The USS Constellation was commissioned in 1961, and was the first warship I ever made a full deployment on. She was also the last, we came home together on her last cruise – and mine – in 2003. She was a good ship, a hard fighter and well-served by her crew. She We called her “Connie”, and Ronald Reagan called her, “America’s Flagship.”
She launched Phantoms to protect US destroyers during the Tonkin Gulf Incident. Returned a year or so later to launch strikes from both Dixie and Yankee Stations. She made seven combat deployments to Southeast Asia. Her first peacetime cruise wasn’t until 1974.
We almost lost her to a fire in 1988, but the crew battled the blaze heroically. She missed the ’91 scrape due to SLEP, but did six more deployments to the Arabian Gulf afterward, including the big one in 2003.
I’ve sailed on many ships, but Connie is the only one I’d ever dare to call “mine.”
Now they’re going to turn “my” ship into razor blades.
It is to weep.
I served aboard the “Connie” 5/88-5/90. During that time, working in the ASWMOD, I made a WESTPAC, NORPAC, and took it around to Norfolk, VA before it went to the yards. I was aboard for the fire of 8/88. The ship’s crew was a great team led by CAPT. J.J. Zerr, who I will always remember of one of the best Commanding Officers I ever served under. The Connie was a great ship, and I will always remember my service aboard her, and the men I had the honor to serve with. She will forever be apart of our great Naval history. It’s sad that she can’t become a museum.
All of the boats I road except two have been scrapped. Sorry for you all’s lose. Rest well.
It strikes me, upon reading comments, that the Navy has a tradition that goes beyond those of other services. Not merely in time, but in service. Nobody in the army claims to have taken the first crap in a latrine or have fired the first round in a bit of artillery, yet in the Navy they claim Plankowner status. As if that means something, and to them it surely does.
I wonder, not having tales of the sea service as a common rallying point, what do the other services use to cement the ties that bind?
I don’t wonder that much — it’s not keeping me awake at night. Just curious is all I am.
– Max
Sir,
The 22nd Artillery know but they won’t share outside the box.
You really don’t know. Lex will speak for the Navy. I will speak for the Army. My dad, a graduate of West Point in 1957 has two and a half million best friends for life.
Dad appeared in About Face and was with SLAM when his battery in Vietnam was over run. Got lots of cred for the stuff he almost never wore.
He was like me. 3 ribbons were enough.
I thought Dave and Tamara would post a picture of the Ordination but maybe they didn’t like the awkward hat grasping. Lex and Dave were much better than me.
Connie on 9/11…and some B&Ws from 30 years earlier.
It was Indy (84-85) and Forrestal (85-87) for me (HS-15). When we rode the Forrestal out of Philly from SLEP, right across the pier was the Shangra-La. She had just been sold for scrap.
We ran plane guard for Shangra-La in the 50′s out of Yokosuka..I have some 35mm slides I took from our fantail..we were moored in front of her..and the deck apes were swinging below the flight deck painting her bow..