Nineteen years later. If that tragic day never occurred this year Aircrewman Owens, dead at nineteen before he could legally drink in his own country, would have lived twice as long as he did.

Rick Tafoya, Brian Cerino. In the next two years you two would have been twice as old as when you died.

I know Rick and I would be hanging out today – two California boys getting gray hair and talking about the stuff we used to do, maybe watching Eric Sass’ boys playing Little League. We knew each other from Pensacola, maybe also from barracks time in San Diego during the core training for SERE.

Duncan, Cerino’s roommate in Tennessee and my good friend here during training twenty years ago never seemed to be the same afterwards.

Maybe none of us were ever the same. Simple mistakes kill good people and they give out awards for those of us who get OCD about preventing the mistakes that kill and call it a safety program.

Miss you guys. You’re gone but never forgotten.

The Final Patrol by David (Devo) Devarney

Schedule checked
Another all-nighter, dawn patrol
Last beer drunk, hit the rack
Waken, first day of spring
Crew rest, waken again
Grab bag, boots tied
Last pat on the head
Last embrace
Lips touch
Love you, see ‘ya in the morning
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Main gate, ID card flashed
Attend brief, get tapes
Check books, read MAFs
APU started, preflight begins
Buoys loaded, plane fueled
Last geedunk run
Last smoke
Planeside brief, props turning
Chocks pulled
Thumbs up
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Taxi
SET 5, set
Approach end
SET POWER
Brakes released
ON THE ROLL
7000……….…6000….5000…4000
REFUSAL, ROTATE, airborne
GEAR UP
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Left turn, intersect
Woodside VOR
SET 4, set
SET 3, kilo alfa
SET 2, break out the cards
Dinners cooking
DESCENT CHECKLIST
Check in, WE GOT IT
THANKS GUYS, SAFE FLIGHT
On stay
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Spit buoys, BUOYS SWEET
Patience, gain contact
Track, BELOW 1000
LPAs ON, SET 1
SIM ATTACK
DOORS OPEN
STANDBY MAD
MAD…MAD…MAD
WEAPON AWAY, SUS AWAY
Continue tracking
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Relief checks in
TACAN lock, got visual
Swapping altitude
Closing…closing
C O L L I S I O N, F I R E B A L L
E X P L O S I O N
W A T E R I M P A C T
Cold…..dark
Silent
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Wreckage floats, slicks shimmer
No survivors
TAFOYA – CAVUOTO – SMITH
DYER – HEIKKINEN – MCNERNEY
HOGUE – DABBS – CERINO
OWENS – SPOSATO – TISDALE
NEMECEK – CARMODY – HAMILTON
METCALF – REDMOND – WILLIAMSON
CHAIKIN – COX – SHIELDS
BECKNER-¨ GERMEAU – FARQUAHAR
DAVIS – HALL – RICE
Husbands and daddies…..lost
Sons and loved ones….….lost
Friends and shipmates…..lost
Gone…………..…….Forever
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Chaplains visit
Friends console…hug…support
Services, present colors
Reddened eyes
Tears spilt
Sobs choked
Hands held
Backs rubbed
Eulogies and epitaphs
Folded flags
Bowed heads
Supreme sacrifice
Grateful nation
TAPS, guns and bells echo
Flags wave, tears stream
º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º
Searching for answers
Wondering, wondering
Empty beds
Days turn to weeks
Weeks turn to months
Months turn to years
Years pass on
The first decade has arrived
Tears still wet
Memories not faded
Friendships not forgotten
Love never lost
Still on the flight schedule
Still flying, still on-station
Still wearing their Wings of Gold

—–

My Personal Heroes Pt 1

My Personal Heroes Pt 2

So Others May Live | Memorial Day 2008

Andy Brewer passed away three years ago. I just wanted to put this up here in case anyone wanted to share sea stories about Andy so I can put them up on the main site. Leave a reply with your memories.

I got enough time recently to put an email I received up as a memorial page on the site.Two of Andy’s shipmates in that picture, Dewey Thompson and Keith Poole, were instructors of mine as I went through VS-41. [note: site url is unavailable, hence the repost here]

As a personal note, I met Andy at the 2004 decom ceremony. He may have passed on as a civilian, but he will always be an AW, and his legacy lives on.

Ironically, I first met Andy just a week prior to my son being born in 2004 and they share the same name – Andrew Charles.

Quoted from Knoxville News Sentinel:

Charles A. (Andy) Brewer

BREWER, CHARLES A. (ANDY) – age 43, of Holtsville, California, passed away Sunday, March 25, 2007. He served in the United States Navy 10 years and most recently with Homeland Security as a U.S. Customs Officer.

Preceded in death by his father, Bill Brewer. Survived by wife, Linda; daughters, Elise and Carley Brewer, Courtney and husband, Leo Jimenez; son, Devin Brewer, all of California; mother and stepfather, Bobbie and Bill Laugherty of Knoxville, Tennessee; brother, Greg Brewer and wife, Vicki of Colts Neck, New Jersey; brother, Jeff Brewer and wife, Dixie of Wheatland, Wyoming.

Family and friends will meet at Woodlawn Cemetery on Monday for 11:00 AM graveside services, Dr. William Sheil, Pastor of First Baptist Church presiding. Arrangements by Berry Funeral Home, Chapman Highway

www.berryfuneralhome.com

We have a memorial letter from an attending AW that was published on redgriffins.org.

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.