So Others May Live | Memorial Day 2008

For some reason this year has been nostalgic for me. Martin Luther King Day I wrote about my family. Memorial Day I write about my other family. I write about my Navy family, and in particular, those who didn’t make it home.

They are my family, my fallen brothers and a sister. I will tell my children about them and they will live on in name and story and in our hearts.

This is off topic and an indulgence. I would be however, as Shakespeare put it regarding St. Crispen’s Day and the Battle of Agincourt, holding my manhood cheap would I not honor those who I know who have fallen with at least a nod today, nearly eighteen years later.

    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be remembered-
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition;
    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
    Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

From So Others May Live… My personal heroes

I’ve lost a few friends while in the service. There have been times that I didn’t know if I would make it myself - whatever scrape or close call occurred I made it out.

I recall five years ago I was at the gas pump at Costco here in San Diego and saw a helo patch and aircrew wings on the flight suit of the guy next to me.

I introduced myself, rattled off four names and he brightened when he recognized one. I told him that guy used to be my roommate off-base.

He stuck out his hand, saying, Good to meet you, Brother.

We all ran the seawall. We ran the obstacle course and the cross country course. We sweat together. We bled together. We learned our inner limits and then we pushed them farther than we thought possible.

In doing so, we grew up together and as such, we were brothers.

The first two fleet S-3 Viking AWs I ever met are both dead by violent means.

Both died outside the combat zone by violent means. One as the casualty of a robbery in progress, the other years later from self-inflicted wounds, perhaps from scars we all share.

Mongo, I wish I would have known the problems you had. When people wonder why I cry at the end of the movie Jarhead, it’s because I’m remembering you.

From So Others May Live | Personal Heroes Pt. 2

Today, Memorial Day 2008, I’m sitting here alone writing. The kids are with their mom. My friends have long left for barbeques. The television is off and has been all day.

Today for the first time in eighteen years, it’s about memorializing my friends who will never have kids, who will not see another barbeque or a beer. It’s also about realizing that I lost more friends in peacetime than some have in seven years of warfare.

My friends who died after living only a few years out of high school. They are my heroes.

As I’ve said before in the postscript of Bug’s Prayer and Core Values these are the types of people I want my boys to hear about when they ask what a hero is.

Rick Tafoya, I would have loved to learn snowboarding later that year. I had plenty of time before I transferred into my fleet squadron.

Joseph John Pycior, died at the Pentagon in room 1D457 on the morning of 9/11. Boats was less than four months from retirement.

I briefly met “Boats” at the ASWOC in San Diego between flights during a brief. I remember him because one of the other guys was teasing him about being a Boatswains Mate prior to becoming an AW, the score requirements for both jobs being diametrically opposed on the ASVAB test.

Brian Cerino, died in 1991 in the worst Naval air disaster. Cerino was the roommate of one of my closest friends, Duncan.

Berto “Pablo” Escobar and Billy Quinn, both in a helo accident just before I got out. I remember these guys, particularly Billy Quinn from my first cruise before they went to Japan with HS-14.

Robert “The General” Lee, whose death trapped underwater in a helo accident completely changed the design of emergency air bottles for the entire Navy and Marine Corps. Lee was in VS-41 with me as a student, but went back to the helo side of the base as an instructor.

All were brothers. I lost a sister as well.

Wendy Potter, a California girl who I knew only briefly. Wendy was the first all-AW pipeline West Coast student to become a Viking SENSO. Her S-3B Viking jet went down with all hands lost.

May they all rest in peace. We miss you. I will never forget you.