Tag: Navy

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Kindness remembered

March 9, 1973 I put on my dress blues, boarded an Allegany Airlines jet in Buffalo and took a quick flight to Newark Airport. I had a seabag in one hand and my military orders in the other. Keeping my white hat on, toting a seabag and carrying those orders and my personnel file proved to be too much and in the process I left my file on a park a bench at the transit stop in Newark. When I got to the port authority terminal in New York City I realized I didn’t have my the envelope with my orders and files in it. I was frightened but did what I’d been told.

I contacted the port authority police who said, “leave your seabag here son, someone has turned in your orders to us in Newark Airport.” I made the trip back to Newark retrieved the orders and then back to Manhattan and the port authority near Penn Station. The next leg of my journey was to board a subway and get to the Brooklyn Naval Support Activity. I was a 20 year old kid on my own for the first time in New York City. The port authority police pointed me in the right direction. I got on the subway but wasn’t sure how to get Brooklyn and my stop. It was my good fortune to be on the same subway train as a young Hispanic girl who asked if she could help. I told her where I was going and she guided me to the correct stop. She told me to get off the train, go to the top of the stairs and turn right. If memory serves me correctly I was exactly across the street from the Naval Support Activity.

There isn’t a year goes by that I remember her and the kindness she extended helping this greenhorn Navy guy get to the right place.

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Thanksgiving

This is a day and a season of thanksgiving and this year I’m most thankful for all that has happened. This has been a watershed year of memories and a chance to reconnect with people and memories from the past. Just yesterday I received a note from a surgeon who was once my boss at the Naval Submarine Medical Center in New London, CT. A few weeks ago I decided to write this man whom I had last seen on January 17, 1975. Dr. Biesecker was Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Medical Corps when I last saw him.  I always called him sir, or Dr. Biesecker and all these years later when I decided to write a letter that’s how I addressed him. I thanked him for his influence on my life both then and now. A week ago I received an email from another former Navy medical officer, Dr. Copeland,  with whom I served. I’m thankful to my nephew Tom Watkins who joined the U.S. Navy in January of this year, because it was Tom who helped rekindle this spirit within me.

When I left active duty in 1975 and the active reserves in 1977 I rarely looked back at my naval service. I was proud of it, but I got on with life. Other than a three semesters on the GI Bill I really never took advantage of the benefits veterans are due. Perhaps it was pride, but I never looked for a handout.  I never joined the American Legion. I kept my uniform and mementos of my service, but I kept a low profile. About ten years ago at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes dinner the speaker, Clebe McClary, invited those of us who were veterans to stand. It was really the first public recognition of my military service that had ever occurred. That was the beginning of a journey that continues to this day. Tom’s enlistment made the fire burn a bit more brightly. If it hadn’t been for Tom I don’t think I’d have gone to Albany, GA this year. If it hadn’t been for Tom I’d never have gone to Great Lakes Naval Training Center again. Because of Tom I relived a very special chapter of my life again. I tried to live that experience more mindfully this time.

I called Tom today to thank him for his service to our country and to tell him that I loved him and I’m damned proud of all that he’s done. I hope those of you who read what I have written will take the time to thank a member of the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines or Coast Guard. If you meet a veteran, thank them for their service. I pray daily for an end to war and I try to be an instrument of peace knowing well that there are war torn areas of our world that cry out for help.

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I challenge you..

A couple of weeks ago following my nephew’s graduation from Recruit Training at Great Lakes Naval Station I approached my nephew and told him I thought that national service would be a good thing for most Americans. I thought we’d have a little less self-absorption if more of our fifty and under crowd actually served something other than their own narrow agendas. Tom agreed and said, “Uncle Don I just said the same thing to Dad.”  I hear a lot of talk from many of my younger friends and even from some of the older ones of supporting the troops, but I want to know what have you actually done. I therefore challenge this new generation of Americans to join up. Go Navy! Go Army! Go Marine! Go Air Force! Go Coast Guard! Do something don’t just talk big, walk big too. If you can’t actually join, find a military person that you can write to. Find out if they need money for their family and send them some cash. Ask for nothing in return.

I gotta go now.., but you think of what you can do to help our young women in men and uniform and better yet become one yourself. Patriotism is more than waving the flag, it’s about carrrying it too. Show your gratitude by what you do, not what you say.

