Published: August 27, 2009 06:59 pm      

HAMILTON: We are all, somehow, tied to each other

Names mean things. The USS New York (LPD-21) will be commissioned in New York Harbor on Nov. 7 at the Intrepid Museum Pier 88.  

Its bow is cast with 7.5 tons of metal from the terrorist-downed World Trade Center from the infamous date of 9/11. New York’s commissioning is billed as the “commissioning event of the century.” It may mean more to more Americans than any other ship that has ever sailed the sea. Her commissioning announcement reads, “With the words ‘Man your ship and bring her to life’ the world will change, at least for us. She will never fill the hole, but she will fill our hearts.”

For some of us old sailors, our hearts fill as such with other commissionings, too. President John F. Kennedy once said, “I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea; except I think it is because, in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean; and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”

For some 13 years, and upon several vessels, some of the greatest days of my life were spent upon, or near, Kennedy’s sea. I was a sailor, and I miss those days, and those ships, and those adventures and experiences. It saddens my heart when one of the ships upon which I sailed, or with whom we steamed, is decommissioned. The USS Farragut (DDG-99), whose commissioning I attended a mere three years ago in Jacksonville, Fla., had special meaning for me. I spent nearly four years upon the decks of her predecessor. We steamed the Mediterranean Sea with the USS John F. Kennedy. I actually shed tears of joy when their names are, or will be, resurrected and placed upon new vessels. Or when a new vessel is commissioned with a new name honoring a new place or new hero with whom we have some loose association. Ships such as the USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3); and especially the USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), named for Medal of Honor recipient Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham of Scio, which is a little place in the fading foothills of the Allegheny Mountains on New York’s Southern Tier, about halfway between Olean and Hornell and is about a two-and a half hour drive from Niagara Falls. Dunham gave his life in Iraq to save the lives of his fellow Marines; and, in a sense, to save all of our lives.

I am inspired when an old hero of mine is finally recognized by having their name embossed across the fantail of one of our warships. Richmond native Sam Gravely was one such hero. He was the Navy’s first black admiral. I happened to come across an All Hands Magazine article when I was a member of an early convening class of the Navy’s BOOST Program. At that time, the program was for minorities who were preparing for commissioning as naval officers. There was a picture in that magazine of the Navy’s highest ranking black officers. They were but a few captains, and only one had traded in the eagle on his collar for the stars -- Adm. Sam Gravely. 

I was inspired by that photograph; but the image was soon lost in the hubbub of San Diego life, and I would return to the sea as a petty officer; while one of the few black ones, one of the senior ones upon nearly every command which I served in that old Navy. 

Coincidentally, a few years after my discharge from active duty, I purchased two very nice chairs from Mrs. Maude Sally, a wonderful Niagara Falls woman who was conducting an estate sale. I gifted those chairs to adorn the pulpit of Word of Life Ministries on Hyde Park Boulevard. Because of Sally’s charming personality, she and I became friends; and somewhere in our conversations, and in her knowledge of my Navy days, she mentioned that she grew up in Richmond with Adm. Gravely and was a very close friend of his. In June of this year, I called her and told her that Gravely had died, but excitingly told her that the Navy had named a ship for him, the USS Gravely (DDG-107). As my tears were mingled with pride for Gravely and remorse for my own shortcomings, it was clear that Mrs. Sally’s voice trembled with both pride and sadness: proud that her old friend deservingly had a ship named for him, and the sadness of the loss of her childhood friend.

Kennedy said, “We are tied to the ocean.” I say that names mean things, and through them, we are all, somehow, tied to each other.”

Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. His columns run Fridays in the Gazette. He welcomes feedback at Ken Hamilton930@aol.com.