P.O.D.

SSN 680 Plan of the Day

A Day of Remembering

Half-way through a Monday, most of it spent developing a website for a project I'm managing. There is too much to do, and not enough time, and so I find the holiday is pretty well booked. Not much R and R, sort of feels like a duty day in port, if you know what I mean. My going-to-be high schooler daughter, and my graduating son, both marching band members (percussion,  both of them!) are off to march in the parade and play at the cemetery memorial service. The family goes with, and I'm left alone with six flat-screen monitors, and pages of code. Normally I'd be with them, but as I said before, well, I've got the duty.

It doesn't mean I don't remember. I've grown to appreciate a little ritual now and again, especially regarding Memorial Day, and penning one of these short updates seems to be part of the ritual now. Prompted by an email from Denise, formerly wife of John (Johnny) Shive, I took a few minutes to update our Eternal Patrol page. Johnny's now moved to the confirmed roster, which seems no great honor, at least by those of us who know our names will be there one day, but today of all days, I take a few minutes to run down the list, my own silent ritual of honor for those that served with us, and for us.

Fort Rosecrans National CemeteryI have my own ritual, and I pause an extra moment at the names I recognize as my friends, and I remember. I remember their laughter, their friendship, their advice, their abuse, the times we shared, both good and bad, and I recall that together we served. I check their Honors pages, and make sure everything is hot, straight, and normal.  I type their names into a Plan of the Day update, that may or may not get read, but it doesn't matter.

I remember.

Then I reach the core of my ritual, a private ritual, shared only between me and my shipmates. I go get my bottle of Grand Marnier, that delightful orange liqueur, the Great Mariner, a fitting choice for those of us who went down to the sea in ships. I pour a snifter, warm it gently in my hand, and I read one more time, the list of names of those that went so early on Eternal Patrol.

To you, my shipmates, to those I knew and those I didn't know, those that served beside me, and those that held the line before and after my time. Well done, shipmates. Rest your oars. God grant you fair winds and following seas, and warm the hearts of those that remember you.

To you I lift my glass...


I remember...I remember...

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