Ship’s Log 01: Anchors Aweigh with Jeanne Andersen

"If I'm going to ask my guests to show up honestly and play along, then I need to do the same." – Jeanne Andersen

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Project Candor, host Jeanne Andersen introduces herself and shares her own story as the very first episode sets the tone for the series. Jeanne opens up about growing up as a preacher’s kid, navigating the loss of her parents, serving in the U.S. Navy, and discovering her love for creativity and adventure. She takes listeners through a few memorable—and sometimes hilarious—life moments in her signature game, Two Truths and a Lie, letting us guess which stories are true and which one is a playful fib. This episode gives listeners a candid look into Jeanne’s life, her values, and why she created Project Candor: a space where ordinary people share extraordinary stories.

Host’s Bio:
Jeanne Andersen is a storyteller, creative, and proud Navy veteran. She has spent her career in technology and business, including roles as a programmer, project manager, and business consultant. Jeanne is passionate about connecting with people, learning from their lives, and celebrating resilience, humor, and treasure in the unexpected moments of life. As the creator and host of Project Candor, she invites guests to share their stories authentically, with honesty and heart.

Who do you know who'd make a great guest for the show? Email: info@projectcandor.com

Website:   https://www.projectcandor.com

Social Media

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ProjectCandor/

LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/company/projectcandor/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/project.candor/

YouTube:    https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectCandorPodcast

Transcript

Welcome to episode one of Project Candor, where ordinary people share the most unexpected stories. I'm your host, Jeanne Andersen, and usually this is the part where I introduce you to an incredible guest and we step into their world. But today is a little different. Since this is our very first official episode, I thought it would only be fair and very Project Candor of me to start with my own story. Just me showing up the way I asked my guests to.

I'll tell you a little bit about who I am, how I got here, and why this show matters so much to me. And yes, I'm going to follow the show's format and play our signature game, Two Truths and a Lie, with my own stories. Honestly, I have no idea if I'm ready for this, but here we go. Let's start at the beginning. Well, I mean, I was born obviously, but you don't need to go back that far. I'm one of three daughters of a preacher or what I've been called many, many times over, a PK, a preacher's kid. And then later, my baby brother arrived and helped balance out the male population in our household to my dad's happiness. ⁓ My mom was also deeply involved in the church as a music leader, and she worked as a school teacher. In our family, you didn't just do one thing, you tried things, especially anything creative.

Music was a big part of our world. I started playing piano early, I loved to sing, and in high school I even played percussion in the band. So creativity wasn't just encouraged, it was built right into the rhythm of our home. I also read a lot of books, and remember, there were no cell phones way back in the 1800s. Okay, I'm just joking, of course. I don't go back to that century.

But the first cell phone available to the public really did come out in 1983. And even then it wasn't something teenagers had. They really didn't have readily available cell phones until like the mid 2000s. And it wasn't just phones, even TV was simple. We had three major channels in PBS. That was it. And if you missed the show, well, you missed it.

Your only chance was catching the summer reruns. And honestly, nobody wanted to sit inside all summer, just waiting to see a TV episode again. So there wasn't any question about being lazy or waiting for fun to come to you. We invented fun. ⁓ If you wanted to see a friend, you walked or you rode your bike to their house. Life kept us moving and curious.

This is probably why I have so many hobbies now. I love to write, play the piano, sing, sew, quilt, embroider, crochet, make jewelry, draw. I've just always believed in having a creative outlet. Or 10, or 20. ⁓ Some people collect stamps, I just collect skills.

My mom passed away from cancer when I was 16. It was one of those losses that quietly rearranges the foundation of your life. I went to college, graduated, and then joined the United States Navy, looking for a way to build a life, serve, and see the world. But within my first year, my father also passed away. At the time, I was stationed in Hawaii, and it took me so long to get home. Once I heard he was ill,
The Navy strapped me into a B-52 bomber, which, by the way, is not exactly the commercial flight you expect when someone says, we're getting you home. It was also loaded to the hilt with bombs or shell casings. I was hoping it was just casings. They flew me to Edwards Air Force Base. And from there, I had to ride a bus for an hour and 45 minutes to get to LAX. And then I had to borrow money for a flight with two stops to get all the way back to North Carolina. I miss saying goodbye to my father by four hours.

