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The first ship I served aboard in the U.S. Navy was an Essex class aircraft carrier (USS Oriskany). We (the ex crewmen) tried to save her as a museum...not enough money..She narrowly avoided the scrap heap several times.

But, after a long and valiant battle to stay alive, she was to have an ending fitting to the american naval hero that she is; a burial at sea. She was sunk as an artificial reef, with an appropriate monument nearby etc. The final deployment of Ex-USS Oriskany CV/CVA-34 was completed on May 17th 2006. Despite early concerns that she had landed on her starboard side, she was found to be sitting perfectly upright in 212' of water, with the flight deck around 135', and the top of the structure at 69' in the Gulf of Mexico, 22.5 miles offshore from the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, FL, Coordinates - N30:02.542 W87:00.374

For more see the MBT (Maximum bottom time) divers website at mbtdivers.com

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A call has come we can’t ignore;
the bells of glory chime…
to gather o­n a distant shore
a crew from out of time.

We come to grieve the many dead;
the shipmates lost back then...
and as we hear the tributes read
our thoughts return again…

to ports of call in foreign lands
a distant, brighter day;
when life was held in younger hands,
ashore and underway.

We listen to the bugles call
and wipe away the tears,
as names and faces, we recall,
across the many years.

And as the circle draws an end,
forgive the tears we weep
to see our gray and weathered friend,
committed to the deep.

~ © 2005 By: W.D. Neighbors ~


"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast for I intend to go In Harm’s Way."

John Paul Jones to M. de Chaumont on 16 November 1778.

Sunset

She isn't, yet, the lady of my youth
who taught the virgin boy to slake his thirst
with water from the sea of life but, truth
be told she will forever be the first--

the first to find the man within the boy;
to challenge him to gamble; to explore;
the first to turn a sorrow to a joy;
to show my eyes an unfamiliar shore.

I moved from fears to hopes and hopes to fears
to see her make believe; to keep pretending;
this lady, in her gray and dismal years,
who steered away from any thought of ending--

Now, rest ye lady; gently down to sleep
within the ample bosom of the deep.

© 2006 W.D. Neighbors

No Roses

No crosses mark the ocean waves;
no monuments of stone.
No roses grow on Sailor's graves;
a Sailor rests alone.

His tributes are the Seagulls sweeps;
forever wild and free...
and teardrops that a sweetheart weeps
to mingle with the sea.

~ © 2000 By: W.D. Neighbors ~