Robert Anttila
Era: Vietnam
Military Branch: Navy
Lieutenant Commander Robert M. Anttila, SC, USN (Ret.), was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1937 and graduated from Duluth Central High School in 1955.
He also graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1960 with a degree in Business & Econmics In 1954, he had joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in Duluth and reached the rank of Radioman Third Class.
In 1960, after graduating from UMD, he went to Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, and was commissioned an Ensign in March 1961. After his initial tour of duty as a Communications Officer, he attended the Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Georgia, and completed that six-month course of study in December 1963.
His initial tour of duty as a Supply Officer was in the destroyer USS EDSON (DD-946). The EDSON was in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 when Vietnam hostilities escalated. He earned a total of three Vietnam compaign ribbons and a Navy Unity Commendation while assigned to the EDSON.
He continued on active Naval service with the Supply Corps until 1981, when he retired from the Navy in San Diego, California. His final tour of duty was as Supply Officer for Naval Special Warfare Group ONE and the UDT/SEAL tems in Coronado, California.
He also completed a Masters in Business Administration degree program in 1980 from National University in San Diego. Since retiring from the U.S. Navy in 1981, he worked for various government contractors in the San Diego area. He and his wife are now fully retired and living in San Diego.