I still can't get through Mike and the Mechanics song, in the living years, without bawling, especially at the verse that starts with, wasn't there that morning when my father passed away. I didn't get to tell him all the things I had to say.
And at 24, I remember thinking my personal theme song was Alone Again Naturally by Gilbert O'Sullivan. Of course, I thought that for quite a while. But here's the thing, those moments shaped me. They taught me to reach out to other people, to really see them and to treasure them because we all carry happiness and loneliness, victories and heartbreaks, successes and struggles. And most of the time, you'd never know it unless someone trusted you enough to share.
And maybe that's why the word treasure means so much to me. It's probably also why I say I have a pirate heart because somewhere along the way life surprised me with one of its greatest treasures. I'm married now to a truly great man, someone I would have crossed oceans for, ⁓ and in a way I actually did. In true pirate fashion, he turned out to be the best booty I've ever ransacked. Not in a nasty way, people, so calm down. Tough luck, Sweden. He's mine and I won't give him back. And speaking of treasures, our family grew in an unexpected and beautiful way. We adopted three children, each one a gem in their own way. I won't share their personal stories here because those belong to them, but I will say this. They brought depth, joy, and meaning into our lives that I could never have imagined.
They've taught me more about resilience, humor, patience, times a thousand, and love than any book, class, or life experience ever could. They're part of my treasure chest I carry with me, my favorite crew, along with my Lhasa Opsos over the years. I'm incredibly dedicated to that breed of dogs. 

In a nutshell, I graduated from college, attending two outstanding universities,
I served in the United States Navy, an achievement of which I am very proud. My career after the military has been in technology and business as a programmer, database developer, systems analyst, Project manager, program manager, program executive, and business consultant, even starting my own company. Throughout my career and life, I met and continue to meet amazing people ⁓ that shock me and put me in all their adventures and accomplishments.

Now maybe you can see into why I develop Project Candor I love meeting people and learning about their lives.

All right, ⁓ that gives you a little glimpse into where I came from and the treasure's life has handed me, but now we're going to shift gears.

If I'm going to ask my guests to show up honestly and play along, then I need to do the same. It's time for our signature game, Two Truths and a Lie. Usually, I'm the one doing the guessing, but today you get to decide which one of my stories isn't quite true. I chose three headlines from my younger years. Moments that made me laugh, shaped me, or still make me shake my head.

So you'll see my stories or headlines displayed on the screen. Let me read them out to you for anybody that can't see the screen.

Let me walk you through the Montreal Olympics story. Back in 1976, my family drove all the way from North Carolina to Montreal for the Summer Olympics. And even though it was July, lots of friends told us to bring coats because it would not be like a hot North Carolina summer in Canada. So the family brought coats and of course I donned my pea coat because even as a teenager, I loved anything Navy. We finally found a decent hotel after rejecting several questionable ones. So we're walking to dinner, bundled up, complaining about how cold it is because it was not the shorts and t-shirts summer trip we imagined. And then we passed the hotel pool. Honestly, I should have looked away sooner. There was a group of Canadian men out by the pool, some just standing around in the cold like it was nothing, and one of them climbing up to the diving board. And when he dove, let's just say his swimwear revealed far more than I had ever seen on a man in all my teenage years.
I have never seen, I had never seen that much of a man's anatomy. It was shocking, traumatizing. A full Olympic moment burned into my brain forever. That's easily why I can recall it now for this ⁓ podcast. And from that point on, anytime my sisters and I saw a man wearing very revealing swimwear, we quietly whisper, wow, he must be Canadian.

Alright, story number two, the bathroom incident on the way to a pool party. I was in my early teens and the guy I was going with at the time invited me to a pool party at his friend's house. My mom always said going with made no sense because teenagers never actually went anywhere. None of us had driver's license, but still I was excited. The party was across town on a road called Prison Camp Road because yes, there was really a minimum security prison out there. but mostly it was farmland, big fields, barns, tractors, horses, just classic North Carolina country. And every now and then a house with an in-ground pool, which felt like a big deal back then. I asked my parents if I could go and they said, yes. My dad even offered to drive me. So I put on my bikini, threw on a t-shirt, grabbed my towel and flip-flops and off we went. Except the very first thing my preacher dad said was, I need to stop by the hospital to visit someone. It'll be really quick. I just rolled my eyes because nothing my father did at a hospital was ever quick. So we pull up to the hospital, he goes inside and I'm sitting there in the hot car. I take off my t-shirt because I'm roasting, roll down the window and wait. About 20 minutes go by and suddenly I realize I desperately need to go to the bathroom. But I couldn't walk into the hospital wearing just a bikini.

Not even if I put my t-shirt on, I would have died of embarrassment. So now I'm panicking. Finally, ⁓ after a full 30 minutes, my dad comes back out smiling and says, see, that didn't take too long. And bless his heart, he actually believed that. I just said, dad, please take me to a gas station. I need a bath.

