Nam Stars
I know Pierce from the USS Mullinnix.
He shipped over, I got out.
Transferred to the carrier
Bennington he served in Vietnam.
Years later I bump into him at the races.
We talk and talk at a bar
about finding sailors we knew
on that 944 tin can,
especially Jesse Esters, leading
deck seaman and great shipmate
but he died reports a research librarian.
Small consolation the Mux made the obit.
All Pierce recalls about his Benny time
is loading ammo in a magazine
under a 5 inch 50 gun mount
pounding enemy positions.
The continual blasts broke Pierce down
and the Navy let him go honorably
with a disability pension.
When I learn from a TV show that
the Benny was awarded 5 battle stars
I tell Pierce and he says his head
often flashes thousands of them.
He always picks up the tab for lunches,
on my Uncle Sam he says.
He loves the thunder of hooves at the track
but true storms make a dog of him.
©2023 Thomas M. McDade All rights reserved.
Thomas M. McDade resides in Fredericksburg, VA, formerly CT & RI,
He is a graduate of Fairfield University.
McDade is twice a U.S. Navy Veteran serving ashore at the Fleet Anti-Air Warfare Training Center, Dam Neck Virginia Beach, VA and at sea aboard the USS Mullinnix (DD-944) and USS Miller (DE / FF-1091).
His poetry has most recently appeared in Half Hour to Kill, Emblazoned Soul and Flying Dodo Review.