A fine tribute to ORISKANY

This might be of some interest here. Surprisingly, it's in the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...nes6may06,1,30
69083.story?coll=la-news-comment

The Los Angeles Times
COMMENTARY
Honorable Death for a Rusty Warrior
By Nicholas A. Basbanes
May 6, 2004

The announcement last month that the Navy had chosen a site 24 miles off
Pensacola, Fla., to be the final resting place for the retired aircraft carrier
Oriskany was greeted with jubilation. Environmentalists, divers and anglers
were all thrilled that the largest reef ever created by the deliberate sinking
of a ship would be in the Gulf of Mexico.

For the men who served aboard the Mighty O during its 24 years of active duty
-- I made two combat cruises to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1969
and 1970 as part of the ship's company -- the sinking resolves a dilemma that
at times threatened to reduce the rusting behemoth they once called home to
heaps of scrap metal. Another scheme, proposed a decade ago, would have
converted it into a gaudy theme park to be tied up in Tokyo Bay.

Given those gloomy options, a burial at sea was by far the most honorable
choice, allowing for a dignified exit while providing years of utility well
beyond anything envisioned half a century ago when the flattop first went into
service.

Although competition among states was intense -- Texas, Mississippi, South
Carolina and Virginia were in the running -- more than 20 other ships,
including three mothballed carriers, are likely to meet the same fate, assuming
that there are no major complications with the Oriskany project. The Navy and
U.S. Maritime Administration intend to send the ship down, keel first, in 210
feet of water sometime this summer.

The Oriskany, named for a Revolutionary War battle in upstate New York, was
built during the waning days of World War II but did not see action until the
Korean War. In 1952, pilots from its air wing became the first naval aviators
to engage enemy jets in combat, splashing a pair of MIG-15s and damaging a
third. Two combat cruises later, the ship was host for the filming of "The
Bridges at Toko-Ri" and "Men of the Fighting Lady," with the latter having its
premiere on the 888-foot-long flight deck. In 1954, the retirement of the
ship's mascot, Tripoli Schatzie, a dachshund who had rounded Cape Horn as the
only female member of the crew -- and who received a Purple Heart for a
gasoline burn suffered in the war zone -- occasioned a feature in the Saturday
Evening Post.

The Oriskany began patrolling Gulf of Tonkin waters in 1963 immediately after
the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem and concluded air operations off
Vietnam 12 years later, having launched more sorties during that period than
any other carrier.

Tales of valor were commonplace, with none more inspirational than the one of
Lt. j.g. Denny Earl summoning the will to land a damaged A-4 Skyhawk onboard
after both of his legs had been shattered by ground fire.

A number of Oriskany pilots became prisoners, including Lt. Cmdr. John S.
McCain, whose date with destiny over Hanoi began one day in 1967 in the cockpit
of a Skyhawk. Whenever I hear the solemn words of the Navy Hymn -- "Eternal
Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave" -- I grieve for
all the lost, for the pilots who never returned from their missions, for the 44
men who died Oct. 26, 1966, when a magnesium flare exploded in a munitions
locker, igniting a horrific fire that engulfed forward sections of the ship.
And always, when I hear those words, I think of my shipmates -- we few, we
happy few, as Shakespeare would have it -- young men who came together during
what all of us acknowledge today was the defining experience of our generation.
"Ships have a way of imparting something of themselves to those who sail in
them," is the way our much-beloved skipper during the 1969 cruise, Capt. Jack
S. Kenyon, described that ineffable magic that takes place. He told me he
intends to be present as his former command "slips beneath the waves to rest
forever on a friendly bottom" southeast of Pensacola, the birthplace of naval
aviation.

To this noble vessel we all say Bravo Zulu, Oriskany, and Godspeed; may flights
of angels guide you to your rest.

Nicholas A. Basbanes is the author, most recently, of "A Splendor of Letters:
The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World" (HarperCollins, 2003).

MW

This might be of some interest here. Surprisingly, it's in the LA Times:


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...a-news-comment

Not so surprising, considering that the author served on the "O-Boat."

A good story is a good story, and even the LATimz will print one if it
thinks it will sell papers.

--
Mike Kanze

"Democratic strategists feel John Kerry's war record means he can beat Bush.
They say when it comes down to it voters will always vote for a war hero
over someone who tried to get out of the war. I'll be sure to mention that
to Bob Dole when I see him."

- Jay Leno


"Mike Weeks" wrote in message
...
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