"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven: A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace."
Ecclesiastes 3:1,8

I recently received an email about my website from a man by the name of Daniel Parks, who was interested in my lighthouse pages as he wrote a poem about one the lighthouses I have pictured in my website, Old Point Loma. He sent me his poem, and I included it on the page which pictures this lighthouse. In correspondence back and forth with he and his wife, we found out that we have so many similarities in our lives and especially concerning our "Navy Days". She sent me an email letter, and I was so touched by it that I asked her if I could make a web page out of it, and she gave me permission to do that. I hope when you read her letter below that it will bring back memories that you may have also concerning your experiences in the Navy. Thank you, Sheila, for touching our lives with your story!!!

Her Final Voyage
written by Sheila Parks

U.S.S. Constellation CVA 64

(Picture taken from the Old Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego)

Three years ago we went to San Diego on vacation and was so very blessed to see something that couldn't have been planned if we'd tried!  This was truly "God's Hand" directing!  The last ship Dan was on was the U.S.S. Constellation.  Like Steve, he left the ship in Viet Nam and flew home to be discharged from the Navy.  We heard from our son, who is currently in the Navy stationed in SD, that the "Connie" was in port but was about to leave for WestPac.  We went to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse the day of departure and stood with a group of about 150 people to watch it leave the harbor.  As it turned out, it was the last cruise for the Connie before it was to be decommissioned!  Wives, girlfriends, children and former shipmates all lined the cliffs watching the enormous carrier make its way from the safety of the harbor to the open sea.  Dan took so many pictures that we could make a collage of the entire journey!  Then everyone started talking about their personal connection to the ship and the men on board.  Standing near us was the widow of one of the men who had served on board and had retired years before.  He had recently passed on, and she came to see the Connie leave port for the last time.  Behind us was a man who had been injured and was on TAD,  therefore he didn't go with his shipmates this last time.  He seemed sad and "left behind". Many wives and children... were waving and crying and shouting to their men. Then silence fell on the whole crowd as the ship passed directly beneath us and a helicopter took the Harbor Master off the deck.  One wife said it had been exactly three years to the day when her husband first left on this journey........ they were just married.  A man standing beside us said the first time he went on WestPac on the Connie was 10 years earlier.  I stood there with tears in my eyes realizing it had been 30 years to the day when I watched my husband of 5 months sail from the harbor on the Connie,  toward a distant country with a strange name.....Viet Nam.  History had repeated itself, except this time, my husband stood by my side instead of standing on the deck of this magnificent ship.  In all, every decade from the first years of the U.S.S. Constellation's commission to this last cruise, was represented on that jagged point of land.  Everyone stood there for several minutes silently contemplating what had just transpired.  I believe others, like us, felt the presence of God, and something special passed among the crowd.

As we left Cabrillo Monument Park, we stopped briefly at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery and paid our respects at the graves of some of the men who died in Vietnam.  The rows of stark white markers set against the back drop of the blue Pacific Ocean is a breathtaking site.   I can't tell you how humbled and grateful we felt being in the presence of this Holy place.   

 

You can contact Daniel or Sheila Parks HERE.

 

Please visit Steve on his Navy pages of the
USS Wexford County if you have not seen them yet!!!

Please pass on this page in hopes of Dan and Steve
finding some of their shipmates!!!

Song now playing: America