Retired Chief Petty Officer Paul Mosely chose to enlist in the Navy rather than wait to be drafted in 1971. Although the Vietnam War was unpopular at the time, Moseley said not serving his country was never an option. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Born and raised in Maine, self-employed handyman Paul Mosley knows he’s been dealt a lucky hand. During a 22-year military career as a builder with the U.S. Navy, Mosley worked all over the world on projects big and small before finding home late in life in the Midcoast.
“I really like and enjoy living in this area,” said Mosley, of Waldoboro. “I really do.”
Mosley has spent his entire life in and around the trades. As a civilian he has worked in construction, as a facilities manager, and was even a self-employed businessman for a while, selling logs to lumber yards.
Now 74 and happily remarried, Mosley spends much of his time doing small handyman jobs locally, working on the home he shares with his new wife, Maria Martin, in North Waldoboro and assisting at the Charles C. Lilly American Legion Post 149 in Waldoboro where he serves as the post’s finance officer.
Born in Portland, Mosley grew in the Maine’s Lakes Region. After graduating from Bonny Eagle High School in 1969, he entered to workforce right away, knowing a college life was not for him. Mosley said he knew he wanted to be a carpenter when he was 10 years old.
With a little more experience under his belt, Mosley said he knew he wanted to do more than just work with wood. He wanted to be a builder.
“A carpenter just basically does woodwork,” he said “Whereas a builder would do a roof, he would do the foundation, he would do the tile work, he sets the cabinets. He does all of the facets of construction, not just working with wood. After doing it for a couple years, I had interest in the other facets of the construction, so I kind of migrated to being a builder.”
In January 1971, Mosley’s career plans adjusted when he received his draft number. At the time the Vietnam War was starting to wind down, but Mosley knew he was likely to be drafted and he wanted to exercise some agency in the process. Although the war was extremely unpopular at the time, not serving was never an option for him, Mosley said.
“I wasn’t going to run to Canada,” he said. “I wasn’t going to not show up. I was committed to my life here in this country and I needed to make sure that I did my part.”
Mosley’s father introduced him to some Navy veterans he knew who regaled the younger Mosley with tales of life in the U.S. Naval Construction Forces, also known as “CBs,” or more commonly “Seabees.” Both monikers are derivatives of the shorthand for “construction battalion.”
“The Seabees are the combat construction forces for the Navy and the Marines,” Mosley said. “Our primary objective is to do construction in a combat zone … Most people are willing to acknowledge that construction workers are pretty tough guys. Well, the Seabees are construction workers with guns.”
Once Mosley heard he could become a builder in the Seabees, he was convinced. He told a Navy recruiter he would enlist only on the condition he would be assigned to the Seabees as a builder. As Mosley remembers it, the recruiter was noncommittal until Mosley’s aptitude test results came in.
“I scored high in math and all that,” Mosley said with a chuckle. “They said ‘Jesus, you want to go nuclear?’ I said, ‘No. You get me if I’m put in the Seabees.’”
With Camp David Commander Capt. James Broaddus and First Lady Nancy Reagan looking on, Chief Petty Officer Paul Mosely (left) receives a handshake and a smile from President Ronald Reagan during a tour of the extensive recreational facility Mosely and his detachment built for the first family and Camp David staff in 1986. (Photo courtesy Paul Mosely)
Entering active duty in March 1971, Mosley completed basic training before being sent to Class A Technical School for 10 weeks of basic construction skills, where he placed second in his class. At the time the Navy had an accelerated advancement program that was only offered to the top student in each class. In exchange for two more years of service, the enlistee would get a bump in pay and rank and consideration for future advancement.
“They offered it to me and I accepted,” Mosley said. “I got thinking that all these guys were equal rank, E2, construction apprentice, and tomorrow all these guys will be working for me. My rank jumped up two ranks, and my pay jumped up a lot. I signed the papers to extend for two more years, and I thought it was worth it. Not only was I immediately advanced to E4 but they part of that program says I was also immediately available for advancing to E5 and I would have early advancement to E6.”
As a builder, Mosley’s mission specialty was to build, fix, or manage anything the Navy needed, whether it was wood, metal, concrete, or masonry. The Seabees have seven different specialties, or “rates,” as Mosley called them: construction electrician, builder, steelworker, engineering aide, utilitiesman, equipment operator, and construction mechanic.
Whereas other services parcel out construction roles, the Navy insists on cross-training Seabees relentlessly, Mosley said.
“With all of my knowledge and skills and training, the Army would have to send seven men to replace me, because they break it up,” Mosley said. “The Army, you got a deuce and a half or a five-ton cargo truck out there, right? One man is assigned that truck. If that truck moves, that man is in it, right? If that man’s not here, the truck don’t move. The Seabees, if you can drive it, get in. Make it work.”
