You Waited and You Served
To Linda Cox and our children: Kevin, Belinda, Peter, Rick II and John:

The sculpture, "Homecoming" is near the National Naval Aviation Museum (NNAM) and Naval Air Station, Pensacola, FL where I learned to fly. It was created by Bob Rasmussen, CAPT, USN (ret. ?€“ former fighter pilot, Blue Angel and the Director of the NNAM, a great airman, sculptor and person -- made from a picture of his family greeting him ?€“ a scene you all played out many, many times. It well depicts how much mom and all of you also served in the years while I was often away as a naval aviator during Vietnam and other Cold War years in our first squadron, to Navy Patrol Squadron FORTY-NINE (VP49) in Bermuda, and during my 22 years' World Bank career involving late hours in the office and traveling to Africa and the Middle East. You all served as much as I, all the more during the hiatus I caused in our marriage.

A quote ascribed to a Col. David W. Eberley, USAF is applicable. Speaking in March 1991 at Andrews AFB upon returning from captivity in Iraq, about fellow prisoners, he told the assembled (VP Cheney, Gen Collin Powell, CJCS) that his imprisoned group of men and women had served well: "you need to know that those who waited also served," originally from a John Milton sonnet. The saying is also part of a BAFTA Best Picture, Awarded docudrama movie, "The Man Who Never Was" adapted from the book by Ewen Montagu about one of the greatest successful deceptions of WWII.

In 1964, following our tour at the USN Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA and a month long camping trip up through CA, WA, OR we traveled back to Imperial Beach, CA on the Mexican border near San Diego, where we lived while I was trained at the nearby Naval Aviation Station, Coronado, There I learned to fly a new aircraft, the SP2H multi-engine (2 props and 2 jets) antisubmarine and reconnaissance aircraft and last of a long series of the P2V lineage going back to WWII. Following that I received orders to VP-4, home ported at Naval Air Station Barbers Point near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. There I commanded Crew # 12, a crew of 11, flying an SP2H aircraft. In 1965, VP-4 deployed for 6 months to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, Okinawa, Misawa, Japan for surveillance flights off the coast of Vladivostok, Russia, and from Tan Son Nhut AB in Saigon, Vietnam, carrying out over 2 dozen unarmed combat reconnaissance missions for which we were awarded Air Medals. Excepting Saigon and Misawa, mom again traveled unaccompanied with all of you to make our family whole again, using every form of transportation: air, military transport ship, train and small oceangoing ferries carrying people and cattle. You kids, ages 2-8, provided numerous "adventures" along the way. And, yes, you all served every bit as much as I. This plaque is for mom and all of you. Thank you for being such a wonderful family. It's a real honor to be the husband of such an incredible wife and father to such now eclectic grownups. This plaque on the National Air and Space Museum "Wall of Honor" is to honor you.