This entry belonged, chronologically, just before the cemetary pic in the last post. Due to a 10,000 character limit on the post, it was moved here and will also need to be broken into 2 segments.
Memorial Day 2015
I wrote this a few years back after losing my uncle Mike but the sentiments are still the same. -fishnbanjo
Ever since returning home from Vietnam in 1970 Memorial Day has held a different perspective in both my heart and my mind, I have found that as the years pass many emotions come to the fore, some good, some not so and many bitter-sweet, especially now that I have been told my Mantle Cell Lymphoma is now active again, this was written a few years ago but the thoughts are the same for me especially since I lost uncle Mike last year who was 93.
It's Memorial Day weekend again. To many Memorial Day is the official launch to summer, to veterans, and others, it has a distinctively different meaning.
In 1868 Decoration Day was proclaimed on May 30th as a day to place flowers on the graves of those who had died in the recent battles of the Civil War, or as out southern brethren refer to it "the war of Northern Aggression" . By 1882 it was often referred to as Memorial Day but was not officially recognized as such until 1967.
Many of you here know I am first generation born here. I have always been aware of what this day meant even though most of the folks I knew growing up had been in the service it was not in service to this nation with the exception of my uncle Michael Capone who was one of the marines in the third wave in the battle of Iwo Jima.
My uncle never talked about his war experiences but did on occasion speak about the men he served with and I can remember the tears filling in his eyes as his speech slowly was replaced with silence. I never really understood this until I returned from Viet Nam in 1970 and visited my uncle and the looks we exchanged at that meeting were more powerful than words.
Memorial Day for me after my service changed, I no longer went to the parades which had taken on a more celebratory tone to welcome in the summer, instead I would usually find myself in my sports room in quiet reflection.
Many here also know I've been quite ill since being diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma (a form of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma) last year which has been associated with 6 months of spraying while serving in the Danang area in Viet Nam 1969-1970. Much of my thoughts the past year have been in wondering what, if any, legacy I would leave since I have no children to remember me and the end of our family in this country is nigh as my only living relative is my sister who has never had children as well.
A lot of this was actively in my mind when I decided to give up the website I had owned and nourished, the Classic Fly Rod Forum, and I knew that, at least for a little while, I would be remembered there but what about a lasting legacy?
I was gifted a book by Robert Whitaker recently entitled "Land of Lost Content" which is about the history if the Isles of Shoals and the surrounding area including the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where I was employed for over 30 years prior to my retirement in 2005. It's an excellent book and I learned some things I did not know specifically about the shipyard.
As well as it being Memorial Day weekend yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Squalus on her 19th test dive off the Isle of Shoals. At 0840 hours 23 May 1939 on it's 19th test dive the order was given by her captain to "Blow Main Ballast" which the Squalus failed to do and it sank at 243' in the Atlantic killing 26 of its crew.
At 1130 hours her sister ship, Sculpin, set out to sea for her own testing and followed the course of the Squalus. At 1241 hours the telephone buoy of the Squalus was sighted by the Sculpin who notified the shipyard that Squalus was in danger. It took 2 days and the McCann Rescue Chamber 4 trips to to rescue the remaining 33 crew members, the first time in history anyone had been rescued from a sunken submarine. In September 1939 the shipyard made history again when it successfully brought the Squalus to the surface where it was towed to the shipyard, repaired, renamed Sailfish and recommissioned.
Sailfish made history in WW II becoming the first US naval vessel to sink a Japanese ship, the Chuyo, unbeknown to the crew of the Sailfish the Chuyo had 21 POW's aboard all who were survivors of the sinking of the Squalus only to have their lives taken by that very ship under its new name.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has a long and glorious history, founded privately in 1798 in Kittery (a town in Maine which was a territory of Massachusetts until becoming a state in 1820), it became a Naval Shipyard in 1800 and built sailing ships for the US Navy and it's motto "Sails to Atoms" is a part of its legacy.
Portsmouth is the site of many firsts, it built the first government submarine in 1914 which was the only US submarine to serve in WW I. The first submarine to circumnavigate the world was built there, as was the first to travel around Cape Horn South America. As I already mentioned the Sailfish was the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel using a torpedo and the USS Archerfish, a Portsmouth sub, was the first to sink a Japanese aircraft carrier. Other notable firsts include, longest submerged run by a diesel powered submarine, first all welded hull, first with a torpedo bubble eliminator, first to have onboard air conditioning, first whale shaped vessel, fasted submarine in the world (still maintained), first nuclear submarine built by government workers and the first nuclear submarine to sail into the western Pacific.
The last nuclear submarine built by Portsmouth was the Sandlance which was commissioned and launched in 1971. It became a member of Submarine Division 42 (Sub Div 42) a division of Submarine Squadron 4 in Charleston South Carolina which I was attached to in the Operations Office and served as the Admiral's driver.
(Continued,)
