Attended a retirement of an old friend from the Navy on Friday…

For those who have never seen it, it is a very structured ceremony honoring the individual and they family (if present) for their service to the Navy and the country.

“Wreck” was one of those JOs that everybody thought would never make LT, much less make a career of the Navy; he did 10 years active and 20 in the reserves, had command, did well and retired as a Captain on 30…

It was old home week, folks coming out of the woodwork to honor Wreck and his family.  “Bubba” was the guest speaker, and regaled not only us but the family with stories from over the years (and some I don’t think Marcia had ever heard to judge from her response).  He was formally piped ashore with the requisite 8 sideboys, in this case with two admirals in the eight, and a couple of folks that had a ‘bit’ of trouble fitting into their uniforms since they’d been retired for a while.

Once the official ceremony was over, folks met at the reception in a much more ‘relaxed’ atmosphere and the stories really started flying…

Marcia was still ‘stunned’ that it was finally over, and she told me she just couldn’t believe after 28 years there wouldn’t be any more deployments, calls, road trips, and weekends/weeks with Wreck gone.   

And she told us to get him drunk for old times sake… 🙂  

Bubba had managed to get a bunch of photos from over the years and put them into a powerpoint that ran on the big screen in the background.  Quite a few of the pics brought up comments, memories, flights and missions, odd happenings, det ops, and more sea stories along with memories of folks no longer with us.  

We had the requisite toasts, and the last was to Absent Comrades.

On the screen was the following:

I think that was a pretty appropriate way to end the reception…