A bit of my history for you..............

I just put in an official request for an invitation to the Inactivation/Decomissioning Ceremony for my husband's ship, the USS Enterprise CVN 65. It will be at Norfolk Naval Station. I'm making this trip if it kills me. That ship made a huge impact on my life.  I thought for a day and a half that I was a widow at 21 as my husband was on the flight deck often.  Before he was deployed, he told me over and over again, "I'm on the safest ship in the Navy." Somehow, I didn't quite believe that going over to Viet Nam was "safe."  He also told me that if anything were to happen, I should call the base and the Red Cross.  Well, when the explosion happened, panic broke out back in in San Diego naval community.  I called the base over and over again but no one knew how many men were dead.  Finally, someone told me that Washington would know before San Diego so he gave me the number and I called every hour, all night.  By dawn, they knew my voice and would say...no mame, you husband isn't on the list at this time. It was a day and a half before anyone could make a call home and that was just to say I'm OK and let the next sailor use the phone.  I don't even know if it was a phone....it was on loud speaker. There were over 4,000 needing to call home.  A one minute conversation was enough.  Twenty-eight men lost their lives, ove 300 were injured. Thankfully, Bill came home. I can still see that mighty ship passing slowly under the San Francisco Bridge. It looked so small...then after what seemed like hours, we began to see the outline of the men standing on the ship. It still makes me cry