A slice of ’60s ASL: Andy Bates ’67 reflects on what ASL meant to him

Andy Bates ’67 is a retired naval officer currently residing in Kaneohe, Hawaii. He served as a plans, operations, and medical intelligence officer, and worked in the field as a medical company commander assigned to the Marine Corps’ 3rd Medical Battalion in Okinawa, Japan. He later served as a senior medical planner for the Pacific region. After retiring from the Navy, Andy worked overseas with NGOs and UN agencies as an international disaster planner with a specialty in civil-military affairs. These days, Andy is an enthusiastic racer of high-performance sailboats, and recently produced his first two mini-documentary films for YouTube in collaboration with local filmmaker Damien Zimmermann: One, Playing With a Purpose, is about the use of Genki balls to restore polluted waterways, and the other, International 14: The Need for Speed focuses on a worldwide sailing race.

Besides the high level of academics required to graduate from ASL, my dominant memory is of the lifelong skills I acquired as a seasoned expat in the 1960s—during the Cuban Missile Crisis, “Ban the Bomb” demonstrations, and Vietnam war demonstrations taking place across Europe. As a boy, I attempted to blend into and understand other countries’ cultures and norms, as well as to respect those countries’ views of Americans, and understand the American political process for myself. All of this served me well, both professionally and personally, throughout my life.

While at ASL, my family joined the Rickmansworth Sailing Club, just northwest of London, and we spent almost every weekend there, racing and socializing with British sailors both young and old. Additionally, along with a few other ASLers, I was recruited to join the Enfield Dodgers, a Division II British baseball team. Lots of camaraderie and coming-of-age adventures with our new British baseball mates ensued. The positive team-building from that experience took us to the Division II World Series in Hull, where we lost to an amazing factory team with no foreign players! ASL sports, British sailing, and British baseball taught me how to win and lose with grace and dignity, along with the value of teamwork, and the importance of practice and repetition—all great lifelong gifts.

Today, I continue to race small, high-performance sailboats (International 14s and Lasers)—which I learned to do while at ASL in the 1960s! I was back in London in February 2026, reminiscing fondly about my high school days (including through an ASL campus visit!), and attending a celebration of the International 14 class of racing skiffs at the London Corinthian Sailing Club on the Thames. That, in turn, led to an invitation to come to Scotland in June to take part in a classic International 14 race. Sailboat racing and the interpersonal skills I learned at ASL have enabled me to develop lifelong friendships around the world. 

I am particularly grateful to the teachers and mentors I had at ASL. Harry Hurtt P ’69 (ASL 1957–75) was one of the School’s first teachers and administrators, and in 2012, I flew back to London from Hawaii to give a six-minute speech during his celebration of life at ASL’s Waverley Place campus. My speech, titled “When do you give a student a second chance?”, opened with the following line: I wouldn’t be here today if Harry Hurtt had not given me three chances!

Harry and his wife, Pamela Hurtt P ’69 (ASL 1978–88), started the ASL ski trip tradition in 1963. There were some misadventures, to be sure, and some questionable behavior that they used as “teaching tools,” as appropriate. This particular element of my ASL education, so core to me throughout my life, has had a ripple effect that has influenced the lives of many young military members and others that I have managed during my career. 

I am forever grateful for my ASL experience, from start to finish, and I especially appreciate every teacher I had while I was there.