To John Paul Jones, the McCains and to Me…Happy Birthday!

On October 13 in the Year of Our Lord 1775 the United States Navy was established. That makes all of us old salts 234 years old, at least in theory. We have something in common, a closeness that extends from that time to the present. We have served in ships that have sailed and continue to sail throughout the oceans of the world.

For me the beginning of the Navy was when a young man by the name of John Paul left the British Isles under a cloud, added the name “Jones” and volunteered to serve this bold, new country in a changing world. In action aboard the Bon Homme Richard against the British ship Serapis, things were going badly, and the opposing captain asked if he was ready to strike his colors. His reply has lived throughout the ages: “I have not yet begun to fight”. And he continued to fight until the Serapis colors were lowered, and just in time, for his ship was sinking.

We honor John Paul Jones in another way. Almost every news article about military action uses the term “In harm’s way” to denote danger that is being faced by some of our armed forces. The entire quote has a different connotation. Jones asked the Continental Congress to: “Give me a fast ship, for I intend to sail into harm’s way”. The “Harm’s Way” for Jones signified boldness and daring.

Not many years after our new country’s founding, Congress authorized several, first class ships of the line. Made of native trees, live oak from Florida, pine from Main, with fittings and cannon forged in the burgeoning factories of the New England states, these frigates served us well against our foes, including the Barbary Pirates. And two survive to this day. One has never been out of commission.

The U. S. S. Constitution is moored to a pier in Boston, with a full crew and an open gangplank so that visitors can experience something of the sense of “Old Ironsides”. And I have a close connection with her. Many years ago, when I was three years old, she was sailed down our eastern seaboard into the Gulf of Mexico, making port calls as she went. When she got nearby, my father took me to visit. As I walked the deck I felt the “call of nature” and I wet down the main mast of this great sailing ship. I suppose I felt that this was the thing to do at the time. Regardless, my father later told me that he felt that this was the moment that he knew that I would be a sailor!

Our Navy followed many of the traditions of the British fleet, including a daily ration of rum for crewmembers. Mixed with water, it was called “grog”, and it was considered part of the pay of the fighting sailor. But then General Order Number 99 was signed on June 1, 1914 by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, abolishing the rum ration. Coffee and tea had been doled out for some years on a trial basis and the Navy settled on hot coffee as the drink, not of choice but of necessity. Because of this, coffee has become known as a “cup of Joe” in honor of the Secretary.

You may have used the term, not knowing the history, but you haven’t used it in the quantities of us sailors. In March of 1954 the Navy’s Bureau of Supplies and Accounts announced that the Navy consumed 50,688 pounds of coffee per day, more than any other military service on the face of the globe. Recently I read in a health magazine sent to me by my daughter Ashlee, the Nutritionist, that four cups of regular coffee per day will ward off Alzheimer’s. I figure that I am good for at least 50 more years, if averages count for anything.

The U. S. Navy has been known for innovation, but the most innovative move was during the War Between the States. In a time that showed the ushering in of ironclads, rifled cannon, screw propellers and revolving turrets, the Confederate Navy capped it all. The first successful submersible warship, the CSS Hunley, was constructed, and manned with Army personnel. She sortied out into Charleston Harbor and sank the USS Housatonic, but was herself sunk. The Navy continued with research and evaluation, and eventually, in the 1950s, constructed the first nuclear powered ship, the USS Nautilus. I was on a destroyer steaming down the river when she was launched. It was an amazing sight, and long I will remember it. I remember the next three days even better, because I was seasick for the entire time. Never mention the Nautilus to me without being prepared to get barfed on.

David Farragut was a Southerner by birth, but was raised by a Union family, and he signed on with the wrong side. He led the U. S. Navy at the battle of Mobile Bay. He is best remembered for yelling out to his men “Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead”. He was in the rigging of his flagship at the time, with his foot being held by a seaman who was awarded one of the first Medals of Honor for this. Farragut got his part wrong, though. There were no torpedoes as we know them, only electrically exploded mines, but he damned them properly as any good officer would do, and proceeded to win the battle and the city.

The Confederate Navy was well filled with former Union Navy officers. One of my favorites was Admiral Rafael Semmes of the CSS Alabama. Semmes took the Alabama, fitted it out as a raider and raised havoc with the merchant ships of the North. Finally, though, he was cornered in a port in France and had to go to sea, closely pursued by enemy warships. The Alabama was sunk, but Semmes escaped to Virginia. There General Robert E. Lee put him in charge of a detachment of army artillery in the last days of the war. Admiral Semmes returned to Mobile and refused to take the pledge of allegiance to the United States. The people of Mobile, being still in a rebellious mood, elected him mayor. No one complained and he served out his term.

My favorite Navy family is the McCain clan……grandfather John Sidney McCain, father John Sidney McCain, Jr. and son John Sidney McCain, III. There have been only two father-son full admiral groups, and the McCains are one of them. The first McCain commanded one of Admiral Bill Halsey’s task forces in the Pacific war, and was something of a hell-on-wheels character. His nickname was “Slew”, and no one living knows why that name. My Navy nickname is “Holmes”, as in “What gave you the first clue, Sherlock?”. I prefer that to “Slew”.

The admiral is given great credit for his leadership in bringing the Japanese Navy to bay. If you look at the famous photograph of General Douglas McArthur signing the treaty on the deck of the USS Missouri, and scan the officers watching, Slew is the third from the left. He looks like Popeye, which would have been a better nickname, in my opinion.

The father was John Sidney McCain, Jr., and was my commanding officer in 1953, and I became famous (somewhat) for locating his favorite smokes, Dutch Masters cigars, for him. He had been a submarine skipper during World War II, and later was in command of all armed forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War, at the time that his son was a prisoner of war in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”. His nickname among his lesser lights was “Good G—D---“ McCain, because of his profanity, but we never called him that to his face. I would have followed him over the edge of the earth if it were flat, or any where else, for that matter.

John Sidney McCain, III, is known to you all. He is a senator, ran for president, and was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for something over five years. When I first met him I promised to support him if he ever ran for president, and I did. Jackson County gave him 63 percent of its votes. He wrote a book: “Faith of my Fathers”. You should read it, especially the part about his missing washcloth.

So Navy Day has passed by, but you can still celebrate. If you are a man and you see a sailor, shake his hand. If you are a woman, remember: a sailor always appreciates a hug.

Especially “Holmes”!