As Navy Cmdr. Jason Deichler stood on the dais at Dealey Theatre in Groton, Conn., on Jan. 12, the day he, a Carnegie native, assumed command of the USS Pittsburgh submarine, he tried to soak in the scene. In the audience, he saw the crew. He saw his wife, Michelle, and their four children. And he saw the man who 25 years ago started him toward this dream.
Cmdr. Deichler was a sophomore at Chartiers Valley High School in 1993 when his football coach, Gus Marquis, suggested he consider the United States Naval Academy for college. The idea initially surprised Deichler, but it spurred him to pursue a military career. Marquis remained his mentor, and there was no chance he’d miss the change-of-command ceremony.
“He was always there for me,” Deichler said in a phone interview last week. “He always advised me throughout my career. He’s always kept in close contact with me and watched over me. Part of the ceremony was me sharing what I’d told him he created when I was in high school. The trust he had in me to lead his football team has really led me to this place today.”
Deichler didn’t attend the Naval Academy but decided the Navy still was the right fit. He graduated from Chartiers Valley in 1995, earning recognition from the Post-Gazette as an “All Star Achiever,” and enrolled at Virginia Tech on a full, four-year Navy ROTC scholarship. It was “my only way to get into a really good school without debt,” he said, and it ensured him a job.
The primary reason Deichler selected submarines, in particular, was his high school math teacher, Dick Schubert. He was a submariner in World War II and told story after story about life aboard the boats, about a brotherhood forged and never forgotten. When the time came for Deichler to decide, he asked, “Mr. Schubert, what do you think I should do?”
“He smiled,” Deichler recalled, “and said, ‘You should go into submarines.’ “
Deichler’s father, James, died of a heart attack less than a year after his son left for college. When Deichler returned home to care for his mother and sisters, the Navy transferred his scholarship to Carnegie Mellon. “A lot of people tell me I got an upgrade there,” joked Deichler, who majored in math before entering the standard submarine officer pipeline.
Deichler’s orders have taken him — in a variety of roles and submarines — to Charleston, S.C., Kings Bay, Ga., San Diego, Calif., Pearl Harbor, Washington, D.C., Groton and on an overseas deployment. Near or far from home, Deichler said, “Most people who know me will immediately associate the city of Pittsburgh with me. I carry it around pretty proudly.”
Even before Deichler captained the USS Pittsburgh, few people have better embodied the spirit of Pittsburgh. His grandparents and parents were born and raised in Carnegie. He met Michelle Hoover at an ice cream shop on Greentree Road when they were high school seniors — him at Chartiers Valley, her at Seton-LaSalle. “We’ve been together ever since,” he said.
Since his mother-in-law and sisters still reside in Mt. Lebanon, Deichler said, the family still visits Pittsburgh frequently. Deichler prioritizes trips to Primanti’s in the Strip District — “That’s the only one I recognize as the original,” he says — and to Eide’s Entertainment to find new comic books with his sons. The family’s latest trip to the Strip District was to purchase decorations for the black-and-gold-themed party after the change-of-command ceremony.
“I have four children who were born in four different states,” Deichler said, “but if you ask any one of them where they’re from, they’re going to tell you Pittsburgh.”
Deichler remains an avid Steelers and Pirates fan, a passion he has passed to his kids — Hannah, 18; James, 15; Matthew, 11; and Ian, 8. He has also taken steps to promote healthy habits. In what began as an attempt to set an example of physical fitness as an officer, Deichler has run seven marathons in the past six years. He ran the Pittsburgh Marathon three times, and his goal is to run it again while he is the commander of the USS Pittsburgh.
In late January, a letter arrived for Deichler in Groton, postmarked from Pittsburgh. Inside was a card from Sharon Freed, his first-grade teacher at Carnegie Elementary School, who was congratulating him. Deichler was floored. Not only did his first-grade teacher remember his name all these years later, he marveled, but she reached out, too.
“I showed [the card] to some of the guys on the boat,” Deichler said, “and I told them, ‘This is why Pittsburgh holds that special place in my heart.’ “
Stephen J. Nesbitt: snesbitt@post-gazette.com and Twitter @stephenjnesbitt.
First Published: January 31, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
