hat began as a short-term plan to “give it a shot” turned into two decades of service for Jeff Hall, a Palmerton native whose U.S. Navy career took him from the rubble of Beirut to the Persian Gulf and around the world.

Hall served from 1982 to 2002 in the Navy, spending 19 of those 20 years stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.

“I first decided to enlist because I was engaged to my wife and had just been laid off from my job,” Hall said. “I couldn’t find work, so I decided to give it a try. I only signed up for three years, and I ended up doing 20. It turned out to be a good choice.”

Hall completed boot camp and apprenticeship training in San Diego before moving to Norfolk, where he would spend nearly his entire career and rise to the rank of chief petty officer.

“My first ship was the USS El Paso, an amphibious cargo ship,” Hall said. “I drove the landing craft boats — the 75-foot-long boats you see in movies where they hit the beach and the Marines run out.”

That first deployment led to one of the darkest experiences of his life. Hall was aboard El Paso in 1983 when it was sent to Lebanon. He was in Beirut when a truck bomb struck the U.S. Marine barracks, killing 241 American service members.

“I spent three days in the rubble doing recovery work, and it stays with me to this day,” he said. “I was a young kid, just 21, from Palmerton. When you first see Beirut from the water, it looks beautiful — a big Ferris wheel, a nice skyline. But when you get closer, you see all the devastation, the buildings blown apart, the holes, the rubble.”

Hall recalled “bad, sickening stuff I’ll never forget.”

“You’re filling body bags with what’s left of people and you don’t even know who they are,” he said. “There was one Marine hanging by his wrists between two floors. I had to cut him down with a hacksaw. That flashes through my head every day.”

The experience left deep marks.

“I don’t like going out in public a lot,” Hall said. “When I do, I usually sit with my back to the wall so I can see everything in front of me. That’s common in the military, but I think it’s worse because of what I went through.”

After Beirut, Hall was assigned to the USS Nashville, another amphibious ship, before attending physical security training in Lakehurst, New Jersey. He later worked at the Armed Forces War College in Norfolk and then spent five years aboard the USS Ticonderoga, a guided missile cruiser.

“That was my favorite ship of all time,” Hall said. “I made chief on that ship. The crew was the best. I would never trade them for anything.”

He later became a drill instructor at Great Lakes, Illinois, though he admitted it was not an easy adjustment.

“I was old-school Navy, and they were trying to be the kinder, gentler Navy,” he said. “It just didn’t work out for me.”

Afterward, Hall joined the USS Comte De Grasse as part of a South American deployment that traveled around Cape Horn. He also served in Egypt and eventually became the course supervisor for the Navy Safety Programs Afloat Course before retiring in 2002.

Hall also completed two tours in the Persian Gulf aboard the Ticonderoga.

“We were anti-air and anti-everything — an Aegis cruiser,” he said. “You actually felt safer because there was so much protection on that ship.”

He also recalled one tragic moment there.

“A bus driver forgot to set the emergency brake, and the bus rolled off the pier into the water right in front of our ship,” he said. “I was on the rescue boat when they pulled him out.”

Among all his experiences, Hall said one of the most meaningful came years later, when a young ensign he once mentored called with news of his promotion.

“He told me, ‘You’re the second person I called. I just got selected for one-star admiral, and I couldn’t have gotten here without your help,’ ” Hall said. “That was one of the highlights of my career.”

Years later, when that officer retired as a two-star admiral, he asked Hall to participate in his ceremony.

“He asked if I would pipe him over the side,” Hall said. “I started his career, and I got to end his career. It was very humbling that he remembered me after all the sailors he had throughout 33 years.”

After retiring from the Navy, Hall joined the Transportation Security Administration, training at JFK Airport and later managing operations for several Pennsylvania airports.

“It was a tough transition from a military mindset to a civilian one,” he said. “I was used to people doing what I told them to do. Luckily, my boss was a retired Air Force colonel, so he understood how I thought.”

Hall later worked for Buckeye Pipeline, monitoring fuel lines remotely from Pennsylvania to Michigan and Ohio. He retired for good several years ago to care for his mother before her passing.

He still keeps in touch with his old shipmates.

“I just had a couple of guys at my house from my Beirut crew,” he said. “We hung out for a weekend. Facebook makes it easy to stay in touch, and I wish we had that when I retired.”

Hall occasionally attends reunions for the Ticonderoga.

“It’s fun,” he said. “When I’m around my guys, I’m comfortable. Other times, I don’t really like to talk about things.”

He said the Navy’s influence still shapes his everyday life.

“I expect people to show respect where they should — respect yourself, respect others and be on time,” he said. “If you’re half an hour early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.”

Hall encourages young people to consider military service, though he admits it has changed since his days in uniform.

“If you go in, stay in if you can,” he said. “It’s a good deal if you can handle the time away from your family. People thank me for my service, but I tell them to thank my wife, too. I couldn’t have done it without her.”

For Hall, those two decades remain the most defining part of his life.

“Some of my best memories are from the 20 years I spent in the Navy,” he said. “Some of my best friends are from those years.

“Would I do it again? Yes — back in that same time period, I absolutely would.”