Now That's Impressive!- A Naval Retirement

Yesterday, I attended a friend's retirement from 23 years in the US Navy. My friend, Larry, retired as a Senior Chief Boatswain's Mate (Surface Warfare) and it was held at the Fox Lake American Legion Post 703.

Now, this was one impressive ceremony. Every naval person was in dress uniform and there were quite a few. We had a lot of speakers recounting his career and service. His wife Carrie received awards for being a Navy wife and getting through the times of extended deployment. That was a good idea, as a married Navy man is just as good as his wife is. Now, that might be a husband as there were quite a few women sailors there.

I was impressed with the Shadow Box Tradition, where one in the shape of a ship's wheel was presented and had momentos of every service station and ship he served on. The tradition goes back to the British Navy where it was considered bad luck for a sailor, on his final departure from the ship, to have his shadow hit the pier before he left the ship. In order to prevent this, his shipmates would construct a box of the finest timber and place within it all things that reflected his accomplishments. In this way, he could safely leave the ship.

The Olde Glory Ceremony was something else. While a person read the story, about ten naval personnel slowly and officiously passed a folded flag down the line, each one saluting and placing the flag by their heart before slowly turning to the next in line and repeating the process until it got to Larry. Some of it went: "I am the flag of the United States of America. My name is Old Glory. I fly atop the world's tallest buildings. I stand watch in America's halls of justice. I stand guard with the greatest military power in the world."

Then it went through a list of battles it was at: "I have fought every battle of every war for more than 200 years: Gettysburg, Shiloh, Appomattox, San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome, the beaches of Normandy, the jungles of Guam, Okinawa, Tarawa, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and a score of places long forgotten by all but those who were with me."

Then there was "The Watch" ceremony, where the creed was read and then the other military people stood, saluted, and individually declared that they would be taking over the watch for Larry. Some of that went: "For over 23 years, this Senior Chief has stood the watch...and yes, even before some of us were born. In those days when the storm clouds of war were seen brewing on the horizons...this Senior Chief stood the watch. Many times he would cast an eye to the shore and see his family standing there, needing his guidance and help, needing that hand to hold during those times, but he stood the watch..."

At the end, Larry was piped off, past a line of Navy people. That pipe is haunting.

Larry was raised in Round Lake and enlisted in the Navy in 1984. I never had him in class, however. He was out of the Navy a short time, but reenlisted and participated in Operation Desert Storm. He has been involved in recruiting and a teacher at Great Lakes in North Chicago. He was also involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This, as I said, was an impressive ceremony, a far cry from what my school district did after my 33 years of service where I got a breakfast and a small clock.

My cousin Graham was a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War.

Very Proud of ALL of our Servicemen and women. --RoadDog