jumbeaux
05-26-2014, 08:50 PM
Been thinking about this all weekend...Memorial Day is a special day of remembrance for those that lost their life's in Service to our Country. His name was Jones. He was from the inner city streets of Oakland. We served aboard the same Destroyer during the tail end of the War in Vietnam. Jones was a Seaman, deck force...unrated an E3. He was a real character...he was always smiling and joking. Jones loved to "skate" (goof off) and was a real pro at acting busy. He stayed on extra duty about half the time but was the happiest person I ever knew. While deployed Jones along with most of us listened to the comm traffic as Saigon fell. It was a depressing time for most of us...we return from our cruise to CONUS around Easter 1976. We had been deployed on two long cruises beginning in October 1974...home for a couple months then deployed again...Jones had gotten married between cruises and already had a child or two. Our reward for being gone from home for almost two years was to send us to New England for the Bicentennial. Newport, RI...Buzzards Bay, Ma and finally to Boston. We tied up in Boston and set about enjoying the celebration. Jones was in trouble as usual and was restricted to the ship with two hours extra duty each evening. Extra duty was between 1800 and 2000 hours. Jones was chipping and painting aloft...while several of the crew was on the pier enjoying some pizza or pitching a ball around Jones was "entertaining" us with his singing skills...he apparently leaned on a small security chain that broke...Jones fell about 35 feet striking his head on the pier and slipping between the ship and pier into the water. ET1 English dove into the water in an attempt to save Jones. He missed. GMG2 Evans grabbed some scuba gear and in the water he went...I held a life line that was attached to Dave. Dave tried to find Jones...it was dark...Jones had on a pea coat...and Jones was black...Dave's battle lantern didn't have enough candle power to do much good. Several shipmates paddled around in the little flat bottom aluminum boat using flashlights to see if they could locate Jones on the surface. The Boston Metro PD Dive Team joined the search...they found Jones body in about 80+ feet of water...a reflection off his wedding ring alerted them. Jones didn't die in a Naval Battle...he didn't die a hero...he died an ordinary Seaman that chose to serve his Country during a very unpopular time in our Nations history...Jones wasn't the first of my Shipmates to die nor would he be the last. Some died in accidents...some died by their own hand...all died while serving our Country...so Seaman Jones...Fair winds and following seas...God Bless you brother...Underway's the only way...God Bless the United States of America...
rick
rick