Coby Dillard: Remembering four who stood watch
Our buddy, Coby Dillard writes in the Hampton Roads Pilot about the four sailors who’ve passed on unexpectedly in the last week;
Early last week, on the destroyer Mahan, Master at Arms 2nd Class Mark Mayo was killed while repelling an unauthorized individual attempting to board the ship. The details are still being investigated, but we know that he shielded another sailor from attack, offering his life in protection of hers.
On Tuesday, Midshipman Fourth Class Will McKamey died in Baltimore, three days after collapsing in football practice at the Naval Academy, where he was a freshman running back. On Saturday, Midshipman Third Class Hans Loewen died from injuries received in a skateboarding accident.
And Rear Adm. Jeremiah Denton, who spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and later became a U.S. senator from Alabama, died Friday in Virginia Beach.
Each of these men joined the Navy for different reasons, in different times and during different conflicts.
[…]
For those of us who call them brother, we salute their service, ready to continue the work from which they stand relieved.
Category: Blue Skies, Navy
Rest in peace, my brothers-in-arms. Fair winds and following seas.
+1 Can’t say it better. Well, I can add Rest in The Peace of God’s Arms Brothers.
Amen.
In addition to those above. The Washington state mudslide claimed:
CDR John Regelbrugge and his wife Kris. 32 years of service from E1 to O5; he was the OINC of the Maintenance Detachment in Everett.
Missing but presumed lost was CPO Billy Spillers, his dtr Brooke, and son Jovon; his dtr Kaylee has been confirmed killed. Chief Spillers was the Career Counselor at Everett. It hasn’t been a good week for the sea service.
Rest in peace, shipmates.
It has not been a good week.
What is inspiring though, in death they are not forgotten and we have learned so much more about them.
Bless them all and their families in their time of need.
To all my brother squids, Fair winds and Following Seas.
From an Army commo grunt.
RIP!