#142—An Unexpected Delight

Andy Adkins
Andy Adkins with painting by Keana Poindexter-Jones at Gainesville Fine Arts Association
Blog #142 (audio)

Blog #142 – An Unexpected Delight

Published: April 30, 2023
Audio by Andy Adkins
4 Downloads

This past week, my wife and I had the pleasure to attend a reception for local authors and artists. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but since one of my simple “prose” writings had been accepted, I thought it would be fun to attend.

Several months ago, I’d submitted a short piece to the local Gainesville Writers Alliance Group (WAG); it wasn’t really a contest, per se, but I thought… “why not?”

Even though my Navy days are long past, there are certain memories, events, and moments that I cannot forget and, in most cases, do not want to forget.

I spent Three Years, Eleven Months, and 29 Days in the Navy—I went in on a Monday and got out on a Friday, one day short of four years—and assigned two duty stations: NAS Agana, Guam (’73-75) and USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63 (’75-77). My rating was Aviation Boatswain’s Mate-Handler (ABH) and my primary duty was Crash & Salvage. I made the Kitty Hawk’s Westpac ’75 cruise and spent a year in the Bremerton Shipyards (’76-77).

During my short Navy “career,” I spent most of my time on the flight deck.

People often think the flight deck is akin to the popular movies, The Final Countdown (1980) and the Top Gun (1986, 2022) franchise. Those aren’t bad movies and, IMO, I do think the few scenes of fighter aircraft launching and recovering actually portray a somewhat realistic picture of all that goes on during flight ops. Well… except for those last scenes when everyone on the flight deck wears a sparkling clean jersey and float coat…

But I digress.

What they don’t show in the movies is the 16-18 hour days (at least during my time) of normal flight ops, or the few times we flew around-the-clock, or the not-so-good things that happen to personnel who have their head up their asses or are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nor do they portray those times… those special moments… when you have some down time. Those times, those moments, and those thoughts are what I tried to capture in the following piece:

From an Aircraft Carrier Flight Deck: Indescribable Beauty
By Andy Adkins
United States Navy (’73-77). Flight deck, aircraft crash firefighter.

USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63: 1975, Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

In the middle of an ocean, the sun seems brighter, the sky appears bluer, and the air tastes cleaner. I’m sure there’s a scientific word for this natural phenomenon, but I can only describe my own personal experience.

From the flight deck, looking down about sixty feet to the surface, the water is so blue and so clear that now and then I’d spot a humpback whale off the bow, or a school of dolphins racing each other to see who could keep up with the ship. Or I may witness a school of flying fish. If the sun was just right, the light glistens off their transparent wings as they sail 200 meters on an ocean breeze just a few feet above the calm water.

Red Sky at Night… Sailor’s delight. When at sea, sunrises and sunsets are nothing short of spectacular. If you happen to catch the sun just as it touches the water and there’s a gentle breeze causing slight ripples upon the surface, you feel an inviting pathway, leading you right to the edge. No two sunsets or sunrises are the same. The various combinations of oranges, yellows, reds, peaches, and every hue and shade in between are breathtaking. Throw in a reflection off the ocean surface and it’s a sailor’s cocktail, waiting for your very soul to drink in.

At night, the ship’s four propellers churn up the magnificent appearance of phosphorescence. Plankton glows a beautiful turquoise blue-green in the ship’s wake. Letting my eyes follow this miles-long pathway toward the never-ending horizon, where the indigo sky meets the water… well, it almost defies description.

There is no light pollution in the middle of the ocean… anywhere. Everything is so clear and so well-defined. The mystical moist night air fills your lungs with peace and contentment. I’d lie down on the steel deck and look up at the night sky, lit up by millions of twinkling stars. It’s almost as if the stars call to you with a warm, “Hi and welcome to tonight’s special show, created just for you.”

And with the glass-like ocean surface, you literally cannot tell when the water on the horizon ends, and the starry sky begins. The low moon seems to beckon us to walk on its reflection across the calm waters.

Quiet, serene, tranquil—you can’t help but feel there’s a higher being out there, holding you in their arms, and loving you no matter what. You just feel you’re being swallowed up in nature’s unbound beauty.

As one shipmate so eloquently stated… out there, I realize I’m just one small being on one ship in one ocean on one planet in one galaxy in one universe. Yet surrounded by all this awesome beauty, I feel I’m on top of the world.

The artist’s name is Keana Poindexter-Jones, based in Florida. I did not get a chance to meet her at the reception. But I must tell you… I honestly didn’t know what to expect of her interpretation of my descriptions. See… I’ve never done this before: have an artist create a rendition of something I wrote. But, the more I looked at the painting—and I’ll admit, I had to gander several times—the more it hit me… I think she did a brilliant job.

I mean, when you think about those special moments and that feeling of serenity and tranquility… out in the middle of an ocean… even though you’re surrounded by a mass of metal, hundreds of shipmates, and noise and smells, and who knows what else… you look for peace and quiet when you can. And for those few moments, it’s only you and the ocean.

Those of us who’ve been at sea have experienced the awesome sunrises & sunsets, the millions of twinkling stars at night, and the whales, porpoises, and flying fish. You can’t paint clean air, but with the surrounding ocean and animals, you can smell it.

At least, I think I can.

Until we meet again,
Andy

Previous Posts Mentioned in this Blog:

Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (’73-77) and the author of several books, including You Can’t Get Much Closer Than This-Combat with the 80th “Blue Ridge” Division in World War II Europe, published by Casemate Publishers (2005) and selected as the Book of the Month for the Military Book Club. His newest novel, NEVER FORGET, is the story of A Vietnam Veteran’s Journey for Redemption & Forgiveness; NEVER FORGET is offered as a FREE (PDF, eBook format) download. Adkins also writes a weekly blog, “A Veteran’s Journey.”

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