For all the sailors out there





I like the Navy.



I like standing on the bridge wing at sunrise with salt spray in my face

and clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe -

the ship beneath me feeling like a living thing as her engines drive her

through the sea.



I like the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswains

pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, the

harsh squawk of the 1MC and the strong language and laughter of sailors

at work.



I like the vessels of the Navy - nervous darting destroyers, plodding

fleet auxiliaries, sleek submarines and steady solid carriers. I like

the proud sonorous names of Navy capital ships: Midway, Lexington,

Saratoga, Coral Sea - memorials of great battles won. I like the lean

angular names of Navy

'tin-cans': Barney, Dahlgren, Mullinix, McCloy, John Paul Jones

-mementos of heroes who went before us.



I like the tempo of a Navy band blaring through the topside speakers as

we pull away from the oiler after refueling at sea. I like liberty call

and the spicy scent of a foreign port. I even like all hands working

parties as my ship fills herself with the multitude of supplies both

mundane and exotic which she needs to cut her ties to the land and carry

out her mission anywhere on the globe where there is water to float her.



I like sailors, men from all parts of the land, farms of the Midwest,

small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the

prairies, from all walks of life. I trust and depend on them as they

trust and depend on me - for professional competence, for comradeship,

for courage. In a word, they are "shipmates."



I like the surge of adventure in my heart when the word is passed "Now

station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for

leaving port", and I like the infectious thrill of sighting home again,

with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting

pierside. The work is hard and dangerous, the going rough at times, the

parting from loved ones painful, but the companionship of robust Navy

laughter, the 'all for one and one for all' philosophy of the sea is

ever present.



I like the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as

flying fish flit across the wave tops and sunset gives way to night. I

like the feel of the Navy in darkness - the masthead lights, the red and

green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence

of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk and join with the mirror

of stars overhead. And I like drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad

noises large and small that tell me that my ship is alive and well, and

that my shipmates on watch will keep me safe.



I like quiet midwatches with the aroma of strong coffee - the lifeblood

of the Navy - permeating everywhere. And I like hectic watches when the

exacting minuet of haze-gray shapes racing at flank speed keeps all

hands on a razor edge of alertness. I like the sudden electricity of

"General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle

stations", followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and

the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transforms herself

in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war -

ready for anything. And I like the sight of space-age equipment manned

by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound-powered phones that their

grandfathers would still recognize.



I like the traditions of the Navy and the men and women who made them. I

like the proud names of Navy heroes: Halsey, Nimitz, Perry, Farragut,

John Paul Jones. A sailor can find much in the Navy: comrades-in-arms,

pride in self and country, mastery of the seaman's trade. An adolescent

can find adulthood.



In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, they will still

remember with fondness and respect the ocean in all its moods - the

impossible shimmering mirror calm and the storm-tossed green water

surging over the bow. And then there will come again a faint whiff of

stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the

bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of

hearty laughter in the wardroom and chief's quarters and messdecks. Gone

ashore for good they will grow wistful about their Navy days, when the

seas belonged to them and a new port of call was ever over the horizon.



Remembering this, they will stand taller and say,



    "I WAS A SAILOR ONCE. I WAS PART OF THE NAVY & THE NAVY WILL ALWAYS

BE PART OF ME."



Reflections of a Blackshoe by Vadm Harold Koenig, USN (Ret).....