Homecoming

Lt. Matt Crenshaw was tapping his foot against the side of the desk as he sat waiting for mail call. As a youth on his father’s farm, he had always wanted to see the world. Now he found himself on a World War II vintage aircraft carrier on patrol off the coast of Vietnam and wanted nothing more than to get back home to his wife. He had met Mona while on shore duty in Philadelphia, fallen in love, and married her, expecting to be discharged upon completion of his four year commitment at the end of that tour of duty. The Navy had responded to his letter of resignation with the unhappy tidings that his service was being extended due to the needs of the service at the discretion of the President and issued orders for him to report to his new duty station on board the aircraft carrier, which was preparing for deployment. Due to bad weather and operational concerns there had been no mail plane in almost two weeks.

When the yeoman distributing the mail called his name, Matt jumped up and shouted, “Here.” He scanned the pieces of mail eagerly searching for a letter from his wife. As he shuffled through the mail his broad grin faded into a frown. Then a slight smile returned when he recognized the return address on an envelope, which he promptly opened.

Lt. Nick Pierce inquired, “News from home?”

“No. But I got my discharge orders from the Navy, so I’m good to go.” Matt’s disappointment over the absence of a letter from Mona was softened a bit by the receipt of firm discharge orders to take effect upon the ship’s return to home port in Long Beach as well as recognition that the military mail service was not the most efficient.

Later that night, Matt was humming Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound” as he descended the steps of the ladder into the steamy confines of the No. 1 engine room to relieve Nick Pierce as Engineering Officer of the Watch. When he reached the watch station, Nick advised him that they had just received orders to bring the ship up to maximum speed. “A pilot is having engine trouble and might not be able to make it back to the ship, so we’ll have to go to him. We’ve lit off the superheaters for maximum efficiency and are bringing her up to speed as fast as possible.” Matt checked all the gauges and assumed responsibility for the watch. An hour later, with the throttle, temperature, and pressure gauges all pegged on their red safety lines, Matt called the bridge and told the Officer of the Deck that they were getting all the speed they could muster from the steam engines.

As Matt and the other men stood their watch under the air vents in 102 degree heat and anxiously watched the gauges for any sign of trouble, to relieve the tension they chatted about going home.

Petty Officer Kelly, as he monitored the gauges for the oil pumps, said to Baxter, who was manning the throttle for the No. 1 steam turbine engine, “Last summer when I was on leave I met this real cool chick, and she’s been writing every day since we’ve been gone. We’re talking about getting married when I get back home.”

To that, Baxter replied, “Man, you’re crazy.”

With a puzzled look on his face, Kelly turned to Matt and said, “Lieutenant, what do you think?”

Matt thought for a moment and then responded, “Well, Kelly, that’s not much time to get to know someone, but if you love her I’d say go for it.”

Finally the bridge called to say that the pilot was on board and gave the order to start reducing speed slowly in order to allow the heat to dissipate from the engines. Matt called the boiler rooms and told them to secure the superheaters.

After the watch was over, he went up to the catwalk to gaze out over the ocean and think about the time he and Mona had jumped on his Harley on the spur of the moment and ridden along that asphalt ribbon known as the Pacific Coast Highway to the beaches of northern California. Then he went back to his quarters and wrote her a letter telling her about his discharge orders and how eager he was to get home. The ship was scheduled to depart the patrol station for home the next day. Before he turned his bunk light out, he tenderly touched the photo of Mona he kept taped to the bottom of the bunk over his and said, “Hang in there, Babe. I’ll be home soon.”

Homeward bound a couple of days later, at the daily meeting of the officers of the Engineering Department, the Chief Engineer announced, “The North Koreans shot down a recon plane off their coast last night, and we’ve been ordered back to the Sea of Japan in case there is trouble.”

Matt lamented, “Going BACK? Man, that sucks!”

Their response muted by the presence of senior officers, others muttered their concurrence with his feelings.

Finally, after two weeks of patrolling the Korean coast in complete passive mode with no sonar and no radar, which meant no flights, including the mail plane, the ship resumed its journey home. Since Mona didn’t have many friends or family in Long Beach, she had returned to Philadelphia when he shipped out and wouldn’t be meeting the ship. Consequently, Matt volunteered to take the watch in the engine room for the docking so Lt. Pierce could enjoy the homecoming celebration on the pier with his family.

After the ship was moored to the dock and the engine room had been secured, Matt went ashore to call Mona and let her know he was coming home. He dialed the number but failed to make a connection. He called the next door neighbor, Carla Staples. When she answered the phone, he said, “Carla, it’s Matt Crenshaw. Have you seen Mona? I dialed the number, but it’s been disconnected.”

Carla replied, “She’s gone, Matt. She took off with some dude about a month ago.”

At 0830 Monday morning, after processing his discharge papers, Matt drove his car down the pier giving the ship and the Navy one final salute. He put his car on the highway headed east. About noon on the second day, as he was passing through El Paso, Texas, he stopped at a traffic light and saw a sign:

CIUDAD JUAREZ ---->>

As he looked to the right and saw the border crossing station just down the street, Matt said to himself, “In all my travels, I’ve never been to Mexico. I wonder what it’s like.”