From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of the O.C.

Newport Beach’s Dave Uggen is a former Marine and longtime member of

the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, but he still feels called to

community-oriented efforts in retirement. He is an active member of

the Newport Beach post of the American Legion and the Orange County

branch of the Navy League, a group that gives financial support to

active duty sailors and Marines.

“What we do is support our active servicemen within the local

community, which extends all the way to San Diego. We give monetary

rewards to sailors and Marines of distinction, as determined by their

units,” he said.

While in the Marines, Uggen was stationed at Camp Pendleton from

1968 to 1970. Though he protested the United States’ involvement in

the Vietnam War while an engineering student at the University of

Michigan, he joined the military to find out more about American

activities in that conflict.

“I was in college and wondered what the war was all about, so I

joined the Marine Corps to find out,” he said.

His brother was already serving overseas, so he was not sent to

Vietnam after he enlisted. Uggen left the service with a new

appreciation for members of the military. After the military, he

watched south Orange County grow as he served with the Sheriff’s

Department from 1971 to 2002. He sat down with the Daily Pilot’s

Andrew Edwards to talk about his time in and out of uniform.

What did you do in the Marines?

I was a grunt, a ground pounder for the first part of it, and

after that I was an “office pogue,” which is working in the office

doing records.

Did being in the service give you a different perspective on what

was happening?

Absolutely. I realized that what was going on in the country at

that time was a very one-sided view. The people at that time were

protesting against our servicemen, when the only thing they were

doing was what they were told to do, their duty.

It was very political; Vietnam was a very political war. The whole

war was political. Had the politicians stayed out of it, we would

have won that war. You can’t talk about Vietnam without being

political.

What did you do with the Sheriff’s Department?

Everything. I was a patrolman, an investigator and a sergeant

jailer before that.

What was it like being a law enforcement officer?

We started out as a cow county, and grew up real fast into a full

suburban law enforcement agency.

When I started working there, there was nothing as far as cities

went, between Santa Ana and San Clemente. The cities of Lake Forest,

Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, they all developed

while I was working there.

Is the Navy League pretty active right now?

Oh yes, two weeks ago, we gave eight awards to the submarine

Stennis. Prior to that, Third Marine Air Wing in Miramar [and] the

Bonhomme Richard, which is a fast attack aircraft carrier.

The local Coast Guard cutter, Narwhal, we support them, and we

give rewards to their sailors.

For the members of the Navy League, is it a sense of camaraderie

that makes them want to help people who are in the service?

Yes, it’s those people who have “been there, done that,” and want

to support the people who are doing it now.

What kind of community activities have you participated in with

the American Legion?

What do we run here? All of them. The Fourth of July Pancake

breakfast. The Sons of the American Legion run the Blues on the Bay

every year.

We do other fundraisers here. We do our own in-house things for

Oktoberfest, Halloween, Thanksgiving, we serve the veterans. [On

Veterans Day], the Sons will be serving any veteran that shows up

here, whether they’re a member of the post or not, lunch on them.

They’re going to make it, pay for it, take care of it.

My wife and I have done different events here, Halloween is the

big one that we do ... we’re busy down here all year long.

The Navy League accepts donations, more information on the Navy

League is available at https://www.navyleague.org.