Shipmates “They were good men that came from all over for many reasons and sailed together for a time. A time of testing and training, for men would pass on things to you that they themselves had learned. For you were expected to pass that knowledge on to those who came after you. It was a struggle to learn it all, sometimes. But you were learning lessons taught by the school of hard knocks.”
“He was an old salt that guarded your back while ashore. Or a young kid that became a man when he stood beside you and fought fire or flooding without backing down. You didn’t say ”thanks’ that day, but now you wish you had. They are all there in the time that has flown away from us.”
“They did it for reasons unknown to themselves, sometimes much less to others that can never understand the pride in the accomplishment of what they did.”
By Mike Hemming
From the website: http://www.ussconcord.org/id7.html
Tom Donlin, Allen Clayton, Brian Eckerman, Larry Swafford and Mike Lincoln. There were more, but I count these among the best of the best of the many shipmates I have known.
I am forever grateful to these guys for accepting me into their lives, and confidences. They taught me how to be the absolute best sailor that I could be. They taught me how to work hard until the job was done, and then we played hard. I was just a young kid, still wet behind the ears, while some were much older than I, and yet they took the time to be my friend.
Into this time honored tradition of shipmates walked Charlie Boyd.
I don’t remember the first time we met, but I do remember when I first felt our bond of friendship. We were in San Diego, attached to the pre-commissioning crew of the USS John A. Moore. I was living on base in barracks, and Charlie invited me over to “his place”. He was living in a motel room on Ocean Beach which was rather unusual. His room was a mess of surf boards, fishing equipment and backpacking gear. Over the course of an evening there were the usual beers and conversations, and eventually, Charlie got out his guitar. After strumming several chords, he began to sing “A pilot looks at forty” by Jimmy Buffet. At a certain point, he lost the words just where I could pick up and finish the song.
From that point Charlie was my friend. While we weren’t inseparable, we did manage to spend a lot of time together, and I have many, many good memories of weekends spent fishing and camping, or sailing his boat around mission bay. Charlie taught me everything I know about small boat handling and trout fishing. When he introduced me to sailing, he instilled a life-long dream of sailing to distant places on a self-sufficient small boat.
I would have to say that of all the shipmates I have known, Charlie has influenced me the most. Imagine my joy when I found him registered on “Classmates.com”. He and I have re-established contact, and I am glad I found him again.
He has been to my blog, and it seems we still agree on a few things.
Welcome aboard Charlie.
Kevin
The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, WA. Where even with the worst little camera, one can get good pictures.
It’s much cooler here too!
