Navy taught Bonner lessons he still practices today

RUSSELLVILLE — Before he ever preached the gospel, Bennie “B.J.” Bonner watched an orange volcano glow in the night and saw a plane drop from the sky over the Mediterranean.

He recalls seeing Stromboli, an active volcano off the coast of Italy, north of Sicily, glowing “like a little orange lamp” in the night.

“It’s a beautiful and almost unreal sight,” he said.

Another night, he peered through “bigeye” binoculars and witnessed a plane crash off the coast of Greece.

“It was Aristotle Onassis’ son, Alexander Onassis,” he said of the victim.

A Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy after the assassination of her husband, United States President John F. Kennedy.

Bonner’s years of service in the U.S. Navy were filled with unforgettable moments and lessons that endure.

He enlisted in 1971 under a deferred entry program. The draft was still active, and he had nine classmates who had lost their lives in Vietnam.

“I was confused about what direction to go,” he said. “I had a year of college and could’ve gone on scholarship for trombone, but I was thinking about my friends and about getting drafted. The average age of soldiers dying in Vietnam was 19.”

His fascination with ships went back to his childhood. He credited his first-grade teacher, who taught lessons about Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando De Soto, which sparked his curiosity.

“She used to let us draw things on the board,” he said. “I always drew ships. I’d imagine being out there on the water like Magellan. Little did I know I’d end up learning to navigate by the stars one day.”

After training at the Naval Training Center in Orlando, Florida, Bonner flew from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey to Rota, Spain, where he caught up with his first ship, the USS Detroit (AOE-4), a fast combat support ship supplying others at sea.

He joined the Navigation Division, where he would spend most of his service as a quartermaster second class.

His duties included tracking the ship’s position, maintaining charts, keeping the chronometers accurate to Greenwich Mean Time, and ensuring safe passage across the world’s seas.

“We were responsible for the heading of the ship,” he said. “You had to know where you were at all times, and you couldn’t afford mistakes.”

His division worked with radar and navigational systems, including the SPN-6, LORAN and Omega.

LORAN, short for Long Range Navigation, used radio signals to calculate position long before GPS existed. Omega was a worldwide navigation network that operated on very low radio frequencies.

He described the precision of navigational watches when approaching ports like Chesapeake Bay.

“You start out giving bearings maybe every 15 minutes,” he said. “Then it gets down to five minutes, then every minute, then every 15 seconds as you get close to anchoring. Everybody’s got to be on point.”

The work demanded focus.

“You see the lights, you mark your visuals, and by the time you reach the anchorage, the captain gives the word to drop anchor, and you know you’re exactly where you planned to be,” he said.

In September 1974, Bonner was named Sailor of the Month.

He served on the USS Detroit’s navigation team through three Mediterranean cruises and several North Atlantic runs. The ship’s home port moved from Newport, Rhode Island, to Norfolk, Virginia, during his time aboard.

“The ship was brand new when I joined her,” he said. “We did everything from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle. I’ve got certificates for crossing the equator and for the Arctic. It was cold up there — real cold — but beautiful.”

When the ship stayed at sea too long, morale could suffer.

“We went months without coming in. That wears on people,” he said. “So, they decided to have a swim call, let everybody jump in the ocean for a while. It helped. It brought folks’ spirits back up.”

He served temporary duty on several aircraft carriers, including the USS Forrestal, USS John F. Kennedy and USS America, supporting carrier operations during the later stages of the Vietnam era.

His travels took him to Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Norway. He recalled talking with families in Catania, Sicily, and enjoying time on the island of Rhodes, where he learned about early Christian history.

“Rhodes was where the Apostle Paul went,” Bonner said. “They’ve got the old castle community there that goes way back. You could still see so much of what was there in ancient times.”

Not every moment at sea was peaceful. In 1974 the USS Detroit operated near Cyprus during fighting between Greece and Turkey.

“We were there waiting to rescue Americans caught in the middle,” he said. “It was interesting but also scary. You never knew what could happen.”

After five years of active duty, Bonner left the Navy in 1976 and joined the Naval Reserve.

Years later, during the Gulf War, he was called back and prepared for duty in Gadsden but was released before deployment when President George H. W. Bush announced the end of the Gulf War.

By then he had begun another calling.

He married his wife, Josephine, in November 1972 while still in the service. Their daughters, Leslie Bonner Mays and Sophia Bonner Davidson, were born after his discharge.

After leaving active service, Bonner became a bus driver for Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church near Gadsden, covering a 25-mile route every Sunday morning for seven years.

“That kept me going after the Navy,” he said. “I was doing something constructive, helping people get to church.”

He said the experience deepened his sense of calling. At one point he even drove to Newport, Rhode Island, thinking about re-enlisting, but turned around halfway there.

“I realized I’d changed,” he said. “I couldn’t sign those papers. I came back home and told my pastor I felt called to the ministry. I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Bonner studied religion and technical skills at Gadsden State Community College, earning credit through Samford University. He also trained as a cabinetmaker.

In 1983 he became pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church, also known as First Baptist College Avenue.

“I’m a people-oriented person,” he said. “I love where I am because I know everybody there. We’re a gospel-teaching, gospel-preaching church, and we’ve stuck together through a lot.”