one semester, and briefly worked in the same meat-packing plant as his father as he considered his next career or educational move. Concluding his horizons were limited in Emporia, shortly after his 19th birthday, Essex decided to enlist in the United States Army. Upon the advice of his father, a World War II veteran, he instead opted to join the Navy and seek vocational training. Navy Essex enlisted the Navy on January 13, 1969, committing himself to a four-year contract at advanced pay. Within three months, he was assigned to the Naval Air Station at Imperial Beach, California. His family would later reflect that, as Essex prepared to enlist, he was "happy go lucky". Initially, Essex's experiences in the Navy were positive. He performed his compulsory training at the Naval Training Center with exemplary results. His superiors recommended he enroll in the Navy Dental Center. Essex accepted this advice and was apprenticed as a dental technician in April 1969, specializing in endodontics and periodontics. He soon formed a close and ongoing friendship with his white supervisor, Lieutenant Robert Hatcher. However, Essex soon learned that bigotry from many of the white servicemen towards blacks (both overt and discreet) was a general everyday occurrence for blacks serving within the Navy. Shortly after his enlistment, Essex obtained a job as a bartender at an enlisted men's club named the Jolly Rotor, where he discovered that certain rooms were off-limits to blacks. In one letter to his mother, Essex wrote his experiences of racial relations within the Navy were "not like [he] thought [they] would be. Not like Emporia. Blacks have trouble getting along here." Throughout 1969, Essex suffered these indignities quietly—apparently believing what he had been told by other black recruits: that he would be treated better once he achieved a higher rank. Within a year, he had risen to the rank of seaman, although the harassment continued, and he began taking sedatives. Shortly thereafter, Essex formed a close friendship with a black colleague named Rodney Frank; a self-described black militant who worked in the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department. The two regularly socialized in their off-duty hours, and by the summer of 1970, Essex had become markedly radicalized. Frank also encouraged Essex to read literature about individuals such as Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who together had founded the Black Panther Party. Several months after Essex's acquaintance with Frank, in August 1970, he