USS MULLINNIX DD-944

    18 August 1972

My salad days, well, they have wilted...

I was still a kid when a joined the Navy. The ocean and its waves raised me and I was better for it. My shipmates came from wheat fields of Kansas, Oklahoma oil country, the coal mining counties of West “By God” Virginia, and small burrows in the NE like Hophog, Long Island. Good guys all of them. My friends and shipmates of 1972/73 helped shape me into who I am today.

I was a 'Fire Control Technician' – a 7 syllable rating in a world of 3-syllable Navy – Boatswain Mate, Gunners Mate, Signalman – you get it. 6 in the south as in ‘Far-control’. It had a ring to it but an ambiguous meaning to some. My dad asked me once, “Do you start them or put them out?” Smart ass.

I learned a long time ago you can have all the friends you want when you’re in tall cotton. But your real friends, those that don’t want anything in return for their friendship, are the ones you meet during war, when you’ve blown out your doors and every sunrise comes to you like a testimony to personal failure. You guys know who you are.

I wonder what my life would have been if I hadn’t lived on Mullinnix from boot camp and A-school short of four years? I have left a part of me wherever I have lain my head, including a significant part of my youth on a canvas middle rack, port side, below MT52’s carrier-room, where I made the best friends of my life. What has remained has been magical – a loving wife of God-given 39 years, three sons, two daughters, a duffle bag full of grandkids and great-grandkids, and a yearly trek to the Mullinnix Association Reunion.

And then if things couldn't get any better, on 18 August 2018, I met Mrs. Kim Wood. I'm truly a blessed man. Thank you, Jesus!!!






I'm somewhat disappointed that my birthday didn't make the ship's log. LOL!

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