Serving God and country

Bob Cain grew up in a little farm town in midwestern Illinois.

Cain decided to join the Navy in 1985, a year after he graduated from high school. His oldest brother was in the Navy and Cain wanted to get away from Illinois to see the world. Cain's dad was in the Army in WWII.

Cain went to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.

He went to basic Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut. Cain was on submarines for two years as a helmsman, then served for two and half years as a hospital corpsman.

He decided to go back to school and entered the Catholic Seminary. When he graduated, he was at the diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma for five years.

Cain went back in the Navy as an active duty commissioned officer, Navy Chaplain. He was deployed to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines in Hawaii where he spent three years in Hawaii.

He was also deployed twice to Okinawa and once to Australia. Cain said it sounds nice, but they were out in the middle of nowhere with the Australian Army.

When it came time for orders again, Cain was sent to the USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier. He spent about two years on the Enterprise. He enjoyed being on the ship with 5000 crew members. Cain joked that it was a lot bigger than a submarine.

Cain was on the Enterprise during the second Gulf War.

After he left the Enterprise he went to Sasebo, Japan for a short time where he was able to visit several areas in Japan.

Cain said that being on base is a lot like being in a Parrish; except the need to deal with special issues involving dependents and service members separations due to deployments. Cain said there are some very unique situations that can come up.

Cain was able to take the train to Nagasaki to do the 'tourist thing' and was able to visit the Peace Park.

He also was deployed to Okinawa with the Marines. He got to see Mount Fuji and Tokyo a little bit.

Cain separated from the military in 2012 because he found that as he rose in rank, he was tied to a desk. He enjoyed all the opportunities to travel and experience new things, but decided that being in an office all the time was not for him.

Cain retired with 20 years active duty service as a Lt. Commander. He doesn't miss the military, he said, "as you get older you don't bounce as well as you used to."

Cain came to Encampment to get away from the humidity of the midwest. He enjoys the outdoors and the lack of mugginess in Wyoming.

Cain wrote a book titled Jeremiah that was published March, 2020.