Looking back!

Some self examination reveals the reasons that in this time of my life I find myself looking back and longing for a return to that time in my life that was so important to me and yet, at the time, lost on me then in my youth!
I am sure that the psych text books would have a number of applicable subjects like "a sense of belonging to a group" or "reaching back for memories"! But, since at that time we were all just learning to become adults, it has a much more basic meaning as time goes on. We went from being "school kids" to becoming young men almost overnight. We left behind those childish things (well, most of them) and discovered what we were really capable of. For those of us that never saw combat, we looked back on those that came before us with amazement and respect. Whether it was being on a ship in WW2 firing back at a Jap Zero or manning a 50 cal on a river boat in Nam, we wondered what they felt and what it was really like. Although the war in Viet Nam was still ongoing, I was lucky enough to not have been deployed there. Yet, some of those I knew and called friends did. We came to know them as shipmates and comrades!
We became a part of something that was so much bigger than ourselves! We became a part of history! Now as we look back and see so much of that history disappearing, we refuse to let go! We shouldn't let go! It is part of who we are! It helped mold our lives and for many it was a most important and forming event in our lives. It is sometimes only with maturity and time we are able to look back and realize just how much! For most of us it was the first time in our lives that we moved out of our homes and left the nest and our parent's care and guidance. That gruff salty old Chief Petty Officer became our new parent and teacher! Thankfully, the Chief our company had was able to instill in us just how important it was to realize what we were joining. He was the one that insisted we leave behind our childhood and start acting like men! He was the example of that history that we came face to face with each day! Even today, some nearly 40 years later it(he) still is clear in the memory!
Some of us were scared! Some of us were excited and curious! All of us were green and inexperienced! But, as time went on we found ourselves becoming exactly what that Chief said we would be! We were Sailors! We were Navy men (ok, and women)! In one form or another from that day on, we always would be! Whether we served out our 4 years or made a career of it, we would always look back in pride and with reminiscence!
No, it does not need to stop there! Yes, we can return and recapture some of it! Something else we need to learn from "those that came before us" is to continue the tradition and to continue to honor and memorialize through active observance that history! We can remember our shipmates and honor their memory by continuing their efforts and adding to their accomplishments. I discovered that opportunity in the form of a museum ship! Doug Karr discovered it in the creation of this web site. Others have found it in the documenting through pictures and videos of those memories that we share! We can all be a part of preserving history! In so doing we can also find that experience or memory we seek and again feel a part of that thing that is bigger than all of us! We are still Sailors!
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Comments

  • Thanks Jim....

    Sounds like you are telling my story.  My time in the Navy was the greatest growing period in my life.

    Stories I still tell those who will listen and I enjoy it even more when I tell of those days to someone now.

    We really are a band of brothers (and sisters) Wouldn't change a thing from those days...

  • That's OK, Mike! We who went to San Diego had great sympathy for those of you that did not enjoy the southern California weather!
  • Jim, I went to Great Lakes for Boot Camp.
  • Jim, thanks for sharing this. This should be posted or read to every Navy recruit.
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