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Pass in Review

Thursday of this week will see me traveling to Great Lakes, Illinois. I haven’t been there since February 8, 1973. My nephew is due to Pass in Review. He’s been at Great Lakes Recruit Training Center since late June. Tom signed up on a delayed enlistment plan in January. Since then a young man I hardly knew because we’re usually separated by hundreds of miles has constantly been in my thoughts and prayers. I called him the night before he left and talked briefly with him and let him know that I’d be praying for him. I’ve sent him 7 letters and a postcard since he’s been in Boot Camp. I know from being there that “mail call” can be a lonely time. I’ve done my best to lighten his load and encourage him along the path to his new career. Whether Tom stays in the Navy for four or thirty-four years one thing is for certain now, he’ll never be the same again. Boot camp is one of those rights of passage that young men and women go through that set them apart from their peers. It is designed to be that way. He has metamorphosed from a civilian with a distinct individuality into a member of a military unit where each person is part of a great whole.

This journey to Great Lakes is part of a larger journey which Tom’s enlistment has been for me. It’s been a journey into my own past and a better insight into my own experience of the United States Navy. Thirty-six years ago on the 13th of October 1972, I led the division onto the field carrying the American flag. I got the honor because I’m tall and I had a good military bearing. I get goose bumps just thinking about standing again at a place where my own Navy journey began. So much has changed in these past 36 years and yet so much remains the same. I’m as anxious as a nineteen year old once more except I know now how it turned out. I did well. I excelled and I hope the same for Tom and his shipmates. One thing is for certain as they pass in review there will be one old sailor with a lump in his throat, a tear in his eye and a chest filled with a healthy sense of pride for this new group of sailors about to become part of the greatest navy in the history of the world.

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Individual augmentee

I have not been moved to write lately. I’ve been very busy but quiet. I’m trying to enjoy each day as iit comes along. I think of my nephew often and I pray that all is going well for him at boot camp. Recently I learned of a government program that moves members of the Navy to support army units in Afghanistan and Iraq. With no draft and declining enlistments and this prolonged war the government is moving sailors into combat support roles. Most of American people don’t know about this and probably many of the parents of U. S. Navy recruits wouldn’t be too happy to find out that their son or daughter might have signed up for a hitch in the Army. It’s called the individual augmentee assignment.

This program has me concerned about my nephew’s future once he leaves boot camp. As a former hospital corpsman, service with the Fleet Marines was always a possibility. Seabees too often are in forward areas of combat but for the most part the Navy was far off shore and away from danger. I’ve been careful not to mention this to my mother or his parents but it is a concern. I had hoped that the war would wind down as we got closer to the election, but now the war drums are increasing again. I pray often for the safety of our men and women in uniform. I hope you will too.

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Soteria

A couple of days ago I left home with Georgia on my mind and this morning I’m going to return to a place that really only exists in my heart. Last night I arrived after nearly an eleven-hundred mile journey to Albany, GA. Thirty-five years ago I arrived here in dress blues with my seabag and another hospital corpsman. We were fresh out of United States Navy Hospital Corps School in Great Lakes, IL. Continue reading “Soteria”

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Bucket list

A couple of weeks ago I saw the movie Bucket List with my wife and daughter. It’s a great theme and it got me to thinking of some things I’d like to do before I can’t do them anymore.  In April I’m planning a trip to Albany, Ga. and Plains, Ga.  I was stationed in Albany, Ga. at the Naval Air Station in 1973 and early 1974. I worked at the base dispensary as a US Navy Corpsman.  I haven’t been back in 30 years. The last time I was at the dispensary was in May of 1977 when I was on reserve duty.  Albany was a lovely place. It was hotter than hell in the summer with high humidity. I lived in air conditioned quarters and the dispensary had air conditioning,  but in between it was very muggy.  I worked in labor and delivery and the newborn nursery. I’ve often thought over the years of the children and mothers I cared for.  I’ve thought too of the doctors, corpsmen and nurses I worked with. I wish it were possible to see them once again.

I also want to visit Plains, Ga. and the Maranatha Baptist Church where President Jimmy Carter worships.  I was in Plains once and that was in 1977 when Mr. Carter was President. I remember there was big peanut in the middle of the road, at least that is my memory of it. I’ve read most of President Carters books and even contributed to his foundation occasionally. He’s my favorite President. Jimmy Carter doesn’t just talk about Christianity, he lives it.