My sea-going credentials included Sea Scout, a skipper who raced sailboats on lakes and oceans, a Navy reservist. But wished I could have commanded a historic square-rigged, man-of-war sailing vessel.
Even if you are not as handsome as Gregory Peck who starred in the movie Captain Hornblower, helps if you have read all of the Hornblower sea-going fiction. Plus read the Jack Aubrey sailing adventures. Or walked the decks of ‘Old Ironsides,’ the three-mast, wooden ship museum now anchored in Boston Harbor. Go Navy.
My twelfth-year birthday present was Fletcher Pratt’s history of the U.S. Navy. I gave the book to my oldest grandson when he became a plebe at the Annapolis Naval Academy. Proud Grandpa? You bet. Even if he graduated and chose to become a Marine officer, then jet pilot.
During the Vietnam War the Navy needed journalistic talents. This newspaper writer turned TV station manager volunteered and was commissioned as a reserve officer. At our Abilene reserve center I discovered the Navy still identified one of our petty officers as Carpenter’s Mate.
Chief could work wood, and our high school Sea Scouts needed a wooden mast repaired. Chief volunteered. I brought the mast to the shop and he made the wood ‘ship shape.’ Some of the regular Navy and I watched him work. They joked the Navy no longer put sails on ships.
My reply, “You guys need to know, when we run out of fossil and nuclear fuel, Chief and I are going to be ‘big’ in this Navy.”