Actually that was a sentence I probably said a lot to him. But anyway, he pulls into one of those classic North Carolina country gas stations, the kind where the bathroom is outside, behind the building, and you have to get a key attached to a giant piece of wood. I'll run for the key, I run to the bathroom, ⁓ the door is slightly ajar, which should have been my first clue. But I grab a deep breath of fresh air, you don't want to breathe in there, rush inside, lock the door, and make it just in time. And now I had to breathe again. The bathroom was awful. The sink faucets were oxidized. Everything looked dirty. The smell was atrocious. But I tried not to look at anything directly. I washed my hands as best I could using that powdered pink soap from the wild dispenser. And then I turned to leave. The door would not open. I tried the knob, pushed the door. pulled the door, jiggled the door, nothing. It was jammed tight. So I began banging on it, banging, yelling, banging some more. And my dad's car was parked right outside the door with the engine running, so I knew he couldn't hear anything. I'm stuck in this nasty country gas station bathroom in a bikini, so there was dirt everywhere and I didn't want it on me, for about 20 minutes. Finally, finally, I hear my dad turn off the engine. He knocks on the door and I yell, I'm locked in, I can't get out. He tries to open the door, ⁓ nothing. He pushes, nothing. So he goes to get the attendant. Now picture this. The attendant comes back, he's young, maybe late teens. and he and my father both put their shoulders into the door and finally busted open. And there I am, standing in nothing but my bathing suit, staring at this poor teenage attendant who looks completely stunned. ⁓ And the only thing I could think to say was, here's your key back. I don't think you're gonna need it. I finally made it to the pool party and I prayed hard that no one thought I smelled like that bathroom.

And now for story number three. The day our tugboat capsized during Hurricane Iwa. In my early Navy years, I served on a harbor tug called the USX, USS Waxahatchee, it's a mouthful. ⁓ YTB 814. There were four tugs in Pearl Harbor and every day you rotated between being boat number one through boat number four. If you were boat number one or a number two, you worked nonstop. pushing ships in, maneuvering them into tight spots, helping them more, or towing them out to sea. Also, you would do maintenance. If we were boat number three, you might just do maintenance and go home early. If you were boat number four, you usually were done by 9 a.m., 10 a.m. ⁓ Everyone loved being boat number four. We worked hard. So on one of my boat number four days, I showed up with no lunch, no bag. Nothing. Because why would I? I figured I'd be out shopping by mid-morning or at home sleeping. But around 10 a.m. we were told, a hurricane's coming, you're here until it's over. And that was it. We spent the next several hours and then several days ⁓ pulling ships out of the harbor so they wouldn't be trapped when the storm hit. No ship wanted to be tied up during a hurricane. Lines snapped. ships slam into piers and moored vessels can hit each other hard. The rain was relentless, the wind brutal, and we had no food on board. What was supposed to be a short boat number four day turned into four straight days out in the storm. And we couldn't call anyone, the telephone lines were down. No contact with home, nothing. ⁓ Just ships radio. That didn't do us any good.
By the time we got the call that two men had been washed overboard from the USS Goldsboro, we were exhausted, soaked, hungry, sleep deprived, but still working. Our tug was sent to search near the harbor perimeter, and that's when things got dangerous. As we got closer, the tug started taking on water. We lost equipment tied to the sides. The waves were slamming into us. The tug was bobbing violently. Most of us were ordered to the pilot house.
Our engineer stayed below fighting to keep the engines running. Waves were washing over the pilot house. We were bracing ourselves against the walls, grabbing onto whatever we could, holding onto each other just to stay upright. Our craft master weighed only like 98 pounds, so he was holding onto the wheel as hard as he could, but it was turning itself. And I remember thinking, I'm never going to see my dad again. He was still alive at that point. And then the tug rolled. We capsized, took on water. Another tug rescued us, cold, soaked, shaken, after days with no sleep or food. And once they pulled us aboard, we kept working on a different tug until the hurricane finally passed.

All right, I've made it through all three stories, and now it's your turn to guess which one wasn't quite true. Was it the Montreal Olympics and the traumatizing Canadian pool incident? Was it me getting locked into a gas station bathroom on the way to a pool party? Or was it a Navy tugboat capsizing during Hurricane Iwa? If you guessed story number three, the capsizing, you're right. But here's the thing.
The rest of the story? Almost all of it actually happened. We really were out there for four days during Hurricane Iwa. We really were pulling ships out as fast as we could. We really did lose equipment, take on water, and get thrown around by some of the roughest seas I ever saw. ⁓ And we really did get the call about the two sailors washed overboard from the USS Goldsboro.

One of them, the lieutenant, eventually washed ashore on Hickam Beach with two broken legs, but alive. What was the lie? ⁓ The only part that wasn't true is that we didn't capsize. We were close, extremely close. The pilot house was taking waves. We were sliding, bobbing, losing gear, fighting to stay upright. I should have said praying in there at every other word. And then out of nowhere, our engineer,
⁓ Chief Petty Officer Lovell, who had been below deck fighting to keep the engines going, came barreling up the stairs. He pushed past everyone, grabbed the wheel, and waited for one perfect opening between the waves. And in that tiny window, he turned the tug around. Within minutes, we were out of the worst of it, and over by the piers at Hickam Air Force Base. And even then, we didn't go home.
We worked another full day until the hurricane finally passed. So no, the tug didn't capsize, but everything else was real, including more info. 

All right, now we're at the end of the podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for sharing this beginning with me. I can't wait for you to meet the guests who are coming. Their stories are beautiful, surprising, and worth slowing down for. I'm Jeanne Andersen, and this is Project Candor. I'll see you in the next episode.