Newlyweds Paul Mosely and Maria Martin pose for a wedding photo outside their North Waldoboro home on July 13, 2024. (Photo courtesy Paul Mosely)
Two high points of Mosley’s military career came in the 1980s. In 1981 he was promoted to chief petty officer while stationed at the Brunswick Naval Air Station. In 1986 he was selected to serve as the officer in charge of a construction detachment assigned to Camp David. There he oversaw the construction of an elaborate, extensive recreational facility for the first family and camp staff.
Mosley said his selection for Camp David duty was due in part to his experience with the camp commander, Capt. James Broaddus, some years prior when Mosley acquitted himself well during another deployment.
“The CEO of Camp David already knew me, knew my dedication, knew my perseverance, and my professionalism,” Mosley said. “That was, you could say payback, you know? It’s a small community. You work hard and you dedicate yourself and it comes back to you. That’s what I did.”
After Camp David, Mosley was assigned Navy Recruiting Command in Scotia, N.Y., where he assigned to a desk, tracking recruiting leads on a computer. Moseley said it was a frustrating posting.
His prospects brightened only after his coworkers became aware of his history following a surprise command award ceremony one day. No one was more surprised than Mosley when he was called up in front of the entire command and presented with a Navy commendation medal for his work at Camp David.
“I didn’t tell anybody prior to that that I had done presidential duty,” he said. “So all of a sudden, it’s ‘Gee, Chief, can you help me do this? Can you help me do that?’”
Within a few months, Mosley was moved into facilities where he put together a small crew of Seabees and spent his remaining years of active duty renovating Navy recruiting stations throughout New England.
Mustering out in 1993, Mosley worked briefly on his brother’s house before he realized he would have to work for himself. The regimented standards he was familiar with in the military were sorely lacking among civilian contractors and Mosley said he found it hard to adjust.
“I wasn’t retired long before I bumped right up against that civilian mentality of unprofessional stuff and it just continued with everything else,” he said. “So I had a difficult time. It really bothered me that I had to lessen my standards to be adaptable and acceptable in the civilian construction community.”
Among Mosley’s other changes adapting to civilian life was the dissolution of his 46-year marriage. In a subsequent relationship, Mosley moved to Iowa and then North Carolina before returning to Maine in 2023. As his relationship was ending in North Carolina, Mosley reached out to his younger brother who resides in Warren seeking a place to stay until he could get back on his feet.
Feeling the need for companionship and knowing he was not getting any younger, Mosley was very active searching for romance online. He wasn’t back in Maine long before he was contacted by Martin.
Mosley said the couple bonded instantly. As it turned out, Martin and her late husband used to live on the same Standish road Mosley once lived on. Both Martin and Mosley attended the same Standish holiday party some years ago, although they do not recall meeting at that time.
Paul Mosely served 22 years in U.S. Naval Construction Forces, or Seabees, building or repairing military infrastructure projects all over the world. Mosely enjoyed military service and said he found it difficult to lower his professional standards in civilian life. (Sherwood Olin photo)
After a brief courtship Mosley asked Martin to marry him that spring. The couple married in a small ceremony at their home in North Waldoboro on July 13, 2024.
“I asked her if she’d married me, and she didn’t hesitate,” Mosley said. “She said yes and we did a very small, private wedding in the farmhouse. There was 14 of us… My youngest brother was there with his gal, and I asked my brother to be my best man, and Maria asked her best friend Sally Howlett to be her maid of honor and so it was.”
Enjoying each other’s company, the newlyweds spend a great deal of time together and work very well as a team. Among other activities, they are both active members of Charles C. Lilly American Legion Post 149.
On Saturday nights, the couple works together in the kitchen in the post’s lower level, cooking for the weekly bingo players. Mosley said he wanted to take an active role in the post and saw a chance to meet a need when the previous kitchen team could not continue.
“They were going to stop, and we’re new,” Mosley said. “I told Maria, I said, ‘I’m not going to join something and not be active.’ I said, ‘Let’s do the kitchen. I’ll cook. You take care of the cash register,’ and that’s what we’ve been doing since March.”
Mosley encouraged Martin to join the Waldoboro post and he joined the post himself when Waldoboro’s finance officer stepped down. Prior to that, he’d been a member of the Rockland post.
“I felt that it was a job that I would easily be able to do, but he had to be a member of this post, so I transferred, became a member of this post, and I’ve been the finance officer since May,” Moseley said. “We’re both here, and it’s been wonderful since we joined.”
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