Old Hands Old Navy

Saturday April 22, 2017

I was listening to some old country music this afternoon and drinking some beer. The songs reminded me of one of my old navy buddies Doug Culwell. Doug recently passed on but he is anything but forgotten. Doug and I met in Glynco, Georgia when we were in airborne radar operator school. We graduated there, went to Barber’s point Hawaii for further schooling, including Escape, Evasion and Survival school, went to Guam together where we served on air crews tracking typhoons and providing radar coverage for the seventh fleet off the coast of Vietnam, were sent to San Diego afterward.

I lost track of Doug after 1967 and in 2009 the phone rang and at the other end was Doug. He was trying to reconnect with all the radar operators from the old days. He was pretty successful. I had been in contact with Cal, from Maine, but not with Dave Barth or John Strickland, or Ken Vaughn. The others were either off the map or like Dale Crumb who did not want to reunite with anyone. Doug and I stayed in contact until he passed on. I still am in contact with those mentioned, except for Crumb. It is great to still know people from 1964. Cal and I were on the same crew and we spent many days, weeks, months, years together during 1964 to 1967 when he left the navy. I had a deep connection with those guys and had great times together.

The last time I saw Doug was in 2009 when Joyce and I met his lovely wife Mary. After that meeting I wrote this about him.

‘An Old Cowboy’

He’s a cowboy

He’s a miner

But he wasn’t a forty-niner

He was a sailor

He was a jailer

But he was never a failure

He’s an old hand now

His cowboy hat sits high on his brow

He was a friend back then as he is now

He lives on his mountain

He’s clean and free

He’s always been a friend to me

We’re back in touch since we got old

Our stories live again forever bold

They rise in greatness as they get retold

The sun moves onward to the west

The old times sometimes seem the best

Our friendship has passed its test

We’ve been down dusty roads in bad weather

We’ve been across the oceans together

History like that stands forever

Thanks for the good times Doug