"I told my mother that I really liked this girl and planned to marry her some day, which almost caused my mother to run her arm through the washing machine," he said. "She suggested that I wait a little while, but I did marry Cindy seven years later."
    High school also was a place where certain rules and regulations had to be obeyed. He compared discipline -- then and now.
    "There were rules like you were in class when the bell rang, and you didn't run down the hallways," he said. These are rules that today seem ridiculous, but there was a structure. God help you if you should talk back to a teacher. It would get back to your parents and you would be in trouble. Today, that doesn't happen. Teachers today, in many places, have fear of physical harm from some of the students. Teachers, I think were more respected in those days than now."
    Many of today's high schools are battling drugs and gangs, but those problems were almost nonexistent in McLane's time. Innocent pranks, such as stealing a cherished school possession, were more common.
    "I would say the big crime of the era was when some body stole the Abraham Lincoln statue from the hallway right outside the auditorium," he said "To this day, I don't know if it's ever been returned There are some people in the class who know where it went. I have my suspicions."
    A quick check with a York High School library aide confirmed that the statue was stolen in 1954, returned later, and then destroyed by unknown parties in 1956.

In the Navy
After graduation, McLane would take on a career in the Navy, although he originally did not plan on that career. Trying to find a way to finance his education at the University of Wisconsin, he decided to take the naval ROTC exams in hope of earning a scholarship.
    Another alternative popped up when he learned that the naval academy exams were given earlier. Thinking that the tests were similar, he took both and excelled.
    Weeks later, he was accepted into the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Instead of graduating from the University of Wisconsin like other members of his family, he decided to go to Annapolis. Like most entering college, it was a new situation for McLane.
    "It was an unusual place to go," he said. "If you ever look at the credentials, you go from being one of the top X percent of your high school class into a group of people who are all like that--a bunch of really bright people."
    Attending military training sessions every summer, studying navigation, seamanship and electrical engineering classes, and some times boarding battleships and flying airplanes was a way of life for four years. During his stays, he met fellow classmen who would later hold governmental positions, such as Reagan cabinet member John Poindexter and U.S. Senator and Vietnam veteran John McCain.
    A memory of the academy that stands out for McLane was graduation day, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended and congratulated the top 10 percent of the class. McLane was fortunate to be part of that elite group. "That man had huge hands," he said. "I'll never forget when he shook hands with you. He just had immense hands."
    After graduation, he married Cindy, who attended Cornell College in Iowa and earned a degree in elementary education in 1959. In the 1960s, they welcomed a daughter, Hollis, and a son, Christopher, who would later become a major in the Air Force.
    As an officer, McLane and his family traveled to many destinations throughout the United States and Europe. His positions included assistant navigator, submarine designer and a Polaris submarine commander.
    An officer's life
McLane's first assignment was as an assistant navigator on a cruiser. He later went into the Navy's nuclear power program and became executive officer of various nuclear attack submarines, such as the USS Roosevelt, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
    In the mid-1970s, he worked for the Pentagon and helped design the Trident missile submarines. Next up for McLane was a commanding position on the USS Daniel Webster, a Polaris submarine in Hawaii. He explained that functioning on such a craft can be tiring to its crew. To remedy that, another team that was stationed nearby would take turns manning the post.
    Despite the discomfort, McLane was proud to be on board.
    "Any command [position] is a good job," he said. 'you have the best people in the world working for you. The officers and the men are the cream of the crop. It's like being with the Rangers and the Seals -- all these special, elite forces. That's the way submariners are, too. They're hand-picked and all volunteers, and it's a joy to work with them."
    While unable to talk about any specific experiences, he explained that he ran a tight ship.
    "The fact that you're submerged several hundred feet under the ocean's surface for two months [means] that there's no room for messing up," he said. "You don't leave the screen doors open at night. It's offset by the fact that you got the cream of the crop working for you. Rather than fear anticipation, it's sort I of an excitement and a confidence in yourself and your shipmates."
    His other assignments included serving on an admiral's staff in Hawaii for two years and working two years on an aircraft carrier in Italy. In 1981, he retired from the Navy and worked for 10 years as an electrical engineer.
    McLane never forgot his love of drama, and with his free time took roles in community theater. Asked why he did not choose that career, he recalls his father's sage advice when as a little boy he voiced his desire to break into radio and the stage.
    "I learned early on that being an actor is a hard way to put food on the table," he said. "In my youth, I wanted to be a radio announcer, but my father asked me how many radio announcers I could name. I could name about three: Walter Winchell, Paul Gibson and H.V. Coltenborne. My dad said, 'Well, there are probably 12,000 or 13,000 radio announcers. What does that tell you about the odds of success?"'