Why the Navy!

I recently cam across this picture that brought me back to remembering why I wanted to be a sailor.

3438925258?profile=originalAs a young boy back in the early 60's I had an uncle and aunt that had a Summer home on Buzzard's Bay in Massachusetts. We spent most of our Summers there, swimming, boating and falling for the Summer girlfiends. There were a few occasions of this. But, the first one was one late afternoon when my uncle called my attention to a scene across the bay. He handed me a pair of binoculars and I immediately ran to the jetty on the beach. There across the bay was a scene I had only to that time seen in the movies. An entire battle group was making it's way to the canal and on to Boston. I could make out Destroyers, either a Cruiser or BB and a flat top! In those days it was probably an Essex class. There were a few support ships mixed in. I couldn't tell an oiler from a tender or a supply ship. All I knew is they were Navy ships! They were stretched out in what looked like single file and ran from one end of the bay to the other. I sat there glued to the site for a couple of hours, until the last stack disappeared into the canal. With the binoc's I could only barely make out some sailors on the carrier deck. But, I knew at that moment that one day I wanted to be one of those! There were other times that a single ship or a few would sail up the bay. But, that one scene of so many had already left it's impression.
  When I finally fulfilled that dream and donned my dress blues, I got the chance to see an entire armada of wartime veterans that were mothballed in San Diego in the early 70's. A shipmate from boot was stationed at the 32nd St base. One weekend, with his Chief's permission (of course), we got to explore a few. Walking the decks of those veterans (some with the still visuble scars of war) I felt the next level of awe that I experienced watching those ships sail by as a younger boy. I could hear in my mind the likes of a John Wayne yelling down to me from the bridge to "secure that line , sailor" or a Robert Mitchum instructing over the 1MC to "set depth charges to 100 feet"! We grew up in the 50's and 60's with many WW2 films with the influence of actors of their caliber. You felt you were watching the actual action as it happended. As a recruit and young sailor I met the real thing in the Chiefs and PO's that I swore I had seen in those films. Except, they were the real thing! We even had a war vet or two still active and spreading the influence of their verbal acumens and their spit shined boots on us green kids! I didn't have family in the Navy. My grandfather was WW1 Army (DSC plus awards) and my uncle had been on Patton's staff. Though it had started through imagining and day dreaming, I now knew what it felt to feel "Navy pride"!

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of Navy Veterans to add comments!

Join Navy Veterans

Comments

  • I'm even going to bet that some of the vets on here may have even been on one or more of those ships that I saw sail through Buzzard's Bay in the 60's!

This reply was deleted.