Arctic and Antarctic service Hired by the
National Weather Service, Seaquist began on his 21st birthday a year-long assignment as a weather observer at the Barter Island radar site of the
Distant Early Warning Line. Living beside the indigenous village of
Kaktovic, Alaska, Seaquist becoming a specialist in flying twice-daily
radiosonde balloon probes of the atmosphere and reporting on ice and weather conditions. He volunteered to follow that year in the Arctic with another in the Antarctic, this time as an American rep to the Argentine Antarctica deployment at Ellsworth Station where he again flew radiosondes for upper atmosphere measurements and made ices measurements as part of the global weather tracking system. That year extended to 14 months when the Argentine icebreaker, General San Martine, stuck in the ice in the Wendell Sea, was unable to resupply the station on time. Seaquist then flew on Argentina's first flight to the South Pole, returned home via the U.S. base at McMurdo, and returned to school.
Military Seaquist served in the
United States Navy from 1962 to 1994. He worked at
the Pentagon and retired after serving as the
captain of the . He commanded the
Iowa from 25 April 1986 through 26 May 1988. He was renowned on USS
Iowa at choosing an enlisted crew member each day, telling them to be on the bridge at 1800 hours and have a song ready which the crew member had to create. At 1800 hours, the Captain would announce "I'd like to introduce you to today's singing
boatswain mate", at which time the crew member had to sing over the ships 1MC announcement system to the entire crew. He served as a technical adviser for the 2001 film
A Glimpse of Hell.
Politics In 2007, Seaquist was elected to the
Washington House of Representatives, representing
Washington's 26th legislative district, which covers the
Kitsap Peninsula from
Bremerton and
Port Orchard in the north to
Gig Harbor in the south. In 2014, Seaquist lost his seat in a heated election to
Michelle Caldier.
Later career Since leaving the
Washington House of Representatives, Seaquist has worked as a Political Science professor at the
Evergreen State College, and speaks as an expert on national security and military issues. == References ==