A Sailor Song

I joined the Navy in late 1983, active in '84. I did a year at sea (PN2 AW USN 1984-1988, Fighter Squadron 14, USS John F Kennedy), but regretfully, I never made it to the part of the world mentioned in the song. Sure sounds like smooth sailing and a beautiful view though ;-) Certainly no jets landing 30 inches above my head when I am trying to sleep. My berthing compartment was on the 0-3 level, right under the #3 wire in the arresting area of the flight deck. I did 7Pm-7Am shifts, with a 4 hour watch every 3rd day, holidays included ;-) Needless to say, I learned to sleep through almost anything. Coincidentally, I do know a thing or two about "midnight watches" and "noisy bars". I have a well earned Budweiser label in Hebrew from such a place. Haifa Israel, 87. Crazy times, crazy times ;-) Being in a teeny bar with a bunch of sailors and a few Marines when the only American beer we have seen in months, starts to run out, is forever etched in my mind ;-))))

The thing about this song is that one of the authors, Stephen Stills, was "scheduled" to accompany a USO tour that played in the Hangar Deck of my ship, when we were in the Gulf of Sidra in late 86. I had wormed myself into a duty assignment as his escort, but at the last minute he cancelled. I ended up being assigned to both the lead singer of Kansas, and Tommy Johnston of the Doobie Brothers. (Some guy from Pablo Cruise was there too, awesome show.). Anyway, Tommy and I hit it off over his love of music and Harleys ;-) I arranged to have our PR shop sew a bunch of patches on an authentic fighter pilot jacket for him, so Tommy, I took your advice and kept trying to sing and play. Thanks for the kind words, and I hope you still have the jacket ;-) Steve Morse, of the Dixie Dregs (young guitarists take note) was playing guitar for Kansas. They were so awesome!

Anyway, I loved being at sea. I never saw such majesty. Stealing a few minutes on a trip back from the port quarter, to slip out to a deck level catwalk and grab a smoke and watch catch sunrise on a balmy and clear Mediterranean morning, especially if no flight-ops were being conducted ;-) Seeing the ship hitting swells on the PLAT video feed in the berthing compartment, and seeing them break at or near the flight deck at 90-100 feet above the waterline made me fell pretty small and glad I was not on a destroyer ;-).

This song reminds me of times like that.


God Bless our troops
Si vis pacem, para bellum...It's not a contradiction ;-)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Sailing
• Navy
• CSNY
• Crosby
• Stills
• Nash
• Young
• Southern
• Cross
• Sailor
• Song
• Mr
• K's
• attempt

[heffa63]

Stills played with sound equipment from the ships chapel. I sat crosslegged at his feet on the flight deck.I heard he was a friend of the the C.O. as was Hoyt Axton. The weatherdeck you mentioned was starboard on the flight deck level.A cat walk I used to sit out there at night, no red lights, just the sound of the sea rushing by, the unobstructed moon, and my thoughts. I did dump a lot of crap off the port quarter though. S-1 Div.-Great song and you do it well. CV67 Haze gray and underway!

[logmusic]

Hey there Heffa63, The Stills appearance must have been before I first went aboard. He was supposed to be with the USO tour that flew aboard while we were in the Med, around OCT 86. He did not show. I was bummed, as I was assigned to be his escort. They put me over to escorting two guys from Kansas, and the next day after the show I got some patches sewn onto a flight jacket for Tommy Johnston of the Doobie Bros. I was not ships co, I was in VF-14. Find me on Facebook - Brian Kovalchik

[heffa63]

log music,I was hoping someone might have taped the the time I listened to Steven Stills on the JFK. I was aboard 83-86.We were in NY Harbor in 86. I had duty and my friend, a banjo player, and deadhead told me Stills was playing on the flightdeck. There were only of about 14 of us, We listened to Steven Stills play with really bad sound equipment. But sitting on the non-skid, at 22 yrs. old, it was the best show I've ever heard. One more Silver Dollar was incredible.

[Paddydinchina]

way to go ship mate CV67 ..1981 to 84