Sometimes it’s not too late
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I came from a broken family. There, it’s finally in the open.
My dad was in the Navy. I was born on an Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. My parents divorced, lived in separate states and both remarried all before I was five years old.
Fast forward through my life making the shared custody, “YOU HAVE TO GO” trips every summer, a week for Christmas all the while the voiced bitter thoughts my parents had for each other left its mark. You see, I always made those trips as a had to, not a want to. As a child, I didn’t fully understand. But then I grew up.
As much as it shames me to say, I never really thought about the life my dad lived, just the life he had when we were there visiting. As I have grown in adulthood, my relationship with my dad has changed greatly and we have gotten really close.
This 4th of July was different for me. My dad and I sat on the porch talking about his Navy days and it bothered the heck out of me that I did not even know the name of the ship he served on. So I asked, and I am so thankful I did.
I learned that my father served on the USS Simon Lake Submarine and served as an E6 on the USS Moosbrugger from October 1979 – January of 1988. He was one of the engineers that ran a test platform for sonar (tactical towed away sonar) and test landing helicopters on the ship in rough waters.
He told me about deployments to Lebanon and other missions he served with and as I am caught up in learning about this man, who is my father, I can see that he is as excited about sharing the stories and this part of his life with me as I was hearing them and learning about him.
He told me about the first time they brought a computer on board. It was shared by quite a few stations and he somehow managed to delete something that put half the ship out. My dad is old school; his smartphone is for show. He said it was during this particular refit and upgrade of the ship that he and his crew mounted a pair of moose antlers under the bridge window.
Unfortunately, both the USS Simon Lake and the USS Moosbrugger have been decommissioned and dismantled but I get to keep a piece of my dad I didn’t know.
Here’s the kicker: last year I had given him a couple of Zippo lighters I had collected over the years. Imagine my surprise when he showed one of them to me that had the USS Moosbrugger Ship engraved on one side and the Ship Crest engraved on the other side.
I have looked forward to our summer trips for years now, especially our fishing trips, and in those trips I find that sometimes it’s not too late.
