Memories:

We spent little time in Newport during my tour on SEVERN (Tender availability in Norfolk in January '65, 5 months in the BNSY (met my wife, Pat, there), Gitmo (including great liberty in Montego Bay and Ft Lauderdale), many local ops with CVs LAKE CHAMPLAIN, ESSEX and WASP & Newport based tin cans (MITSCHER, WILLIS A, LEE, FORREST SHERMAN, WM. RUSH (with Roadrunner painted on her ASROC) and many others), fueling USS LITTLE ROCK north of Iceland, with a foot of ice covering everything. Our Med Cruise lasted from 11/65 to 5/66 with port visits to Rota, Gibraltar, pit stop in Soudha Bay, Rhodes for Xmas, Athens for New Years, several pit stops in Naples, upkeep in Toulon, Genoa and two long Malta visits (great British Nurses!). But my highlight was being Senior SP Officer in Barcelona, enjoying the city while boating was cancelled for days due to heavy swells. Then we outchopped in Rota, where I managed to unload all my excess ship store merchandise on green Marines of the inchopping Med ARG. This was followed by the visit to Portsmouth (where I bought a new '66 MGB for $1800, delivered stateside six weeks later!). Two days after we leftr - Fire at Sea (I can still see CHENG Leo Fournier's face blackened by soot). We came home to NPT & soon left for first of two Gemini recoveries off East Africa (way too boring). I got married in August & the next day headed off for the second Gemini recovery (even more boring), upkeep and endless local ops, broken up only by a great weekend in NYC, where SEVERN berthed at the about-to-close Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the crew "liberated" anything not welded down.

I worked for CAPTs W.T. (Water Tight) Holmes, Bob John Robison (he of the varied flags, which I had to procure) and Chuck Carroll. Fought with XOs Jim Ryan and John Harwood, partied with Murray Kaplan (one of my groomsmen, with whom I've kept up all these years), Bob Curry, Tom Fowler, Sixten Osgood Banks (SOB) Netzler, Dave Baiter, Al Keyser and the other bachelor JOs, while the brown baggers (Jack Singer, Wayne Williams, George Newton, Carl Wightman, Ron Jolley, etc. always rushed home). Special memories of LT(jg) Tom Hershey, Ship's Bosun and my SeaDaddy, who was one of the Navy's original frogmen and taught me all about the real "Old Navy" (pre WWII). I recognized many of the names in the crew list that served on board during my time - and was saddened to hear that Bob Stroup passed on, he and I hooked up frequently in BNSY, where he went to work after retiring from the Navy. Unfortunately, I was also with SKC Luther Burks when he suffered his fatal heart attack, so not all memories are pleasant.

Despite coming in as a draft dodger (I joined the USN the day before I was to report to Ft. Dix for Army boot camp), I stayed in the Navy for
27 years, through a variety of shipboard and shore tours which also included time in VietNam with the SEABEES and tending Boomers at SSBN refit site II in Rota, Spain. I just retired the second time (from an IT company supporting the DOD) and am enjoying life to the fullest. Will send in my dues and probably make it to Staunton this fall, since its just down the road from us. Keep up the good work.

Regards

A.P. (Andy) Mesterhazy CAPT, SC, USN (Ret)