any of it do they? I was in the Westpac but I was above the water so I got to see the land. What do you mean?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Well you know it was… yeah we were in Westpac and actually I was there at the beginning of the Vietnam War when the Maddox encouraged. I were report PTO’s by the Chinese or whether North Vietnamese I guess yeah. And so we literally left Japan and the heavens you know your new Cusco as well. Oh yeah yeah I have my first Heineken beer and you’re probably here 19 years old you exactly. That’s what you remember about Japan — your first beer. Anyway anyway we left the port immediately and headed south for the Fayette Tonkin and were one of the first US Navy ships in the Bay of Tonkin. And later on another boat actually we were Hainan Island and got run over by a praetor and got hit by another ship. Another ship while you were underwater. Underwater yeah they’re doing a little spying sneaking around. They didn’t know you’re down there yeah. And anyway it was interesting. The conning tower and all the periscopes and that look more like a pretzel when we got out of the water than… and we came back to actually ended up and went back to why and then over to Maryland.

**Daniel:**  
Yeah seriously Maryland as well? No I went to nuke power school yeah before that was shut down yeah. We were crossing paths all over yeah that’s right yeah.

**Daniel:**  
What was really something big that you learned about the Navy?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Well you know what and when I was in high school I wasn’t really a very good student and I learned in the Navy about discipline. I was… I went to several AV schools and really had to press down and force myself to learn the curriculum. Where else you were going you were going back to the big ship and that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to be on those submarines and so I studied hard and I learned a lot and I became actually in the three and a half years I was in the Navy I got out as a second class Petty Officer which was really a very short amount of time. And so I loved every minute of it. Really did.

**Daniel:**  
Do you think that that discipline and learning habits did well for you for the rest of your life?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Oh yeah well I got out and I started a community college at Pierce in the Los Angeles area — Kurz Community College — and well I had a struggle it was still tough and I had to really work to get the grades that I needed. And you made a couple quick trips down to Antarctica but that’s another story. I will though when I came back from Antarctica I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and majored in natural resource resources management. He got a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree in agriculture. So while I had great difficulty in getting good grades in high school I was able to get a master’s degree and that’s probably one of the highlights of my career yeah.

**Daniel:**  
Oprah or one of those things it’s like after the show now we start to show me the real story. You were a crappy student?

**Merlin Berg:**  
Well yeah you know I mean I have a hard time I like and when I friend of mine talked me into you know applying for the master’s program at the time at Cal Poly there were only four students in the agriculture program. I know what that… and so I filled out the a plan that didn’t dawn on you why there were only four right? Well there was some new program. Oh okay it wasn’t good it was that hard. And anyway I got over to the Dean of the School of Agriculture and he took a look at my grades in the interview and he said grades like this you expect to get into grad school? I said yeah yeah that’s right. I had some advocates for me too and my committee. We were great instructors and I had a good relationship as you can see those guys played the character and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Oh yeah for the ERG right and to South Pole we’re gonna talk about that one.

**Daniel:**  
All right so as you can see Merlin is just a real hoot and we’re gonna get his Antarctic antics in the next episode. So you have questions you want to ask Merlin about like in a man growing up all that kind of stuff I’d encourage you to both subscribe and join the conversation at 360MEN.net.

---

**CODEX ENTRY**

**Date:** 2018-05-17  
**File:** 360MEN MUGSHOTS and COFFEE - Merlin Berg Torpedoman.md  
**Monomyth Stage:** 06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies  
**Gameboard:** Camp 2: Tests, Allies, Enemies  
**MA5 Domain:** None  
**Summary:** Daniel introduces Merlin Berg, sharing his 1962 Navy enlistment, decision to become a torpedoman to serve on submarines, qualification on USS Bluegill at Pearl Harbor, and early Vietnam-era Westpac experiences including operations in the Gulf of Tonkin and a submerged collision. Merlin credits Navy discipline with transforming him from a poor high-school student into a master’s-degree holder in natural resources management.  
**Key Insight:** Disciplined environments like the Navy can install study habits and responsibility that radically upgrade a person’s trajectory, turning academic underperformers into successful professionals and leaders.  
**Narrative Significance:** First of three episodes with Merlin, this conversation adds another seasoned ally to the 360MEN peloton. Merlin’s story of late-blooming discipline and service echoes the Civilian Conservation Corps and Dean Rush threads — men forged through structured hardship who later pour wisdom into community and economic development. It reinforces the podcast’s role as a living archive of hard-earned lessons for the next generation.

---

**INITIUM.**