[Seahawk]

Veterans Day.

I was with a very good friend of mine for three hours today. He was an Navy H-2 pilot and a pretty unconventional guy but not in the sense that most would understand: Naval Academy Grad but a complete rebel, finance wizard from Pottsville. My kind of people.

He has had Crones for over 30 yeas and is in the last episodes. He texted me Tuesday and told me how he was doing: Lots of pain, doubt, the gamut of emotions.

I, of course, asked what he needed, what I could do.

He texted back: Just come spend some time with me, take my mind off the pain. I was in NYC yesterday and got home last night. Friday work?

It did. No parades, no accolades, just three hours remembering, talking, mostly me listening to my friend on Veterans Day. I got home 20 minutes ago.

As we, like all Navy pilots are wont to do, lied to each other about all the cool things we did, he told me a story worth repeating, something I’d like to share.

He was on the Aubrey Fitch, FFG-34, as the OinC of the H-2 helo Det. The CO of the boat was a bit of a hard ass, but fair and good. He had been a Brown Water Sailor in Vietnam as an LT and had some different perspectives: He told my friend that no one gets an Aubrey Fitch plaque without becoming an Officer of the Deck Underway (OOD). His deal.

He, my friend and the helo bubba, politely declines. Plaques and qual’ing as an OOD really weren’t important for the Det as a whole, enlisted or officer. Extra effort at sea is rarely rewarded. They, the H-2 Detachment and the ship finish the deployment and part ways, sans OOD qual’s and plaques.

A year later my friend is in Portsmouth Naval Hospital suffering from the first serious onset of Crones and about to be discharged from the Navy…medically discharged and not to fly again.

There, as my friend lays in the painful thralls of Crones, arrives the CO of the Fitch. Plaque in hand.

That is Veterans Day to me. That is why I did what I did, for the moments when it all made sense.

Best.